Inside Recess (12-10-07)

With all the emphasis placed on academic learning in today’s high-pressure educational environment, there is a whole lot less emphasis on just letting kids play. This is why I support recess – the one time of day where kids get to be truly be kids – the one time where kids are allowed time to express themselves through creative play.

Therefore, it is important to me, and to the Hill City Grade School staff, that our students be allowed some time to play even when mother nature conspires against us. Even when the wind howls, sleet and snow slicken our playground, and leaden skies bring the promise of more cold, wet, and utterly dreary weather.

When these conditions exist, the students get to have a little something we like to call, Inside Recess.

You might not think that inside recess is that big of a deal. I sure didn’t, when I first experienced it. I used to think that recess wasn’t that important either, but I have come to cherish recess, in whatever form, as an important part of the student’s day.

Inside recess, as we do it, involves splitting the students into two groups, K-2 and grades 3 & 4. One group plays games in the halls, while the other group get to use the gym for more athletic exercise.

I have learned that, when left to their own devises, grade school children are able to amuse themselves with a wide variety of things. For the hallway group, our teachers provide tubs full of board games, card games, family games, learning games – in essence, every game imaginable. In the fifteen minutes of recess, the kids tear into these tubs and quickly form pairs or smalls groups to get the most our of the limited time. I have watched kids play speed rounds of some game or another with amazing camaraderie. They might bend the rules, or simply creates rules as they go, but for the most part, there is more laughter than tears, more cooperation than dissent.

The group in the gym has their recess a little more controlled by the Recess Monitor, who leads the grades in an organized physical education activity. We have had relay races and organized games of tag. On Friday afternoon, the Monitor put some kid friendly tunes over the PA and the third and fourth graders took to the floor and danced.

I not only got to observe, but once the music started I was swept out onto the gym floor and carried away by the contagious energy and enthusiasm with which these kids moved, grooved, and “got down.”

The moment made me really appreciate both indoor and outdoor recess, because it was one of those moments where kids surpassed all my expectations. As an educator, I expect students to need to be taught and shown how to do every little thing. I am used to modeling behavior and having examples to demonstrate concepts and techniques. But on Friday, in the grade school gym, the students needed no instruction from either me or another teacher. Once the music started, they knew just what to do, and proceeded to show me a thing or two about self-expression and the exuberance of youth.

When the “dance party” ended, the kids had been through a physical workout equaling any running, jumping, chasing, sliding, or swinging they may have done outdoors. But more importantly, they taught a young school administrator that you are never too old to dance, enjoy yourself, and make the sun shine on a dreary afternoon.

I almost hope the weather remains unpleasant so that we can enjoy another inside recess.