Posted on February 7, 2008 by Kathy McManus in All, Education, Parenting Comments (20)
Not It
Generations of Americans learned the three R’s in the classroom, while the fourth R—recess—was a stage for life lessons and conflict resolution.
But traditional recess—where kids run around and play kickball, soccer, tag and other games of physical contact—is increasingly being banned across the country by school officials, and not for reasons of injury or litigation. The period of child’s play, they say, has become too competitive and too ego-bruising.
A school in Santa Monica, CA, is among those that now ban tag, with this explanation: “In this game, there is a ‘victim’ or ‘it’, which creates a self-esteem issue.”
A Connecticut principal has gone even further, banning any activity where feelings might get bruised along with knees, claiming recess is out of sync with the “educational and moral instruction” provided by the rest of the school day.
Critics of the crackdown—noting that even squirrels play chase—say turning recess into a conflict-free zone is irresponsible and will produce a generation of kids lacking critical skills, ultimately affecting global security. “How can America expect to compete in a global economy,” asked one critic, “when the future of America doesn’t know what competition is?”
Tell us what you think. By mandating that recess be a kinder and gentler place, are we overprotecting kids and depriving them of vital skills best honed on the playground? How did recess become so irresponsible?
Comments (20)
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Protection
“Protecting” children from engaging in recess is really sad. We all want our children to be safe, but restricting them from innocent behavior will certaintly not prepare them for the real world. The “real world” is fundamentally based on competition. Finding a job and getting into college are just a couple examples where you must compete. If people are brought up not knowing how to deal with conflict and defeat, they could react in a highly unfavorable way when they are faced with it.
Other Extremes
On a related topic – I have heard there is an elementary school that has outlawed the use of red ink in the correction of student work! I can’t even imagine the effects that would have had on me as a child… personally I think you need that push as a child to drive you to do better. Instead of taking away the red ink, why not communicate to students that school is the time and place to make mistakes?
Its More Than Playtime
Recess is essential for the social growth of children. The lessons learned on the playground far outlast those learned in the classroom. You do not always win, people will challenge you, and people will hurt your feelings. Generally, life is tough. Learning how to deal with these issues begins on the playground; it builds character and strength of personality. Kids can’t stay in a bubble forever. Teachers need to help children learn how to face these issues, not try to keep them from happening altogether.
Future weaklings
I oppose any recess games to be banned. Recess games like tag, chase, dodgeball, and such are good for kids. This is were they learn how to compete and how to become better at something. I agree with all the other postings – kids need to learn from an early age that the world they live in is based on competition. Every school they apply for, every sport they sign up for, and every job interview will be based on “competition”. Kids need to learn the skills of competing and of handling defeat. If they are always “out” they need to learn how to stay or become “in” or at least be somewhat accepted. We all can’t be winners and prom queens and most of us don’t want to be such. Kids need to learn that the world isn’t fair and equal. They need to find their own strengths and hopefully have adults in their lives who can encourage their growth in the things they are good at. We don’t need more generation x’s – we have enough weaklings who want their way and think everything is to be given to them.
i have had it
this is getting out of hand. it seems all kids are allowed to do now is sit, and play computers or video games. their becoming overweight and lazy. in recess you have to be creative, and we’re taking that away from kids. give them a ball, a pop can, 9 out of 10 kids now will say what do i do with this. we’re taking away all thier street smarts. let kids be kids
way to far!!
These people who run our schools have completely gotten out of hand! No touching of any kind, No recess, No red ink, no competition on the play ground. This so rediculous. These teachers and school administrators think they need to raise americas kids their way, that They need to protect these poor kids! What these kids need protection from is some of the #### they have access to on the shelves of the school library or the school computers that these same people deem educational. They also need to be protected from teachers who like to pass off their political ideals on the kids they teach. Stick to the lessons in the text books please!Let the parents do the parenting the way they see fit!
You've Got To Be Kidding Me!
When I was a kid, I was picked last for kickball, last for relay races. . . . But when it came to dodgeball, it was another story. Parents need to help their kids focus less on what they CAN’T do and help them to focus more on what they CAN do. Parents need to help them focus LESS on the kids that DON’T want them around and to VALUE the kids that do. Taking away recess because some kids might feel ridiculed or left out takes away the responsibility of the parent to build their child’s self-esteem by pointing out their child’s positive attributes and helping them to make healthy friendships with their peers.
Don't take that away!!
Recess helps the social and physical development of children. Don’t take that away!
Kids learn social skills that will help them survive the real world. Kids learn about being competitive, making friends, comforting children who are upset, sharing and taking turns, and teamwork. Don’t take that away!
Kids develop physically by running, kicking balls, jumping rope, climbing up the stairs and other contraptions on the playground. Children develop muscles and gross motor skills. Don’t take that away!
Unsafe?
I am 50 yrs old. When I went to school we had steel. Everything was shining steel. We learned that if we fell off we got scraped. And we learned that on hot days you could get burned. Kids today are not allowed to be kids. My old school just replaced the entire playground with new plastic safety gear. This is nuts. Parents should teach kids to think before jumping off the top of the monkey bars. Instead we just tear them down so little Johnny cannot hurt his little self. My kids all learned to ride horses at an early age. This taught them that they are in control of what they do.
I am so tired of hearing that we are stopping the flow of childhood because someone might get hurt. When I was a boy, we played army with real dirt clods for hand grenades and we never killed anyone.
My son brought home a letter a few years back that said if anyone pointed a finger at anyone and just said bang, they would be placed on detention. This is just stupid. And don’t you dare let them say something about someone else. That could even get you thrown out of school. We were called all kinds of names and yet we somehow survived. I must have been a fluke.
Hyper kids need recess
I know a couple kids at a preschool where I’m training in the Early Childhood field who are quite hyper. They get the other five kids all hyper during large group. I and the other trainee teachers can’t get the kids to calm down.
If the children had an hour’s worth of recess during school time to use all their energy then they will be much calmer and more attentive in the classroom. If the children aren’t allowed a chance to burn off unnecessary energy, then they will run all over the classroom, push other kids, disobey teachers, make messes, and they can’t settle down. Therefore the kids aren’t going to get their schoolwork done.
I children are sitting all day, then they will become restless and disrupt class. Children hate to doing school work all day. I liked recess because I could take a break from schoolwork and stretch my legs and arms and get some exercise and let off some steam.
Recess just gets shorter and shorter until there isn’t any at all. I remember my first four years of school recess was roughly 30 minutes long. When I got to 4th grade recess was 15 minutes long. When my brother was in 6th grade he didn’t get any recess. My sister is in 5th grade and she hardly gets recess. It seems that standardized testing is more important than recess. I think kids would to better on state wide tests such as the FCAT if they had 30 minutes to an hour’s worth of recess everyday. Again hyper students have a harder time in school because the don’t have an outlet to let off their steam. These students are hard to control when you don’t let them out the playground to let off excess energy.
No wonder kids are fighting at school. They don’t have any way to let their energy out without harming anyone.
shakes head
You gotta be kidding me right? This has to be a hoax. Oh wait, maybe these principals were the kids who had this happen to them when they were little and now their evil plans to exact revenge on the world are in motion. Yes…that must be it.
These kids NEED, and I mean DESPERATELY NEED, recess and gym. Physically, as a country we are over-weight and its starting with the kids. Mentally, they need this time to develop valuable pragmatic skills, play skills, competitive skills, etc needed in the world for survival. Emotionally they need that time to be mini-adults lol.
I always got picked last for everything from kickball, to red rover, to mother may I, to red light green light, to dodgeball, and even 7up. I didn’t go home crying and whining about it. Frankly speaking, the ego-bruising and competition I witnessed in school was INSIDE the classroom, i.e. who gets the highest grade, teacher’s pets, who’s the fastest reader, who’s the first to finish a test, or who can cheat the best.
The govt. can’t stop competition because it’s human nature. As a student, I would imagine the main thing I really need protection is from the government.
Mia has a good point/Asperger's and Autism
Mia, you made a good point about teasing in the classroom. I was made fun of for picking my nose, my thick hair, my messy eating habits, my speech, my name, my teeth and for the fact I didn’t do well in groups when we did group work in class. A lot of kids said I was retarded. That isn’t true at all. People with Autism and Asperger’s are not retarded. The other kids treated me terribly because I have Asperger’s Syndrome. They and all my teachers seemed to be unaware of what Asperger’s and Autism are. The girls in particular gave me a hard time about my problems. Nobody ever wanted me in their groups for projects. The teachers never wanted to action against these kids for what they did to me. My first grade teacher was always making excuses for these kids. Only two children from my first grade class took the liberty to realize what they did was wrong and apologize to me. I want to thank those kids for the apology. It is great when a kid realizes her wrongdoings. As I got older the girls would tell each other rumors about me that weren’t true whatsoever. When I was in the 8th grade I was walking home from school and as I walked by Publix, a group of girls ran up to me saying that I was trash talking about one of them and one of their boyfriends. I never knew the girl who thought I was saying stuff about her and her boyfriend, even had a boyfriend. How I can I talk about her and her boyfriend if I didn’t know she had one to begin with. Answer me that.
Most of these problems stem from the girls. I think the boys go along with it to get the girls to go out with them. Boys don’t do that stuff unless they are trying to score a hot date. Girls[ not all girls, just girls in general] are like dogs. They compete with each other and back stab to see who the toughest dog is. Why this is? I don’t know.
Middle school sucked for me. I had hardly any friends. The kids were plain out horrible to me. They spread rumors about me constantly. The rumors were brought to my attention towards the end of 8th grade. I was hurt by the rumors.
You’d be surprised by how many American people are unaware of Asperger’s and Autism. Barely anyone is aware of these. None of the kids that know of my Asperger’s knew what Asberger’s was until I told them. The reason Autistic people get made fun of is because of the lack of Autism awareness in Today’s society. Teachers should learn about Autism and Asperger’s while they are in training so that they can be better prepared to handle students with Autism and Asberger’s. If the teachers know about it then they can talk about with their students to make school a more pleasant place for those with Autism or Asperger’s.
People with Asperger’s and Autism view the world differently and learn differently. We as a society can help people like me by treating us like normal people and accepting us the way we are and not trying to change us. There is nothing wrong with having Asperger’s or Autism. We are not dangerous, we are just having a hard time surviving with people who don’t respect our differences.
Insurance Premiums Help Ban Tag
It’s great that people are talking about this more and more.
However, what you don’t mention is that these schools have limited budgets and spend 20 to 30 percent of those budgets on high insurance premiums set by companies just like Liberty Mutual.
In order to reduce the liabilities on the playgrounds across the country, school administrators are quick to bend to the will of over-protective parents who make these kinds of reactionary decisions in order to save themselves some money. Banning Tag serves two purposes for them: gets high-maintenance parents off their backs and gives them peace of mind that they’re doing everything they can to minimize opportunities for injuries.
Arguably, they’re doing more harm than good, even as they are doing so with the best of intentions.
These kinds of choices may be short-term solutions, however, the long-term implications of limiting unstructured play for children through activities such as Tag, and its countless versions, may be more costly than any of us realize.
behavior problems more likely to emerge
Behavior problems are more likely to happen in the classroom if the students aren’t given a chance run around outside for awhile. The insurance people don’t need get involved with children and their playtime.
Ridiculous man...
The playground should technically be the LAST of the worries as far as insurance goes. How many cases do we know about where a kid snaps from something IN the CLASSROOM and shot up the place? Now, add in the ones that don’t even get national attention. And schools are actually worried about scraped knees and elbows on a playground? They need to be worried about inside the classrooms more than play outside. What good is it going to do to protect them outside if being inside is the REAL scare?
Again I agree with Mia
Mia, I agree with you 100%. What happens in the classroom is way more important than what happens on the playground. We need to let kids have recess and stop taking it away from them. It like some adults don’t even care about kids. Let children have 30 minutes of recess and they will be fine.
Overboard on PC
A character in an sitcom put it best, “Life is tough, get a helmet”. When we deny children the opportunity to learn how to resolve problems, learn how to be good losers and learn that life is not fair: we deny them a proper education.
Good point
Abram, I agree with you. Recess does help kids learn about real life.
Not It
The trend toward more rigid requirements for students accompanied with the lack of any free time has caused students to find other ways to act out their frustrations at school. Doing away with recess only makes matters worse. Kids are kids. They need time to run, play, and even disagree without someone stepping in and solving their problems for them to keep them from getting their feelings hurt. It’s called growing up. It’s called learning how to deal with life when it doesn’t go your way. When are they going to learn to cope with the unexpected or with disappointments. When they move out and are on their own, it is too late. I’m not saying that recess should be a free-for-all where anything can happen. But supervised free time is essential for children.
I agree with Libby
That goes along with what I said about hyper kids and other kids. Kids need a time to burn off their steam and learn how to solve their own problems like big kids.