When an elementary school student catches a football in gym class, he is dreaming of playing in the NFL.

When a high school student catches a football in gym class, he is wondering what he will have for lunch next period.

The Board of Education recently discussed the Superintendent’s proposal that elementary school gym minutes be reduced.  We feel the proposal was misguided.

Elementary school is the last place where gym should be cut.

Elementary school gym was magical.

Students would run around the classroom half an hour before gym. Staying in a single file line on the way there was a serious challenge.

Kids actually tried while running the mile. They walked out sweaty and happy.

Parachutes? Sitting under and rustling a giant, multi-colored parachute.

Team-building exercises with hula hoops and imaginary lava and people helping you avoid the lava. And Titanic, where a big tire was hung from the basketball hoop, and you had to be lifted by your teammates working together through the “porthole.”

In elementary school, students find out that exercise makes you feel good, and they learn about healthy living and the importance of staying fit. They don’t have clubs after school, varsity sports, or even a car to drive them to the gym.

We understand that the elementary school curriculum cannot be directly transferred to that of the high school. However, we do believe that the high school curriculum can lighten up a bit.

The question of whether you will get a C or a D on the written badminton test. Or – what’s in the middle of a volleyball? How many fingers should touch the laces of a football?

This has little to do with fitness.

Instead of learning how to exercise, students are learning new and innovative ways to avoid sweating.

Students try to sneak behind the curtain during the mandatory running period when the teacher isn’t looking.

Girls struggle to put on leggings over their wet legs as their hair reeks of chlorine after a class period in the freezing pool and are left with three minutes to get to Pre-Calc halfway across the school on the third floor.

We are not saying high school gym has no merit.

In a school as competitive and learning intensive as Staples, without gym, many students would feel obliged to take another AP, honors, or other demanding academic class.

And gym, at times, can be really, really fun, and a great break from the day. Like the giant ball. Who doesn’t love the giant ball? Random scooter days?

We hope for gym as a fun, easy-going, energy-releasing phenomenon, the kind that elementary school kids enjoy and that fades somewhere in the institutional uniforms that middle schoolers are required to wear.

If the Board ever considers cutting gym again, we recommend that they do not take it from the third graders who look forward to it all day long.

And high school gym should keep a few more games and a few less tests in the curriculum.

Parachutes, anyone?