Do you remember recess? When I went to elementary school in
Philadelphia, we had two 15 minute recess periods, one in the morning and one in
the afternoon. We were able to go out to the playground, play ball, ride on the
swings or just take a walk. When we reached the upper elementary grades, the
afternoon recess was eliminated. Of course when we got to junior high school
there was no more recess. School became a more serious and academic matter and the
social dynamics changed. Today many of the “fun” activities in elementary schools
like art projects and such have been shelved in favor of more focused
instruction in the academic subjects like math and reading. The rational for
the current curriculum changes have a great deal to do with assessment testing,
achieving grade level performance and keeping up with peers in other developed nations.
This has been exemplified with both the No Child Left Behind and Race to the
Top programs, neither of which have had great success.
Somewhere along the line educators have lost the importance
of play. The current focus has been on the need to get students to learn to
create, discover, innovate, and explore. Cannot these objectives be partly
obtained through play? Pre Kindergarten
and kindergarten students are not necessarily ready for more complex
educational skills. There is no consensus as to when the optimum time for
students to learn to spell or read is. We know its crucial and we know it has to
start at an early age but not to the exclusion of play. What many academic fail
to realize is that schools are just as important as social institutions as
there are as academic ones. So the phrase “ getting along with other children
in the sandbox” is a significant one. Don’t disassemble the playgrounds yet.
c.2015 J. Margolis
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