Recess gets regulated by some School Districts

Found this story a few days ago and found it interesting that kids can't even have fun during recess!
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During recess at Woodridge Elementary School, a girl walked up to the foursquare court, wanting to join the game.

"You want to play," Briauna Ford, a sixth-grader, told her. "You got to read the rules."

Eight rules for Switched, a game Briauna and her friends made up, were scrawled on a piece of notebook paper: Rule No. 2: "You must say 'switch, switch' two times to begin the game." Rule No. 6: "Make right choices no yelling."

Briauna and her friends drew up the regulations so the game wouldn't end up in shouting matches and hurt feelings - which could get Switched tossed off the playground in the Rio Linda Union School District.

Continued... www.sacbee.com...

OMG, I'm sorry but this is ridiculous! Regulating recess, banning games. Kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore. Where do these experts come up with this crap?

Ket kids be kids...let them scrape their knees, get dirty, cause arguments. The playground gives them a break from class, teaches them how to social, be a team member; it lets their imagination free, it most importantly lets them have fun...and all this helps a kid perform in life and in the class.

If this is being taken away from the kids; their lives are being taken away from them. All this is doing is pressuring them with their school work, getting the best grades, which adds more stress, and no one needs that, let alone elementary school kids.

Seriously if people would stop taking away child's play and let them be, there would be less problems.

I just got out of elementary school where we had recess. When i first went to that school 3 years ago we could play dodgeball, tag, soccer, basketball, wiffleball, and more games. When I finished this year we coould only play 3 of the games listed. We couldn't play tag on the playground. Just in a field that's open. By then I rarely played tag. You couldn't run on the playground just walk. Grade four and under could only shoot a basketball or play knockout. Soccer was boring you couldn't even get near a person without getting yelled out but sometimes we managed to get a game that wasn't supervised by lunchaids. We couldn't play wiffleball because in 5th grade some messed up kid started when he was up at bat decided to take the wiffle bat and start hitting people with it. Dodgleball was waaay to dangerous some kind is gonna get hurt what is the worst that can happen with a rubber ball when we used to play you weren't allowed to throw it at people heads. Right before and right after school we couldn't ride our bikes down a path because some kid when he got off the path and onto the road. He crashed into a parked car f50 feet away from the end of the path. My friends and I would make jokes about soon we only would be able to walk around then after that just sit. Th e lunchaids for no reason would take away reason. I hated when they did that even when a kid should have gotten just his recess taken away everyone got punished. That's it for my rant I just let off some steam.

This is awesome! kids dont get to be kids anymore! how nice isnt it?


(im being sarcastic for those who didnt see it)

Imnot surprised. Its stupid. Totally. Education sucks these days.

and,

I heard, that at one of the elementery schools in my hometown, they banned soccer.


I MEAN COME ON!

SOCCER!?!?!?!?!

(from www.sacbee.com...)
Concerned about safety and injuries and worried about bullying, violence, self-esteem and lawsuits, school officials have clamped down on the traditional games from years past.

It sounds like the children chose to make rules based on parliamentary guidelines that may have been handed down from their parents. However, I don't feel that the travesty is in children playing with rules but rather that these rules seem to be NECESSARY to keep the children safe. Kids make up rules all the time, but rules being made because playgrounds are becoming unsafe is ridiculous. Why are children becoming so uncontrollable that they are shouting and hurting other studetns? And if this is happening on such a large scale, then it seems that the punishments are not fitting the crimes. As far as I'm concerned, if 90% of the students are unruly and preventing the desired education of 10%, then send the 90% home. There is only one way to stop a thing, and that's to stop if full scale. No more games! (Ironic ending...it's the games of the system ending games in the system).

(also from www.sacbee.com...)
"To some degree, the school has needed to take a larger role in teaching children how to play with each other - the whole taking turns, how to deal with conflict," Hunt-Brown said.

Then only role the school needs is a body to point at the door.

Lunch aid! Whats a lunch aid....an SS gaurd at the robot programming boardom camp.

The rules were put there so these ppl wouldn't need to sort out arguments and fights, because they don't know how or got fed up of doing it. They just watch, they don't get involved, if they acted more like how parents should act, maybe there would be less problems.

I still say they should teach people how to learn and how to think and not what to memorize.

Why is it a teacher's job now to be the teacher and the parent. Give the kids a pass to the exit.

Originally posted by Strianissa
Why is it a teacher's job now to be the teacher and the parent. Give the kids a pass to the exit.

I thought that when you send your kid to school your teachers are responsible for you from time A to time B which would technically make them you guardian/parent for that time being. Thus is why rules are so strict. Now a days, because of suing, the schools have to keep there socks up and prevent kids from essentially being kids. It is not the school that is causing this, it is the parents and the constant threat of suing.

Back when I was in elementary I used to have pushing matches with my friends on top of icy snow mounds once my teacher even joined in with us. But I don�t think suing was much of a problem back then. Heck I even once picked up a stick and threw it in the air and it hit my friend in the head . Of course it was an accident but he was bleeding. Thank god that didn�t happen recently or I probably would�ve gotten sued by his parents.

Either way it�s not the schools fault as I said, its societies. There are a lot of problems with schools now a days and I do agree that although the leash needs to be shortened on kids in some places they should be let go (hence off leach area or recess, gym, etc). Kids need to be kids and parents, although they are only looking for the best interest of their kids, don�t understand this anymore.

No. Teachers are not guardians. They are teachers, and they have or should have an entirely different agenda. When we make teachers into parents, who teaches? And thus, the educated become more uneducated while the educated have figured out how to teach their children to behave and become more educated.

Wow...lol...that's pretty lame.

I know when I was a kid and we had recess, we all sort of subconsciously actually realized the value of it b/c we all knew that when we went up a few grades it would be gone....I mean come on - wasn't that the biggest question in your mind when you were 6...when is recess going to end?

Sure fights would happen as we got a bit older - usually it was b/c some girl with cuties touched us.....of course now we have to be more concerned of some kid pointing a gun at another kid b/c he didn't give him an answer on the spelling bee....

I can see the reasoning behind beefing up recess regulations and rules, b/c they have always existed...we just never really knew about them - but to actually try to prevent preventing a situation....that's just pure idiocy....and pure Neo-Americanism....

Originally posted by Strianissa
No. Teachers are not guardians. They are teachers, and they have or should have an entirely different agenda. When we make teachers into parents, who teaches? And thus, the educated become more uneducated while the educated have figured out how to teach their children to behave and become more educated.

Okay... So you are telling me that no one is responsible for what happens to your child between point A and point B while they are at school and you are at work? You cant say that. I'm sorry but it is true the teachers/school is liable for what happens to your child from when school start to when school ends unless your parent/guardian lets you out by A phoning, B signed letter, C personally coming in. If the school is unaware of where you are during this time and something happens to you it is there fault and thus they are up for suing.

Edit-

I do understand the fact that the teachers are supposed to do the teaching. But other than that they are meant to make sure that your child stays out of trouble. This is one of the major problems with the school of today. With the mass class sizes teachers are forced to pay more attention to being a guardian more than being a teacher. This is unfortunate but that is one of the main reasons why the school of today is suffering.

[edit on 8/26/2004 by SirKillallott]

This reminds me of the song The Wall pt.2 by Pink Floyd my favorite quote from the song is,"We don't need no education." and, I personally feel that this problem is wrong and annoying for kids not to be kids but I do see why it is being enforced. With the prblem of sueing and all of that mess.

Wow, we could play dodgeball, smear the queer, kickball, soccer, football, tag, tackle people at random, fun games.

Originally posted by James the Lesser
...smear the queer...

Would you believe it if I told you that in Indiana we were actually able to play that game...by the exact same name...during gym class?!

"Alright class...raise your hands if you want to play 'Smear the Queer'....okay....I guess that's what we're playing today"

[edit on 8/26/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Lunch aids and teachers were 2 different sets of people at my school. Teachers would be on break and the lunch aids were there at recess to break up a fight after it starts or even ends.

Originally posted by XL5
Lunch aids and teachers were 2 different sets of people at my school. Teachers would be on break and the lunch aids were there at recess to break up a fight after it starts or even ends.

Well it all depends on what your school prefers. If your school can afford to do this than they will. But if they cannot teachers go out at recess and supervise the kids and often times the janitors at lunch.

When I was in elementary school we a playground rule that always bugged me. Well there was this one thing on the playground but it was basically a small monorail that was driven by one person working a crank at one end. The rule was that you had to pull the crank before you could ride. Then there were all kinds of other stupid rules. No climing any of the three slides, you weren't allowed to sit or lay down anywhere. Then there were rules about how you had to have snowpants during the winter to play on the playground. Then the punishment for misbehaving was to stand against a wall and do nothing while watching all the other kids have recess. That backfired because after a while the playground got so boring kids were standing against the wall socializing having more fun than the other kids. And the worst thing of all was the end of recess. At the end you had to stand in straight lines and be completly silent and pretty still. Its amazing how many kids lost recess because they were talking while in line. A bit restrictive for public school I think.

Originally posted by SirKillallott

Okay... So you are telling me that no one is responsible for what happens to your child between point A and point B while they are at school and you are at work? You cant say that. I'm sorry but it is true the teachers/school is liable for what happens to your child from when school start to when school ends unless your parent/guardian lets you out by A phoning, B signed letter, C personally coming in. If the school is unaware of where you are during this time and something happens to you it is there fault and thus they are up for suing.

Edit-

I do understand the fact that the teachers are supposed to do the teaching. But other than that they are meant to make sure that your child stays out of trouble. This is one of the major problems with the school of today. With the mass class sizes teachers are forced to pay more attention to being a guardian more than being a teacher. This is unfortunate but that is one of the main reasons why the school of today is suffering.

[edit on 8/26/2004 by SirKillallott]

Paying close attention to your edit, I can see how the dynamics of the situation can be disturbing and confusing for all. However, I stand convinced that discipline must be maintained in and FROM the home, while teachers are for teaching and monitoring at most. There must be strict guidelines in the school for punishing the disobedient by sending the children home and making the parents enforce their own child's behavior. When the government decided to take corporal punishment away from the teachers, they then sent it back to the parents in my opinion. I never gave my teachers any trouble or any other kids while I was in school because I knew my parents would not condone (spelling?) such behavior. If all children respected their parents more, I believe these issues would not be issues to begin with.

I agree that schools need rules, but come on stop trying to control there every thought and movement.Last year my son was in grade 8. The kids eat there lunch in the gym,no prblem.All of a sudden they have to sit with there class while eating, no ifs and or buts.My son was talking to one of his friends, that wasn't in his class[ a big no no]]He was made to go sit with his classmates whom he didn't get along with a lot of them, so why couldn't he sit with his friend, well the new vice priincipal decided that she wanted all classes sitting with each other.
Were has there free will gone?

There's no free will in school because it's a school. They must maintain order if they're going to succeed at all. More restrictive rules tells me that there are a lot of kids who don't know how to act. They are not being taught properly at home. The parents' job is to teach their kids how to behave and interact socially both in play situations and in adult supervised situations. The teacher's job is to educate the child in reading, math, language and other subjects that will enable them to move on to college and then into the world as a functional, successful adult citizen. If one doesn't do their job, the other is put out by it and ultimately the child suffers. I've known too many parents who foist the responsibility for their kids' socialization onto the public school system. Or they let tv train their kids on how to behave. Or they let too many things slide because they want to be the kid's friend so everybody will be happy instead of the authority figure who might get some negative feedback from the child for laying down the law. Nobody wants to be the bad guy, so those kids go to school and act like little jagoffs and suddenly nobody can play anymore. I've seen it so many times it's standard now... the parents of the worst kid will yell the loudest about suing if something happens to the little monster. I went to a private religious school. If you acted out, you got tagged good for it and it didn't happen again. We had no "bullies" in the widely accepted sense. No troublemakers. It just wasn't worth the price. But we came to school already well versed in how to behave. What they considered "acting up" would have been a joke in the public system I later entered.


"smear the queer". I was dying when I read that, it's been so long since I'd heard it!