Well, I AM a teacher and I think it's ridiculous!! With a lot of school systems eliminating the whole group of support classes (PE, art, music, etc.) kids need that free play. Heck, some school systems don't even have recess for the elementary grades. That is just plain WRONG!! I'll end here and spare you my whole education rant! ;-)

As a teacher for 30 years, I can speak for many teachers everywhere-- we HATE recess games. I know for a fact that more bullying happens at recess than any other time. We spend so much time after recess helping kids work through their hurt feelings, anger, injures--it's a time waster. In recent years, kids are much, much more aggressive at recess. The days of simple tag are long gone. Kids want to play the same level of sports they play on their after school teams. They want to push and hit and be aggressive. Our school takes away soccer and football on a regular basis as a consequence-- because these kids want to have teams of 25 versus teams of 30 because "everybody wants to play". It's the worst time of the day.

Yikes--- what a ridiculous situation. I haven't taught elementary school for about 10 years, but to take away recess games from kids who are already being deprived of regular PE, Art and Music . . . . aarrgh!!.... this is just another nail in the coffin of all those kids who are kinesthetic learners (read: physical). ALL KIDS need to learn how to take a hit (like you said, heck, we all lived through Red Rover, etc....) and learn how to play with good sportsmanship. Rather than take away the games, maybe they should assign a playground supervisor to supervise the game.. huh! What a novel idea!!

and then they complain thet the kids get no excercise... gee wonder why. Maybe the schools will have couch & video game time in lieu of recess and real excercise next.

At our school there are playground supervisors, and also 6th graders that serve as conflict mediators. And I teach at a school where the kids aren't really a problem, but at recess that all changes. I completely agree that kids need to learn to take a hit and deal with the recess problems, but unfortunately these days many parents teach the "if he ran into you, then hit them back" philosophy. And I think the parents need to take more of a role in teaching these concepts of dust yourself off and get up and get going again and quit crying "he ran into me!!". Sometimes the parents need more training than the kiddos do. I grew up in a time where we did play the rough games and we did just fine. Nowadays kids don't seem to be able to do that without whining--which most parents at my school do as well. When I grew up we also were able to entertain ourselves at recess and after school and on the weekends. So many kids seem to need to be told how to play nowadays--they aren't very independent thinkers.

I agree with Cindi that kids turn very aggressive on the playground. Most of the complaint stories I hear from my boys about the school day come from recess, but it's hard to know what to tell them. They have to learn how to deal with other people's "wild" behavior, or else pretty soon recess will just be the time of day when the kids go outside and scratch in the dirt with sticks.

Next, of course, they will ban students so the teachers can get their lesson planning done.

Yup, I think Old Horsetail Snake hit it right on the head.

My apologies to Cindi and other teachers out there that think that this is just to "difficult" a task. Recess is part of the day for a reason, to allow kids to blow off steam. I understand that problems occur. I also understand that it is not easy. But if things are still getting "out of hand" then there simply are not enough people to handle the number of kids, else those monitors need better training.

You can not just take kids, and expect them to be little drones that sit quietly throughout an entire day. Not only is it unhealthy for them to have no excercise, it is simply not natural with all the pent up energy you are asking them to control (and then whine that all the kids today suffer from ADD).

Gads, if my classes didn't get their "down time" during the day, we'd ALL be bald!

Ooohh... I am all for banning the kids so I can get my lesson plans done. I always say I'd be a much better teacher if I didn't have those kids getting in my way! LOL

Recess is difficult and I agree that we need to guide the children in conflict resolution and allow them "down time", but remember that we are trained to teach and often the behavior problems that we encounter on the playground and in the classroom are severe and are best dealt with by trained professionals. Often, there are no/limited professionals to deal with these problems, and the burden then falls on the classroom teacher. These episodes can be very dangerous for the children with threats ranging from physical violence to internet bullying. It is a very complicated issue. We live in complicated times and I often wonder and become depressed at just HOW COMPLICATED it all is...

Ooohh... I am all for banning the kids so I can get my lesson plans done. I always say I'd be a much better teacher if I didn't have those kids getting in my way! LOL

Recess is difficult and I agree that we need to guide the children in conflict resolution and allow them "down time", but remember that we are trained to teach and often the behavior problems that we encounter on the playground and in the classroom are severe and are best dealt with by trained professionals. Often, there are no/limited professionals to deal with these problems, and the burden then falls on the classroom teacher. These episodes can be very dangerous for the children with threats ranging from physical violence to internet bullying. It is a very complicated issue. We live in complicated times and I often wonder and become depressed at just HOW COMPLICATED it all is...

AMEN to having more supervision and training those people more. These huge problems with fights and arguments on the playground DO seem to happen a lot more when the teachers aren't there--when it's the teacher aides. This brings us back to the "need more money" problem as usual.Our aides make minimum wage at best, and are asked to do a lot. I wouldn't do it for a job, that's for sure!!! I have always been a big advocate for training everyone who works with the kiddos --too many times they don't want to discipline them because they're afraid to.

Great thread, Liz! :-) Way to get a conversation going!

We never wore seat belts, we never helmets when biking, we stayed outside all day and came home at dark with no problems, etc. Yes, it is a different time!

Very interesting comments....

I, too, am a teacher, and I am very fortunate to teach in a place where outdoor supervision at recess is actually a pleasure. Don't get me wrong; we don't fight over who's the lucky one to go out, but we don't have recess violence to deal with. Often our concerns are skinned knees and simple tattling.

That being said, I think we have done some pro-active things to keep things on such an even keel. In the last two years, in an effort to promote active healthy living in our students, we have undertaken a program to teach traditional games such as four-square, hopscotch, and - yes , the shame of it - even creative forms of tag to the kids. Our kids are really enjoying these "new" games that no one had taught them before, and seem to be having fun without the need to be too competitive.

What about our local schools banning recess after the new superintendent showed up? That was incredibly annoying. Our girls obviously hated it, but the teachers hate it too, because without getting a chance to run around for a few minutes, the kids are useless in the afternoons.

As for games, I have fond memories of sore and bruised arms after a rousing game of Red Rover. Ah, the memories!

Memories -- of getting my glasses broken in elementary dodgeball games, of seeing two of my students get hurt (stitches on calf and broken wrist) the first week I started teaching, not to mention calling an ambulance (twice!) for recess concussions, and I no longer object to banning games. How many supervisors are present on your children's playground? And how many children are there? Think about it.

I was the skinny kid in school. Ok, I'm still the skinny kid, only a tad bit older now. We used to play dodgeball, kickball, tag and spin the...errr...wrong era. Anyway, I used to get pummeled with that big red rubber ball. It hurt like heck. It gave me the hand/eye coordination that I have today. It taught me sportsmanship. It instilled dexterity. Why do our guhment schools take these simple pleasures away from our kids? Maybe they will break a hand, and, they won't be able to play their X-box for 6 to 8 weeks. I'm all for it!

I love this thread! It almost became a "bash the teacher" thread with the "get rid of the kids so I can plan" comment but it's been saved.

The only thing I have to say is that I find it hilarious that everyone thinks the teachers are the one to ban recess. I WISH we had that kind of influence on what happens! Trust me, this was not a teacher decision, but from admin. In our sue-happy world, precautions are being taken. Sad, but true.

And people wonder why kids are getting fat - sheesh.. not to mention why they won't sit still in class.. that is crazy to get rid of all that stuff...

And I'm sort of blogging again.. so tell all your friends to come visit me and then I'll be motivated to really blog!

Please forgive me for using your blog to rant, but I can’t resist!

Our kids are very aggressive on the playground. For me, days when no child gets punched in the face or beaten with a stick are goooood days. Our kids LOVE soccer because it’s fun to see how hard you can kick the ball at some other kid’s head. Tag is a favorite too, because it’s an excuse for random tackling and clothes tearing. “But we were just playing TAG! We weren’t fighting” Riiiiiiight.

There are many reasons recess for my students is completely different from what many of us remember so fondly…

1.) Parents in poor, urban areas teach their children to fight back, and fight hard over any perceived wrong. Student: “He looked at my kinda funny, so I punched that punk ***** in the face!” Parent: “Good boy!”

2) The “cuts and bruises” many speak of as being good learning experiences are not the “safety” issues that comes to my mind when I hear another school has banned recess. A school in our ‘hood reported last month that a student was beaten bloody in the face with his own shoe.

3) Students spend 45 minutes in PE once per week and have no idea how to play organized games, what “sportsmanship” is, or how to operate sports equipment. The result is made up games (how creative!) that usually have horribly violent themes. Last year a kid actually bit another student and drew blood because they were playing “Vampire”

4) Many teachers use recess as a time to plan or socialize. Yeah, yeah… it is hard to find enough time for planning, and by the afternoon I am STARVING for an adult conversation, but come on! The few of us who actually watch the kids end up with 20 – 80 to supervise and that just doesn’t work!

I don’t allow free play unless my class is the only one on the playground. My kids play kickball or some other structured game with me, and until my school puts more resources into physical education (including recess) it’ll have to do.

Thanks, that felt GOOD! :-)

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