Interview from Parenting Magazine Way Back: Recess vs Physical Education
Posted on Jul 24, 2010 08:28:32 PM
I am reposting this from ages back as part of a discussion on Brett’s Facebook that you can read for yourself and it all stemmed from this initial article.
Parenting Magazine
So tell me: There seems to be a growing consensus that kids need more recess and that there’s a lot to be gained when children are left to interact with each other in a non-structured setting. You disagree. What are your feelings on the topic?
My take:
While I do believe children learn best through play, you won’t see me advocating for recess anytime soon. My own memories of recess bring nothing but horror. When a group of people (and children included) congregate, they expect someone to lead them. And, if children do not have a leader, they will do just as the rest of the world has done and they will elect one. The outcome of that is either a playground bully or your child being the playground bully. As I said, my memories are horrific. They include bullies who worked by pushing me down, saying deplorable things to me and I even earned my first kiss from a boy on the playground in about the fifth grade.
And, let’s face it, none of us want our children to grow up feeling negatively about themselves in any way, the playground is just a breeding ground for meanness.
What do I propose?
As an over-weight woman, mother and former physical education teacher, I blame inadequate physical education for my disdain of exercise. We were taught that if we misbehaved or otherwise acted out, we would have to do more exercises. One exercise in particular that stands out in my mind was the old “leg lifts”. This comprised of lying on our backs while raising our feet a few inches off the floor. Every time someone talked, laughed or bellyached, we were awarded more of the dreaded leg lifts. And, with that, I hate to exercise.
So What Then?
It is a proven fact that physical education teachers can accommodate both the desire for children to participate in activities led by a leader (the teacher, not a classmates) and the freedom to learn through reflective or free play if you will. I can sit and write your teacher’s lesson plans all day long, but a good physical education teacher knows how to incorporate a student’s classroom studies into the world of physical education. Complimenting the classroom teachers is really easy and makes the job of the physical education teacher much easier. Easier than just turning the kids loose on the playground? I think so. In my experiences as an adult on the playground, I’ve seen the same bullying, the same cliques and the same electing of a leader without a notion of good or bad.
A good physical education teacher can and will find imaginative ways to teach the children fun and games and leave them with the ability to form imaginative stories all on their own. I guess this could easier be explained with an example. Here are only a few, tell me, after reading a few of these ideas would you prefer your child be left to defend himself or herself from the playground bully or that encounter of whispers and even kisses on the playground.
K – 2nd grade: The students can do their warm-up exercises by counting, saying their abc’s, their multiplication tables and more. They can be split (by the teacher, not by some awful playground method of picking and choosing) and asked to run relays. Incorporating their classmates to help them accomplish a goal while leaving them to their own devices of what kind of animal they might want to pretend to be. The relays aren’t stopped when one line is finished first but instead after a length of time. There is no clear winner, no group that stands out, it’s all about the individual. My son’s school actually has paper numerical keyboards cut out and pasted on the bleachers. The students run, skip, jump, crab walk, etc over to the paper keyboard and put in their lunch code. The end result, creativity while learning an essential part of their day.
3rd – 5th: A picture of the world appropriately placed in the gymnasium can be accented by separating the gym into sections (or Countries) and then putting activities at each station that compliment the study of a particular Country or Continent even. The students move from Country to Country in a timed manner. While this accommodates all the children, it leaves them to brainstorm and exercise their imaginations.
6th – 8th grade: This is probably the trickiest and most difficult age. Exercise starts to seem like work instead of fun and many many students will quit running and playing on the playground but when given the opportunity to learn through play, they still excel. For this age, you could easily set up enough stations to accommodate many children in lifelong activities like badminton or table tennis. Setting up multiple courts of badminton and then the students not only participate in the activity, they learn to keep score and the learn skills that can easily convert to a campground or even the front lawn.
But, what about the real imaginative play?
I can’t say that I feel that rewarding students for good behavior is the proper thing to do, it certainly seems to be the norm. You aren’t necessarily rewarded for going to work every day, but moreover, you are probably disciplined if you do not. While my son’s school partakes in many activities that I abhor, they do a great job in the gymnasium and on the playground. This is the result of a hard-nose teacher who had worked her way through the system and would not budge on what is appropriate and what is not in her physical education class. She actually rewarded her students for performing well four days a week by allowing them the opportunity to choose their activity on Friday. I kind of look at that as a casual-dress on Friday kind of idea. If it works and it is feasible, then at least give it a try. The teacher still chooses the activities available for the students to participate in (and can never bring out the well-known ball and bat syndrome that many teachers exercise) and can actually allow the children a general overall sense of decision making at the same time.
For me?
I”ll take the well known and finely researched techniques taught to me (and many others before me, or after if you will) in my study to obtain my degree as a physical education teacher. I don’t want to think I took Kinesiology and Eexercise Physiology twice (cough cough) just to get a job and then sit down and roll out a ball all day ever day. Possibly this practice is why our physical education teachers aren’t valued like they should be in the first place. So, don’t get me wrong,I believe that learning through play is an essential ingredient for success as we grow, I also know that there is no substitute for proper physical education. And, no amount of time on the playground recess-style can meet the expectations that a crowd of children come to expect.
Parenting Magazine
WOWZA! You did warn me! And I appreciate all that you wrote here. What you say DOES make sense, but devil’s advocate: What about the all-important break from structured play that physicians, psychologists and other child experts say all human beings need in order to release stress and decompress? It seems that if the 30 minutes they would get to swing on the monkey bars and just, like, chill out and talk to friends and play jacks, etc., is spent listening to a teacher and following directions, that they’re not getting the chance to have a break. And if you’re comparing children to workers, then there is something to be said for standard union rules that dictate American workers get at least two 15 minute breaks during an eight hour workday, plus at least 30 minutes for lunch…
I knew I left the actual playground out of my thoughts but there is no reason why the playground, the money bars an the chilling out can’t happen. But back to my casual-dress on Friday.
The teacher needs to be the leader directing the students to participate in various activities on playgrounds and if you have a good teacher, she most likely using the opportunity to inner-act with the children, give them pointers on how to improve strength so that when the time comes to test for the National Presidential Fitness Test they can do well. And this is a goo time to enhance strength without anyone really noticing what one child in particular is doing. Then, we test time comes, they are prepared.
On a similar note, one of the top rated children’s emergency visits are the result of a playground accident with multiple children and inadequate supervision, add to that the fact that swings are the number 1 emergency room visits.
What about the creative learning or the socializing?
Hopscotch, jumprope, hula hoops, all activites generally done in groups will allow the students to take part in this as well.
I think the bottom line here that kin of gets hidden in all my words is that physical education must be a teacher led class. But, it also must fit the age and the studies of. the children. I”m sure you learned from my previous email, I have one specific style that I favor. And, the reason for that is that it is adaptable and can be used every day with little planning.
And, what is that grand plan? Stations. No matter what kind of activity you are putting out there for the children, you can always break the students up into groups, not cliques, the teacher chooses stations then when they’ve been assigned to a station they are left to their own devices with the toys to creative and build or jump and run, and believe it or not, I’m guilty of tossing out a ball on more than one occasion.
Assuming that this physical education teacher not be mean and hateful, but she must stern and strong. She can offer the children all the learning through play that could possibly imaginable. However, let me emphasize to that I am talking about good, structures physical education classes where once all the ground rules are the structure is made a party of their lives. Then, it gets easier and easier to incorporate the out-side stuff that people consider koooky. Ribbon batons, pretending to be a marching band with only fly twirlers and we just wing or ribbon wild. No routine, just the individual and the many places the child would like to go.
Parenting Magazine
So what you’re advocating is that there always be an adult supervising the play to avoid the unfortunate parts of recess, i.e. bullying, kids being left out of the group, kids getting hurt, etc.? And that that play come during a structured class, i.e., gym?
This is exactly what I believe the answer to this issue revolves around. Educated Physical Education teachers doing the job they are trained to do and leaving recess for home or somewhere where children tend to gather in smaller groups and a parent can easily hear and help guide the ongoing activities.
And, with that, now you know why no one interviews me too often!