Recess Temperatures

[Tri Girl]

Don't you kinda think we're all becoming spoiled rotten candy a*#@s who are all a bit wimpy. Think of what our ancestors of 100+ years ago would say to us if we could talk to them right now. They lived without electricity, air conditioning (or heating for that matter), fast transportation (unless a buggy was fast), telephones, internet, etc etc.
I suppose the longer we're on this planet and the more technology we have- the wimpier we ALL get.
I'm glad I was born in this era- I don't think I would have lasted a week in the 17 or 1800's.

[Jolt]

Don't you kinda think we're all becoming spoiled rotten candy a*#@s who are all a bit wimpy. Think of what our ancestors of 100+ years ago would say to us if we could talk to them right now. They lived without electricity, air conditioning (or heating for that matter), fast transportation (unless a buggy was fast), telephones, internet, etc etc.
I suppose the longer we're on this planet and the more technology we have- the wimpier we ALL get.

I completely agree! And even now, many other people in the world still live without those things--and yet we're the ones who complain the most when things don't go the way we want them to, while the people in some of the poorest countries often seem to have the best attitudes. Not to say that all our technology etc. doesn't have some major benefits--it does (better medical care etc. for example) and it's just plain nice to have. However, it has the down side that it allows us to be wimps and to become a really inactive society that has a lot of preventable chronic disease.

[Cataboo]

You guys are acting like it's impossible to turn off your air conditioning or turn down your heat and put a few sweaters on. I never use my air conditioning despite 90-100 degree summers & 90+% humidity around here. I don't see the point in spending a couple hundred a month on electricity for air conditioning. I see the point in my pipes not freezing for heating though. I've lived in various places that were impossible to heat and I just made sure to have a ton of clothing layers on and several down blankets on the bed.

Yes, it is impossible to do without my internet access.

I can't really remember what temperatures we were allowed outside in for recess when I was young, but I'm fairly certain the standards weren't so hardcore in Virginia. We had a great big gymnasium, and I know there were days that we had recess in the gym playing dodgeball, playing with a big huge parachute, gymnastics, rhymthic gymnastics, and square dancing. I still had a lot of fun. As far as I know, I am not a fragile lily because of my time spent indoors.

middle school - we had to change into these ridiculous shorts & t shirts for gym and we didn't go outside if it was cold - we played basketball, line danced, did gymnastics or wrestled.

High school - we only had to take 2 years of gym, I think. We all severely disliked one gym teacher because he used to force us to go out and run laps when it was cold (those shorts & t shirt gym uniforms were not very warm) But otherwise, we did a lot of indoor sports in the gyms when it got cold.


If you've got a big indoor gym with lots of active things for kids to be doing... I really don't see anything wrong with indoor recess when it's cold or wet.

[OakLeaf]

In my area, public elementary schools aren't built with gyms any more (unless they're multi-use buildings, in which case recess would probably be too close to lunchtime to be able to get all the tables removed and set up again). There's no more PE in the schools (and league athletics are pay-to-play).

Not sure what it has to do with this thread - but doing without AC in high humidity means doing away with carpeting and draperies (and possibly even drywall). That's fine if you're building a new house or moving into an existing one that was built with high humidity in mind, but not even remotely an option for someone who can't afford their electric bills. We hadn't been in our house a year when Charley/Jeanne/Francis/Ivan hit, and didn't understand this. Oh, man, do I regret replacing the damaged carpet with new carpet.

[Veronica]

If you've got a big indoor gym with lots of active things for kids to be doing... I really don't see anything wrong with indoor recess when it's cold or wet.

What is a gym? New public elemantary schools aren't built with them.

All of you have no concept of being "on" for four and a half hours. Imagine you are a lifeguard and you must watch the pool for four and a ahlf hours without a break.

Having been a lifeguard I can tell you that being an elementay teacher requires much the same vigilance.

Veronica

[Cataboo]

We had a dual purpose cafeteria/gym/auditorium. I guess the teachers and the lunch room personal were fast at folding up the tables & putting them back, because they would still manage to have lunch & recess in the gym/cafeteria.

But I was 5, I didn't really pay attention to what magical things that the school did so that we could have recess indoors. I just know we did have it on occasion and we still had fun and ran around a ton. And it was a welcome diversion from the usual recess "game" where the guys would chase girls and then cage them up in the jungle gyms and not let them out once they caught them. And then we'd lead other girls to rescue the caged girls.

We also somehow managed to rehearse for class skits or whatever we did in the same area. Maybe we were a small school, I think there was probably at least 4-6 classes of kids for each grade level with 20-30 kids in a class.

As for carpetting, drapes, drywall & humidity - guess I've always lived in houses of the right ages, 'cause I've never had problems with stuff like that. Basements can sometimes need a dehumidifier though. But I do tend to pay a lot of attention to drainage and I do make sure things dry if they get flooded, even if it requires ripping out drywall. And no, it doesn't have a huge deal to do with the thread, it was just in response to people saying we're all becoming pansy wimps because of our air conditioning, our heating, and the temps are kids are playing in recess at.

Aren't teachers still on at recess? We didn't have separate teachers that watched us at recess, all the 1st or 2nd grade kids would be brought out at once and all the teachers would would watch all of us run over a huge area.

[Veronica]

Teachers at my school are still on at recess - just not every day. The days I have recess duty coincide with the days I have a prep period. Thus I usually get some sort of break each morning. Today I do not have a prep period and we will have rainy day recess. The students will stay in my classroom. I will have them under my supervision from 8:15 until 12:30 when we go to lunch.

If I had to do that every day, I'd go crazy. Just having rainy day recess every day last week has increased my stress level. And I have good kids.

Veronica

[Jolt]

[SIZE="7"]
All of you have no concept of being "on" for four and a half hours. Imagine you are a lifeguard and you must watch the pool for four and a ahlf hours without a break.

Been there, done that--I know exactly what you mean! Especially tough when you have a pool full of kids (whether little kids, teenage hooligan boys or anything in between)--not so bad when it's the early bird shift with all adult lap swimmers. I would imagine being an elementary teacher would be much, much tougher than guarding a pool full of kids!

[SadieKate]

What is a gym? New public elementary schools aren't built with them.

Back in, ahem, the dark ages, only the highschools had gyms.

[Biciclista]

and a related subject:
NYTIMES:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...ins-at-school/
Play, Then Eat: Shift May Bring Gains at School
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Kirsten Luce for The New York Times SWITCHED Children playing before lunch at Sharon Elementary School in Robbinsville, N.J. “Kids are calmer after they’ve had recess first,” the school’s principal said.

Can something as simple as the timing of recess make a difference in a child’s health and behavior?

Some experts think it can, and now some schools are rescheduling recess — sending students out to play before they sit down for lunch. The switch appears to have led to some surprising changes in both cafeteria and classroom.

Schools that have tried it report that when children play before lunch, there is less food waste and higher consumption of milk, fruit and vegetables. And some teachers say there are fewer behavior problems.

“Kids are calmer after they’ve had recess first,” said Janet Sinkewicz, principal of Sharon Elementary School in Robbinsville, N.J., which made the change last fall. “They feel like they have more time to eat and they don’t have to rush.”

One recent weekday at Sharon, I watched as gaggles of second graders chased one another around the playground and climbed on monkey bars. When the whistle blew, the bustling playground emptied almost instantly, and the children lined up to drop off their coats and mittens and file quietly into the cafeteria for lunch.

“All the wiggles are out,” Ms. Sinkewicz said.

....


“For some reason, kids aren’t losing things outside,” Ms. Sinkewicz said. “The lost-and-found mound has gone down.”

[Crankin]

I worked at an elementary school 95-99. We instituted the exact changes that were talked about in that article.
It made a world of difference.