An essay from the latest issue of Greater Good magazine talks about the disappearance of childhood play, and while I had heard all about kids sitting in front of their TVs or computers all day or kids getting roped into adult-led activities that will eventually earn them a spot on the PGA tour or get them into Yale, I was surprised to see recess was being axed at school after school.
Recess. Kids can't even have a half hour during a 7-hour school day to burn off some steam? Is that what we've come to?
The essay by David Elkin, professor emeritus of childhood development at Tufts University, says more than 30,000 schools have eliminated recess in favor of academics, while outdoor fun time has dropped by 50 percent. When kids aren't playing organized sports, they are simply lounging or watching TV. In short, imaginative, creative, unstructured play has all but disappeared in the lives of over-scheduled, over-educated children.
"For too long, we have treated play as a luxury that kids, as well as adults, could do without. But the time has come for us to recognize why play is worth defending: It is essential to leading a happy and healthy life."
It's an interesting essay that touches on the importance of play -- kids who learn via play have higher IQs -- and why educators and parents are failing their children. I only wish Elkin would have offered more solutions, however. Not necessarily for bringing play back into our lives -- he suggests more playgrounds and parents getting outside to lead by example -- but in how to fend off crazy parents who make you feel like you're not doing enough to raise a genius child.
At a party recently, a mother of a child about the same age as our own asked my wife and I which vocabulary flashcards we liked best and whether we had any tips for better numerical value comprehension. Our daughter just turned 2. At that particular moment in time, she was dipping her face in a cupcake and singing the chorus of "American Pie." My wife and I looked at the woman like she was an alien, and we could only assume she thought we were bad parents for not even owning flashcards, let alone using them.
How do you jump off the frenzied bandwagon of non-stop lessons and learning? How do you give kids their childhood back?
