Thursday, June 16, 2005
True Story, Uneditorialized by Me (for now)
The mother of the 8-year old who had the "pool incident" (see previous post--and he is just fine!) told me today that the local elementary school sent a note home to parents describing a "parent volunteer opportunity". They asked for parents to come to the school from 10:15-10:35 or 1:20-1:40 each day to run an activity for students during recess. Seems the children "can't think of anything to do".
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7 comments:
Patty,
I can believe it! Stop by my blog sometime (http//maplegrove.blogspot.com/)if you like and browse my long post on our homeschool journey. I didn't go into details about this incident, but one of the things that bugged us most about the public school my son attended for 1st grade was the playground policy. Luke was coming home almost daily with torn clothing from rough play on the playground. We asked him what there was to do at recess and he said, "nothing." We called the school and asked if they had balls to play with at recess. They said, I kid you not, "the balls are all kept in a closet and it's too much trouble to get them out for every recess!" I guess they'd rather have kids chasing each other and getting into trouble than playing kickball or some other good activity. Maddening!
I taught one semester at a Christian school near our home. The kids did NOT know how to play on the playground. They ran around doing really dangerous things like jumping headlong over a knee high railing. Something is desperately wrong here.........
Loved your post!
Sandy
I think it's a combination of things: cooped up for a long time, then turned loose for 15 minutes; plus we meet a lot of kids who just don't know how to entertain themselves without a video game.
When my kids were in public school they often complained about the strict rules at recess: no talking at lunch, no sitting with your friends, no running on the playground, balls only for "organized" games. I'd go crazy too!
Sandy--I can't believe you said this. I DID go to your site, and almost left a comment saying how lovely it was (almost...sigh)...AND I scanned your homeschool story and it sounded SO much like ours that I printed it and read it. It is almost word-for-word, but you were and are a little farther down the path. I think I could copy/save your story as ours and save myself a lot of work.
Sparrow--I think you have it right on re: videos...and I think a tremendous amount of it is also do to the over-scheduled, over-supervised lives these kids have led. All they've ever had to learn to do is get up on time, be at the car to go to whatever activity mom has set up for them this time and then listen a bunch of adults tell them what to do once they get there.
And I believe it about the stifling rules at recess, too.
We played a lot of jacks, foursquare, and hand-clap-slapping games ! No batteries required *wink*
Local Homeschooler--The hand-slapping games--it's a wonder I still have any feeling in my hands. And those troll dolls...my goodness--the HOURS I spent with those. My son was astounded with two things--first, (in Sandy's comment) why the adults had to stop the "dangerous activities" (sigh) and, second, how the kids could NOT think of something to do when all they had been doing all day was SCHOOL. (He's been there, done that, not going back.) HE has a list as long as your arm of things he can do with recess time, enough of which is not forthcoming, in his (frequently stated) opinion.
Oh, well that makes sense. Children can't think of anything to do at recess because their time is so regimented. The solution? Regiment recess as well. :P
We should be keeping a complete list of this type of story somewhere on the internet. Then we can just send people to that site when they ask, "Why do you homeschool?"
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