Recess Temperatures

[sundial]

At our school, the only time we didn't play outside:

• when it was raining cats and dogs
• when school was out

[Crankin]

Yep, we have the cars sitting at the end of the driveways, cul-de-sacs, and streets here. Can't leave those precious things alone for one second!!!
Seriously, this phenomena left my own children wickedly hysterical when we moved to a development on a cul de sac. The cars would be lined up, back to my house. On days it was raining (or G-d forbid, snowing), my kids would go out, appropriately dressed, with an umbrella, snow boots, whatever the weather called for. The mothers would invariably beckon them to wait in one of their cars. My kids always refused, except for the time the bus got stuck in the snow and they did take a ride (I had left for work). Now, we are talking about middle school and high school aged kids! I am sure I was branded as the evil mother of Boxborough. They even commented once to my son who was scraping the snow off of the roof of his car, preparing to go to school, when he was a junior or senior. Like how could I be so mean as to make him clean his car and drive himself to school?
Oy.

[shootingstar]

The mothers would invariably beckon them to wait in one of their cars. My kids always refused, except for the time the bus got stuck in the snow and they did take a ride (I had left for work). Now, we are talking about middle school and high school aged kids! I am sure I was branded as the evil mother of Boxborough. They even commented once to my son who was scraping the snow off of the roof of his car, preparing to go to school, when he was a junior or senior. Like how could I be so mean as to make him clean his car and drive himself to school?
Oy.

Well, uforgot is preaching to the choir. But hey, more stories..

I started shovelling snow off our home driveway when I was 11 yrs. onward. Of course I didn't do the whole thing and of course, mother tried to time it so that the snow depth wasn't too deep.

Which meant we went shovelling even twice during the whole day.
Forget about the snowblower...parents couldn't afford it. And didn't really exist big time for home owners in 1970's.

And what was the motivating factor for my mother to send her children out shovelling snow, with younger ones playing in snow, while she did housework (and probably we got out of her hair)? So my father, the sole breadwinner working in evenings until 1:00 am, at restaurant could drive into the driveway properly. We were conscious we were doing for our father, not really playing in snow. But there was no time deadline. We took breaks, etc.

No, we were not paid an allowance for this outdoor 'snow' work. No money.

I'm sorry....shadow of history looms.

[uforgot]

Wow, so much feedback! Yes, I'm by St. Louis and it does get pretty cold in the winter. The kids should ALL have coats and gloves, but the parents don't always come through. The PTA collects coats and our FCCLA always hands out brand new gloves to the elementary students that need them.

40 seems downright balmy here right now. Not sure what our average January temp is, but I'm guessing it's in the high 20s. We have snow and sometimes we have windchills below 0.

I haven't had a chance to read all replies, but I will when I have time and I really appreciate all who chimed in.

[OakLeaf]

My first husband served in the Air Force in Thailand. He was there for all of a year. He describes coming back to Ohio in August, 85°F and what we'd consider humid in the USA... and being freezing. So yeah, acclimation is important. But it happens in a matter of weeks. The question is how far the temperature is outside the local norms, and in the case of Missouri, it sounds like it isn't.

[eclectic]

This has been fun to read and got my curiosity up. I teach High school and they wear shorts if it is above 0F

I contacted a cycling buddy who is an elementary school principal in this district to find out the "official" policy

His response was:

Our policy is that we stay inside when:

Air temp = negative 5 degrees (F)
or
Wind chill = negative 15 degrees (F)


There's an old Scandanavian saying that goes, "There's no such things as bad weather, just bad clothing."
The clothing available nowadays is quite good and if children are prepared, it's very easy to stay warm no matter the temp.

We do have programs for boots, hats, mitts, coats etc.

In all my teaching career, (26 years) school was only canceled 1x, and that was by the Governor, he canceled the entire state - wind chills were -70 to -80 F, a cup of hot coffee thrown into the air froze before hitting the ground.

So what did the kids do? They went to the mall.
It got that cold last year - We had school

But to err on safety sake parents can opt out and keep their kids at home. We have a major air force base in our district and some parents do keep their kids home if it drops to -20F. We natives just don't get why they would do that

[Zen]

Oh, and did you catch the Mythbusters and the frozen metal/ tongue episode? It's true...

I don't need Mythbusters to tell me what I learned in the fourth grade at Fort Richardson
ouch.

[VeloVT]

I grew up in Vermont. I was in elementary school in the 1980s. I don't recall being kept inside during the winter at all -- in fact I clearly remember playing in the snow at recess. Strange...

Also -- someone (Veronica?) mentioned 15 minute recess. Really? I'm pretty sure our recesses were at least 30 min, I would guess maybe even a little bit longer than that.

[Kathi]

When I taught in Cincinnati the cut off was 32 degrees and the playground had to be free of snow. The thought was many of the kids didn't have hats and gloves to stay warm in those temps so no one went outside. Of course, rainy days no matter what temps were indoors.

We drove by our neighborhood school last week, it was 30 degrees, snow on the playground, kids outside running around hatless, gloveless, a few without coats. I guess this is why Colorado is one of the healthiest (thinnest) states in the country.

[Tri Girl]

We coddle our children. BUT...funny thing: if they'd dress properly for the weather maybe their candy a**es wouldn't be cold outside (meaning mom and dad should dress them appropriately or make them wear warm clothes when it's cold outside).
I teach at a preK-8th grade parochial school. Our policy is we don't go outside if the temp with or without wind chill is below 32F.
Of course we just had a frigid couple of weeks and some kids came to school in shorts and sweatshirts (and it was near 0 for many mornings). These kids ALL come from money and can afford coats/gloves/hats, etc. Most of them have nicer coats than I do. They just don't want to wear it (unless they're skiing in Aspen and then by golly parents wouldn't think about complaining about the temperature).

IMO we're raising a bunch of pansies... and not just concerning the weather.

Sorry- this didn't provide any helpful information. I apparently just vented at you instead.
40 seems ridiculous, tho.

[shootingstar]

I teach at a preK-8th grade parochial school. Our policy is we don't go outside if the temp with or without wind chill is below 32F.
Of course we just had a frigid couple of weeks and some kids came to school in shorts and sweatshirts (and it was near 0 for many mornings). These kids ALL come from money and can afford coats/gloves/hats, etc. Most of them have nicer coats than I do. They just don't want to wear it (unless they're skiing in Aspen and then by golly parents wouldn't think about complaining about the temperature).

IMO we're raising a bunch of pansies... and not just concerning the weather..

Interesting..I guess most of us did rebel at some point on amount of clothing. And it's relative. Maybe those kids should get warmed up playing soccer.

Don't any of us remembering wearing leotard under our dresses/skirts and winter boots in -20 C winters with snow drifts taller than our heads? With a winter coat, boots and running around the snowy playground.

I still joke with my partner that's why I can still wear just 1 cycling tight on 75% or more of Vancouver's winter days. My legs got toughened in childhood. But he wears 2 layers over his legs at near 0 to -5 C degrees, even when there is no wind chill.

[Tuckervill]

My son has really good cold weather gear, and he chooses not to wear it, no mater how cold it is. (He did wear the nice gloves when there was snow on the ground.) I don't think that makes him a pansy. It makes him tougher than me!

I remember seeing a frozen red-breasted robin on a snowdrift on my way to school once. Third grade. I was sad. I usually walked to school, but that day I went up the street and around the corner to ride the bus, because my friend thought it was too cold to walk. That was back in the day, in suburban Chicago, when girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school. So we put on stretch pants (remember the kind with the crease sewn up the front?) under our dresses and had to take them off when we got to school. And our classrooms had cloakrooms and we all bundled up in the cloakroom for recess and going home. We went out no matter what the temperature, so long as it wasn't raining. If there was snow on the playground all the better!

Karen

[zoom-zoom]

The ridiculous thing about keeping kids in when it's 40 is that most kids wouldn't even need a bulky Winter coat for those conditions. A fleecy jacket over a sweatshirt and undershirt would be more than enough for most kids. Heck, mine won't even wear gloves until it's under 35.

[lph]

Ah, kids are strange creatures sometimes. My son has all the clothing he needs for any temperature and any weather, and then some, but he'll still tell me about standing around in recess freezing his b*tt off "because it was raining" (not because he couldn't be bothered to put on a hat and a fleece jacket under his rain coat), or he'll come home from school in a soaking wet down jacket, that he wore running around playing football in -2C and sleet. He hates hates hates putting on snow pants, so he'll wear wool long johns underneath his jeans all winter indoors and outdoors instead. Go figure *shrug*. He's 12, he has to figure these things out for himself at some point. He has started asking me sometimes if I would suggest wearing this or that. Occasionally. I feel like shouting Hallelujah every time

And kids do still shovel driveways, shootingstar. No-one around here has a snow blower except the janitor, and we shoveled our (very short) driveway plus all our closest neighbours' last time we had a heavy snowfall. No way would he get paid for shoveling his own driveway, but I did tell him he could go and ask other neighbours if he could shovel theirs for money.

[Crankin]

The not wearing coats/appropriate cold weather gear seems to be a phenomenon that is fairly recent (last 10 years or so). I used to think that the parents were terrible by not sending their kids with coats, etc. when I taught at the middle school level, but then I realized they all ditched their coats somewhere after they left the house. Every day I go to my internship, I drive by a kid (younger teen) who is standing in his driveway waiting for the bus. Every day he is wearing shorts and a bulky sweatshirt. His legs are often bright red! It has to hurt, when it's 5 F out.
My kids never fought me on the coat issue; the younger one developed Raynaud's over the years and until he had his experimental surgery that cured it, he constantly was searching for good gloves. The other one just accepted the fact that you wear a coat in the winter. Maybe it came from living in AZ and when we got here, they felt cold!
I agree, we are raising a bunch of wusses and it's the parents fault.