Recess is a subject too!

I have great memories of my elementary days and most of them involve friends and games that we played at recess. As parents and educators today we feel tremendous pressure to ensure that our children receive the best education possible. What are we sacrificing to reach our goals? It is my belief that school should not teach children endless facts, instead we should teach children to interact with each other to solve problems. To accomplish this our children cannot sit in straight rows in silence while the teacher talks continuously. Children must be given the opportunity to talk, share, engage and learn in a variety of ways. In fact we must create an environment in which children become risk takers and are fearless about their thinking. Don't get me wrong, I do think that we should have and enforce rules, as long as those rules are geared toward the accomplishment of our goals. One of the most important things that any education institution can teach is the ability to interact in an interpersonal way. Children must learn how to interact and work not only with friends who share similar interest, but also with those who act, look and think differently. The globally competitive world that now exists requires strong interpersonal communication now more than ever. I recently spend fifteen minutes coaching my son how to negotiate. After the coaching session, he proceeded to use his newly acquired skill to persuade me into a trip to Game Stop. I think that lesson backfired! Back to my point... children should learn to work cooperatively and interact appropriate and recess is an excellent time to accomplish these goals. When your child is running around tagging other children or playing soccer they are practicing some very important skills. I hope your family has a great start to the school year. See you on the monkey bars...