hey parents and people who think about kid-raising

[psocoptera]

I'm curious what people think about this item from our most recent elementary school newsletter (sorry about the awful formatting, this is *after* a bunch of processing to take out tabs):

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The large game space in the playground is the “basketball” court. Most of the time, children choose to use this space for soccer games or kick ball games. During lunch recess, I have Mr. Will assisting as children learn how to select teams, choose goalies, choose pitchers etc. while remembering the three C’s. This is not as easy as it might sounds for children to do. While this is something that our children do need to be able to learn to do on their own, they do need assistance throughout the learning process. I am finding that after school, when Mr. Will is not assisting children in this large game space, children’s feelings are being hurt. Younger children are not getting a chance to use this space. Girls tend to be hesitant to join what appears to them as games being controlled by the boys, even if that is not the case. During the month of January, I will be talking with grades two through five about use of this game space after school. While I am doing so, I am going to ask the students to not use this space after school for larger games. The staff and I feel it is important for students to have clear modeling around expectations before holding them accountable for these expectations. I am hoping to involve Ms. Flynn to help with this modeling during PE. I am also hoping to guide the children in organizing their own list of rotating goalies and pitchers as well as consistent rules to follow for these games. This work will continue through the rest of the school year and into next as we are looking into a program called Playworks that will reinforce this kind of education for elementary school aged children. In the meantime, I appreciate your cooperation after school, as children will need reminders about this temporary after school rule. They may also need help making other choices during this time. It is my hope to have this be short lived. I will let the community know when large games can be reinstated after school.
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My knee-jerk reaction is that I dislike the micromanagement of kids' after-school play. The playground is a super-valuable space because it's surrounded by a fence - kids can play with balls without the constant risk of having to chase balls into the street. I think it's great to teach kids how to pick teams and choose goalies during recess or lunch but I also think they need time to play completely without adult-imposed structure (except for the most basic rules of not assaulting each other). Why should a bunch of kids kicking a ball around have to commit to "consistent rules"? Is this sort of thing considered standard now for free play in school spaces, even outside of school hours?

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

As a teacher rather than a parent, I'm wondering how much this is code for "we're realizing that this kind of unsupervised play is leading to some worryingly bullying-ish behaviors, and we think that educating kids about how to structure play may be the least offensive way to head it off".

I get what you're saying, but I also feel like as a kid I would have been utterly terrified to try to join in some kind of large kid-organized game like this. And I'm not sure if I would have been invited. Would I have benefited from some kind of micromanaged structured teaching thing? Who knows? But recognizing that social skills need to be explicitly taught seems like an important piece of progress, although I hope the implementation is less weird than that letter seems.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

New anti bullying legislation holds schools accountable for anything that started at school even if the actual bullying took place after school or off school grounds (eg cyber bullying) so a lot of schools are being over cautious especially if there have been concerns/complaints raised. There have been some local schools in our area that have gotten in serious legal hot water over the issue. I can see why any school would be in CYA mode if the spectre has been raised.

Despite having been a victim of significant bullying as a child, I'm not sure what I think of this. No easy answers. Never are.

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of kid behavior that falls short of physical assault but still ought to be nipped in the bud. It sounds like they're trying to do it in a positive, age-appropriate way that may be transparent to the kids.