Gleason's Gymnastic School

About Institution

Since 1966 families have been coming to Gleason's Gymnastic School. The school was founded in 1966 by Larry Gleason, a former competitive gymnast for the University of Minnesota gymnastic team. Gleason started the school to offer a recreational program for children who wanted to do gymnastics for fun. He believed that gymnastics was a discipline that could help children develop good listening habits, could help improve their attention span, and could have positive effects on their self-esteem. With this in mind, Gleason structured the curriculum at GGS to maximize these benefits. He also realized that the sport had to be taught in such a manner that the majority, if not all, the children saw their experience in gymnastics as a successful one. Gleason believes that teachers have to challenge the children both mentally and physically in the learning process.
Today, these ideas are central to the program at Gleason's Gymnastic School. Although the school now has many successful competitive programs, the recreational programs and the average boy or girl in it, receive serious attention from the school's instructors.