When I was a teacher, all ten of us – one teacher for each home room (K-8), and yours truly who taught 7th and 8th grade science and health, 8th grade algebra, and instrumental music – had recess duty once a week every other week.  Kids played.  It was not structured.  It was not attuned to standards.  It was not teacher-driven.  Were there drawbacks?  Sure.  Skinned knees, tears, bruises, and hurt feelings when a child was chosen last for the team he or she didn’t want to be on.  Some schools today continue the tradition, even when the Autumn weather sets in.

Kids are energy, and that energy needs to be kinetic in nature.  If not, it becomes pent up in the form of potential energy, and all kinds of unintended consequences begin to manifest themselves (which may become even more evident today as schools prepare for the Three S’s – Social Distancing, Sanitizing, and Securing One’s Mask – that will be the new norm for many of today’s students).

Unfortunately today, in normal times, there are three huge forces at work that have taken physical “play” off table in many schools: safety, purpose and technology.

Safety

Don’t play dodgeball anymore, because someone might get hurt.  In fact, don’t bring any kind of ball to school because someone might get hurt, or it might go through a window.  Over the past few decades, we’ve become a nation of “might” – not necessarily in reference to strength, but in reference to possibilities.  While there are valid reasons for awareness, others border on the ridiculous.  A child can’t bring red and green cookies to school because someone might make a connection between the cookies and Christmas…even if the cookies are in the shape of leaves and mixed among yellow and orange ones.  Heaven forbid you have a bake sale today because of “Safe Food” regulations, too.  If we want our kids to eat healthy foods, they also have to participate in healthy exercise.  Of course, it makes sense to have a safe area for play – free from cars that may drive through, or surrounded by a fence for protection.  Ideally, though, there could be an indoor space for recess that’s different from a “gym.”  That’s something that could be a unique differentiator for your school, and one that could be funded by a generous donor or a community foundation.

Purpose

What is the purpose of non-structured creative play?  Does it support an educational standard?  No.  In that case, it can be eliminated from the schedule so that we can have an additional unit of mathematics, right?  We hear daily reports of schools that are eliminating “specials” from their class schedules so that they can focus on the basics.  Unfortunately, having everyone focus on the basics can impede the progress of those that have mastered the basics.  Those children who have mastered the basics should be able to assist those that haven’t as a lesson in character development, rather than having half a classroom of frustrated students, while the other half is bored.

Technology

If you log on to any search engine and search for “images” of “kids playing games,” most of the resultant images have some sort of technology involved – a video game controller, a mobile device or a laptop computer.  While video games foster hand/eye coordination and do have some positive effects on the brain, a constant utilization of technology as play simply to get to the next level or the next high score can result in a sedentary habit that’s difficult to break.  Even the very little ones have had their pacifiers replaced by iPhones.  Technology-delivered games are an interesting juxtaposition, as they provide the experience of gaming while remaining somewhat comfortable.  They allow for failure with the opportunity to “restart,” and, unfortunately, there are sometimes no resets in real life, as we’ve become painfully aware in our “New Normal.”

I wonder what would happen if a game that was just begun to be played on a computer got to the “game over” screen, and the game no longer worked.

Next week, a little more about technology, as well as reading and writing.