At the Deerfield School in Westwood, second-graders climb on elaborate gymnastic equipment, tumble across colorful mats, and hang from horizontal bars. At Norwood High School, students take power yoga. At Scituate High, golf, horseshoes, and shuffleboard are offered. At Weymouth High School, students learn to square dance.
At some area high schools, though, students do almost no physical exercise during the school week.
Gym classes vary widely across Massachusetts - as do the quality of athletic facilities available and the amount of time students get to use them.
Some of the newer buildings feature amenities such as rock-climbing walls, elevated indoor walking tracks, and fitness centers equipped with machines you'd find in a pricey health club. Older schools make do with far less. At Hanover High, for example, students use a gym that dates to 1958, and phys-ed classes have been known to spill into the hallways.
The amount of time spent on physical education also varies from district to district. In Massachusetts, state law requires schools to provide physical education to students every year, from kindergarten through 12th grade. But how much? That's up to the individual district.
Some resource-poor districts opt for very little. In the 2005-2006 school year, the Den nett Elementary School in Plympton reduced phys-ed classes to once every other week. Phys-ed has since been restored and classes are now held weekly.
At one time, the state required that students get at least 90 minutes of physical education each week. Since that mandate was dropped in 1996, the amount of time students spend in the gym has been left to local districts, and many physical education programs have been cut back.
Before the state loosened its requirement, 80 percent of students had phys-ed at least once a week. By 2003, that number had dropped to 58 percent, according to the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
Students need far more exercise than that, according to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.
Children in elementary school should get 150 minutes of physical education a week, and middle and high school students should have 225 minutes a week, the association recommends.
State lawmakers have proposed bringing back the minimum time requirement, to make sure students get at least 150 minutes of phys-ed a week.
But with tight budgets and pressure to improve test scores, many school districts have continued to cut staffing for their physical education programs. "P.E. gets cut when times get tough financially," said Ann Keegan, physical education teacher at Norwood High School.
Randolph has cut back on phys-ed teachers. Although the high school has a swimming pool, it hasn't been used by physical education classes in years because of budget constraints and operating costs. Instead, the pool is run by the town's Recreation Department.
Judith Wine, the director of wellness for Westwood public schools, has a video that she shows to parents to give them an idea of what their children do in gym class - and to underscore its value. Today's physical education classes are much different than 20 years ago.
"It's so different from what they did," she said. "When they were in school, they probably ran relay races, played dodgeball. . . . We don't do that anymore."
The Deerfield School in Westwood, which serves pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade, has elaborate gymnastics equipment. Dance is also part of the curriculum. The children learn dance moves and make up some of their own as music plays on a boombox. They shimmy to songs from the "Shrek" soundtrack, recent hits like "Who Let The Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men, and R&B classics by Stevie Wonder.
"It's really fun; the kids really enjoy it," Wine said.
Most high schools have changed their course offerings over the years. Norwood High's curriculum includes badminton, volleyball, softball, flag football, tennis, basketball, ultimate Frisbee, and floor hockey. It also offers classes in step aerobics and power yoga. Keegan wants to add a spinning class next year.
"In the last 10 years, we've gone from P.E. mode to wellness mode," Keegan said. "It's not your average P.E. class."
But it has one thing in common with many other schools. "We're crunched for space," Keegan said, "but you make do."
Indeed, the conditions of athletic facilities range widely. Some of the most modern facilities south of Boston include Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, which has an indoor walking track on the upper level of the gymnasium; and Westwood High, which features a new fitness center with free weights, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, and treadmills.
At the other end of the spectrum is Holbrook Junior-Senior High School. The gym was built in 1956. An accreditation team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges toured the school during the 2004-2005 school year and reported a foul-smelling sewage odor in the gymnasium and corridors, which seemed to come from the shower drains in the locker room. The report also noted that the showers in the boys' and girls' locker rooms did not work.
Holbrook officials are seeking funding from the state to rebuild the school. In a letter to the state School Building Authority, officials made their case for a new gym by citing news reports that "Holbrook had the worst gymnasium on the South Shore."
A typical phys-ed class at the school has more than 50 students from different grade levels, with two teachers supervising, according to phys-ed teacher Vinnie Hayward. New security policies and the locks on the gym doors make it difficult to hold classes outdoors, he said. And because the gym floor was recently resurfaced, students can no longer play street hockey, broomball, and other games that could scuff up the floor.
"We don't do step aerobics; we can't afford the steps," said Hayward. "We're closer to the more traditional gym class, because of funding, and the facilities, and logistics issues."
Activities include calisthenics, warm-up stretches, and games such as basketball, ping-pong, and pickle ball. Students do not, however, play dodgeball. It's too popular, Hayward said. "Once they play dodgeball, that's all they want to play."
Every inch of the gym is used.
"That's the challenge we have here - all different ages, experience levels. . . . It's like a one room schoolhouse, so to speak," he said. "Having more space would change everything."
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
