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About Fitness . I

R The bell rang, already? He had
ingl
better hurry and get dressed or he
In two
would be late for gym class.
minutes he was dres~ed in his gym clothes and
sitting on the cold hard gym floor. As class
began the teacher took attendance and in-
structed the students on what to do. Run
how many laps? That was impossible. He
dragged his body along slowly. Was all this
necessary?
If this scene sounded familiar then that
question may have at some point burned in the
mind of every student. Actually the answer
in most cases was yes. "There was more
running than in the past, in all classes," said
Physical Education Teacher Deb Grafentin.
The reason was because, quite frankly, stu-
dents were becoming lazier. "They don't do
anything," said Grafentin.
Some students felt that they needed
some form of exercise and PE was it. "It was
good for me to get the extra exercise," said
Junior Jennifer Pepple. Some of the more
physically active students agreed. Junior
Jeff Mussack said, "It was not that bad be-
cause I ran a lot for soccer anyway."
However there was an opposing view-
point. "If I had felt the need to be fit," said
Senior Derek Menke, "I would have gone out
and run on my own." Menke also stated that
if a PE requirement must be fitness then they
should have "eased students into it instead of
making them do so much at once."
"PE was a great way to start out your day
if you were a masochist," said Senior Scott
Millen.
But it was not all running and sweating,
many of the activities were designed for stu-
dents to have fun. A lot of the time students
had the opportunity to joke around and talk
to friends as well as participate in the activity
for the day. However, it was not advised for
students to just visit during class. Such be-
havior sometimes resulted in receiving a zero .
for the day.
Although some of the students did not
mind the increase in fitness, others criticized There is more to weight training class than just lift- Attempting a baseline shot is Sophomore
it. Either way it was something that had to ing weights. Here Gym Teacher Harry Meeker instructs Jon Blumenthal during a first hour gym class. (J.
be done. fN his first hour class in various exercises. (D. LOUDEN) HOULE)
Susan Nich
154
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