"Going 'out to play' when the bell rings at school for example, shifts the balance of power somewhat. Activity becomes self generated. Children are very clear about what is play and what is a lesson, and they see the two as very different. Physical education as a subject is assessed and grades are awarded for co-operation and attentiveness, i.e. doing what you are told and not talking. Play, during breaks in teaching, is under the control of the participants themselves, as adult supervision is less intrusive (although this is rapidly changing, see debate on Recess in America).
"'When we don't have recess, I feel like screaming. When we do have recess, I do scream!' US Girl."
And this:
"When in control of their play activities children also will try to generate excitement. Easy activities are modified to make them more difficult and so produce uncertain outcomes. This keeps children interested and challenged. And they therefore develop better physical skills to cope. In Norway at the ground-breaking playground at Skudeneshavn primary in Karmoy, once rope swings were mastered, children would next try to overload them, to the point where they would all fall off. Better players at particular sports would also handicap themselves to make games more exciting (e.g. table tennis). The Norwegian philosophy sees learning as a series of "building blocks", where everything attempted is safely routed in something that has already been achieved.
Did you know that there's a veritably amazing collection of movies, online, free, courtesy of the voluminously virtual virtues of the Internet Archives? Well, did you?
What does this have to do with fun and games, you might ask. Search, and you will find. For example, this one, part of their Open Source Movie collections, is from Don Ratcliff's study of children's free play in a hallway and on a playground. He explains "Video recorded on an elementary school playground, for comparison with video data in the same school's hallway, conducted for my dissertation research. To access a similar video clip of the hallway, go to http://www.archive.org/details/playground1. Four other video clips of the hallway are available by changing the last digit in the address to a 2, 3, 4, or 5."
Ratcliff's complete dissertation can be found here.
Here's a sweet little collection of recess games - in case you need to remind someone how, for example, to play Men from Mars.
"One player stands in the middle of an open area and says "I'm the man from mars. I'll chase you to the stars because you have on (you can say any color). The people who are playing with that specific color on have to run to the other side. If the man from Mars gets you, you are out. The last person tagged is the winner." - of course, if I were playing the game, I wouldn't have anybody be out. Rather, I'd make them Men from Mars, too. After all, aren't we all?
One more resource - the IPA - the USA branch of an organization devoted to "the Child's Right to Play." See especially "How to Plan, Organize and Implement a Playday" - probably the best way I know to bring community together and remind them what play is for.
In case you are still wondering about what you can tell the authorities about why kids should have recess (given how far from childhood they've let themselves become), here's "A Position Statement on Young Children and Recess" from the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education.
"Recess contributes significantly to the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive (intellectual) development of the young child (Clements, 2001). Recess is one of the few places and times during the day when all these developmental domains are utilized in a context that children view as meaningful. Children must function in all the developmental domains if they are to successfully adapt to school and societal norms. The domains are empirically related and should be considered intertwined. For example, social interaction and physical activity facilitate cognition; recess (indoor and outside) offers the opportunity for this development. On the playground, children can be observed actively practicing the learning and cognitive skills acquired in the classroom."
And that's only a sample paragraph from this sadly much-needed plea for playtime.
Here's an article from almost a year ago, describing a growing, and, from this player's perspective, cancerous practice afflicting the student body. I quote:
"As many as four out of ten schools nationwide, and 80 percent of the schools in Chicago, have decided there's no time for recess. Instead of romping in playgrounds, kids are being channeled into more classes in an effort to make their test scores rise on an ever-higher curve."
What's wrong with these people? With us that we would condone such a negative, damaging, uninformed practice?
Look at me. I'm ranting!
I know that this doesn't seem like a big-time rantworthy issue, given our current, ever-escalating war. On the other hand, this is something whose evils I understand. Depriving kids of recess, when kids already have such few opportunities for unstructured socialization, is depriving them not only of their childhood, but of a sane, happy adulthood. Without unstructured, free play, where are they going to learn leadership, where the skills of community-building, where the art of friendship, where the practices of collaboration and co-creativity?
It worries this particular fun guy. It worries him enough to make him sound not very fun or funny.
This, found in the archives of the Center for Disease Control, was written in response to a growing trend in the US and UK, especially, towards eliminating school recess.
Recess periods, which are regularly scheduled periods within the elementary school day for unstructured
physical activity and play, provide another opportunity for daily physical activity, along with social and
cognitive benefi ts. Some large school districts have, in recent years, eliminated recess altogether, reportedly
due to safety concerns and a desire to increase time for academic instruction. However, studies have found
that (1) students who do not participate in recess become fi dgety and less able to concentrate on tasks
and (2) the longer children sit in classrooms without a recess break, the less attentive they become. Recess
also offers students one of their few opportunities during the school day to interact and develop social
skills, such as negotiating and cooperating, with minimal adult interference.
...all of which makes me understand why my advocacy of adult recess seems to have been largely ignored by the corporate universe.
This is a story about a principal banning the game of Tag.
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"This is all based on safety," said Samarge, also in her third year as school principal. "It has nothing to do with anything else except to reduce injuries for the kids."
But there was that statement in the school newsletter that seemed to trigger the debate. In the third paragraph of an article titled "Safety on the Playground," the piece reads: "The running part of this activity is healthy and encouraged; however, in this game, there is a 'victim' or 'It,' which creates a self-esteem issue. The oldest or biggest child usually dominates."
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Oh, the humanity!
Here's a mother's response from the same story:
"Take it from someone who was teased mercilessly about her name, was overweight as a child and low on everybody's birthday invite list--I would have given my eyeteeth to be included in a game of tag. It or not It, being included with a group of kids in a playground game would have been heaven." The ban has been the focus of at least one radio talk show in which callers blasted Samarge's decision for about an hour. The idea that being "it," the one player everyone runs from to avoid being tagged and becoming the next "it," somehow damages a child's self-esteem struck many listeners as preposterous."
