And there’ll be no reading in the library, either

On a recent classroom visit (seemingly number seven hundred in my tour of the local elementary schools) the kindergarteners were reviewing the rules for a new student:

  1. Sit quietly at circle time.
  2. Hang your jacket in your cubby.
  3. And at recess, no running on the playground.

That’s right. All 250 students (K-5) use the playground at the same time, and apparently the 5
teachers assigned to supervise the chaos spend it reminding kids to walk.

There must be a better way.

2 Comments

  1. Lilian says:

    Oh, wow, those rules are “tough” to say the least… I love your title.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Yikes! As I was searching for elementary education teacher blogs I kept running across a bit of news– apparently some schools have outlawed “tag” and other games that could potentially cause injury to their students (like, one assumes, pretty much any physical activity) to avoid lawsuits. It sounds like that might not be the motivation for your school’s decision, but what an unfortunate trend. I can’t imagine being a young kid who isn’t allowed to let off steam during recess (or their teacher!)

    That said, when I was in elementary school our rcess only lasted ten minutes, it was always inside the school gym, and consisted entirely of a game called “Two-square.” I shudder to remember it!