Learning By Leaps

By Lynne Schreiber

It's the middle of a cold fall day in Clinton Township, Michigan, and 3rd graders at Erie Elementary School are studying math.

In the gym, with their shoes off.

A girl with blond hair and cuffed jeans rolls on the ground, then pulls to her knees, stands, and skips around the room. She sashays past her teacher, Vicki Majewski, who raises her arms in a V, leans her head back, and looks at the ceiling. A boy in a striped T-shirt swings his hips and arms, then freezes on one leg. Feet slap-slap against the gym parquet. Everywhere in the rectangular room, kids...