Aiken Middle students learn to get fit for life

Elijah Giles was clearly enjoying himself with tumbling activities and then gymnastics-type stunts with up to four classmates during the physical education class at Aiken Middle School Wednesday.

"It's been pretty cool," the sixth-grader said. "We really have fun, but you have to work hard to do your best in this class."

Instructor John Kassel is in his first year at Aiken Middle School after three years at Greendale Elementary School.

Before that, he spent many years as a teacher in Virginia, and he had his wife also operated a gymnastics school for 35 years in Culpeper. Va.

Sixth-graders get nine weeks of physical education, and Kassel includes a variety of programs such as jump-rope, badminton and volleyball with a giant ball about six feet in diameter.

"I want to get them something different in the last week," he said. "The benefits from activities like tumbling and stunts is that they teach teamwork, cooperation and trust, as well as being good physical activities. With the stunts, it's basically taking the individual skills and putting them together."

Elijah compared the need for trust and teamwork in the school gym to the importance for the president and vice president to work together to lead the nation.

Another sixth-grader, Ta'Liah Gordon, said physical education is her favorite class.

"We're learning gymnastics and having fun at the same time," she said. "I like lifting people in the air and seeing how flexible they are."

What Kassel is trying to establish, he said, is the concept of fitness for life.

"I do give them a lot of individual activities to help them see the benefits of being physically fit," he said.

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.