I won’t be able to listen to this because I’ll be in a meeting, but it is probably just as well since I imagine my reaction won’t be particularly SFW:
“Recess used to mean thirty minutes of unrestricted playtime. But now, some local schools are turning to nonprofits to help structure recess periods with organized games and sports. We explore ‘recess management,’ including whether structured recess helps kids lead healthier lifestyles and achieve the schools’ recess goals.” [via updated]
Recess goals?
Since I don’t know what will actually be said, I can only speculate and hope for the best. Here’s what I do know:
If this is an attempt to add rigor to a much needed break from rigor, then the educational system is demonstrating once again that it has well and truly lost its damn mind. Based on a staggering body of evidence, the thinking about education seems to be that more of the same stuff that isn’t working will somehow magically transmogrify itself into something that does work.
The other insidious aspect of this is a peculiar hovering cloud of anxiety that if children have any fun at all at school, then they might not be learning or might not want to learn. I don’t know who decided that learning shouldn’t be fun but that idea has certainly taken hold. And maybe worse than trying to strip away any fun is the desire to structure and manage it.
Kids know how to have fun and entertain themselves. This inevitably involves learning because kids are natural scholars. They want to understand things. They also want and need to run around like maniacs for at least 30 minutes a day…or dig holes or clamber around on the jungle gym or whatever.
Leave them alone.
Comments (12)
Some people don’t like free form activities. When i was in the army, we got a 5 minute break every hour (for smokers) and the brass went crazy when they saw non-smokers standing around talking and wanted to find some special projects for us; they never bothered anyone with a cigarette. I think they would try to apply this logic to a kid who just wanted some time to be alone for a little bit.
Dad: So what kids need to do is take up smoking, I guess.
We need recess at work. With a jungle gym.
It is fascinating to watch kids at recess; some of them immediately light up when the teacher says” smoke if you have them on you”.
Trasherati: Yeah! I think I’ll harass my boss about that.
Complete system failure is almost always accompanied by the strongly held belief that the system is working perfectly but its individual components are failing. The schools will improve when we get rid of the defective components… the children.
Trasherati: What you need is a Jungle JIM.
Okay, folks. I am listening to it now and have updated to the link to the recording.
Aaaand I am already pissed.
â€We bring in earnest adults to be ambassadors of play.“
AMBASSADORS OF PLAY.
What happens when you leave them alone? Two six-year-olds stone a squirrel to death. That’s what. (Last week, my kids’ school). As much as I am for unstructured play, I can see now what leads to this sort of nonsense. I don’t understand….I only knew like two sociopaths growing up. Now it seems like they’re everywhere. Any nobody anywhere can give kids consequences, not even their own parents. Coincidence?
Katy – I think supervision is necessary, to prevent bullying, squirrel stoning, and so forth, but it’s the idea that you have to tell children how to play that’s wrong.
Katy: Leaving them alone doesn’t mean ignoring them.
Simon: Exactly.
“We shall be free…”
Kids too…