Empowered by Play » advocacy

The Rightful Return of Recess

Geralyn — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:21:35 +0000

Did you see this headline earlier this week in the New York Times?!?

Recess, which has been squeezed out of so many school days, is starting to gain traction once again. Recess has become part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, and national organizations such as KaBoom! and Playworks are advocating hard for recess. This is good news for children of all ages. The benefits of recess are widely known - from reducing stress and obesity, to increased attention and more. Even with the focus on high-stakes testing, it is hard to understand why we have strayed so far from daily recess for our school children. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Now that the school year is in full swing, I wonder what your child’s recess experience has been. When my children were in Kindergarten, recess was one of the few parts of the day they looked forward to. When mandated assessments and curriculum constraints put pressure on their teachers to produce, produce, produce – it was recess that was shortened or even lost for the day. And boy, did I hear it from my sons when they didn’t have recess. They, to put it politely, were not happy. And how often does losing recess become a consequence that leads to more disruptive behavior and unhappiness?

Luckily, when I spoke to my boys’ Kindergarten teachers, they were very receptive. They agreed that recess is critical, and tried their hardest to bring it back. My boys were happier at school when recess returned. I’ve spoken to many parents who have had to advocate for recess for their children, not always with such positive results. If you find yourself needing to advocate for more recess in your school, I urge you to check out Peaceful Playgrounds where they have a very active Right to Recess campaign with loads of fantastic and free resources. This includes a webinar and a Power Point Presentation with a companion speaker’s guide with lecture notes and references!

And, if you are trying to advocate at your school, find other parents to work with. If your child is crying every evening, and feeling stressed at school, and lack of recess is at part of the problem, chances are very good that other children are feeling the same way. When parents join together, with the research and information to back their requests, schools will respond. If you are a teacher trying to bring back recess at your school – the Right to Recess campaign can help you, as well.

Play on!

Check out some related posts:

Recess (It’s not just for Congressmen)

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word BINGO

Alliance for Childhood’s press release on free plan and childhood obesity

Thanks, EYI!

Geralyn — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:47:20 +0000

A big thank you to The Early Years Institute for the wonderful conference on Friday. The conference, “We Interrupt This Program: Playing and Learning in the Age of Hyper-Media”, brought together many folks fighting the good fight on behalf of children. The Early Years Institute is a young non-profit organization aimed at “helping communities value children”, and if they are new to you, they are definitely worth learning more about.

For me, one of the best aspects of the conference was meeting other members of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. It was like meeting old friends – even though we’d never met before. We spoke the same language and felt invigorated talking with each other – wonderful! For my workshops, I presented with Kimberly Mullaney, who is the director of Education Services at WNET/Thirteen (PBS on Long Island). Kimberly and I spoke the same language on a number of issues – especially the importance of co-viewing and how to talk with your children before and after watching a show or movie together. We also agreed that the screen should not be a babysitter and that screen time should not replace healthy creative play times, outdoor play or take place of quality family time.

We did disagree about the use of television in the classroom. Kimberly trains teachers on how to use television clips appropriately, and her tips were good ones. But for me the value of watching a Clifford episode (or even a clip from it) is just not worth the time away from active learning or the implied endorsement of PBS, their sponsors and preschool screen time – even when the program is shared in a thoughtful way. When I know that preschoolers are already spending 32 hours a week engaged with screens, I don’t want them watching TV in school. Period. (Not to mention the Chuck E Cheese’s promo that came on right before the Clifford show began – yikes! As a parent, I definitely don’t want preschoolers seeing that at school.)

One thing we agreed totally about were the harmful effects commercials can have on children and family life. We both talked about the recent Toyota Highlander commercial, where the cool kid is plugged into earbuds and doesn’t have to listen to his parents as they drive in their Toyota Highlander. At the stoplight he sees the nerdy kid in the car with the lame parents who are singing as they drive in their (apparently) uncool car. The way I understood the ad, it is uncool to have parents who sing joyfully and it is way better to have a Toyota Highlander so you can tune out your parents. I would put the YouTube link in here, so you could view the ad, but the commercial is no longer available on YouTube. Hmmm. Interesting. Last week I called and registered a complaint with Toyota. I know other members of CCFC did also. If you’ve seen this commercial, and you find it offensive, I encourage you to call. It only takes a couple of minutes and the number is 1-800-331-4331. There is no doubt that raising children today is hard enough without being seriously undermined by big corporations such as Toyota. Calling them to task could make a difference. I have to say, it was great that we agreed this commercial is offensive, and we also agreed that smart phones and texting are taking away precious time which parents used to spend talking with their infants, toddlers and preschoolers. (Why, then is Sesame Street…a company parents trust… making apps for iphones – and furthering the distance between little ones and their caregivers?)

On an up beat…the day ended with a greatly appreciated hour of laughter as we listened to Lenore Skenazy share her journey from New York columnist and average mom to becoming known as “America’s Worst Mom” and her subsequent blog and then a book Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry). Lenore uses her hilarious blend of storytelling and reality-checking to help paint a picture of today’s world – (and here I paraphrase) a world where we are so worried about our children being kidnapped, that we have, in fact, kidnapped our children. I finally bought myself a copy (early birthday present!) and can not wait to dig in.

Find us at NAEYC’s Annual Conference!

Geralyn — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:17:38 +0000

Today I am packing for Anaheim, CA, where I will be joining friends and colleagues at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Annual Conference. I’ll be there with other members of TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) and we will be sharing our resources Media and Young Children Action Guide and Toy, Play & Young Children Action Guide, as well as our recently released Infant-Toddler Play, Toys & Media Action Guide. These fantastic guides help parents and teachers find ways to foster quality play, healthy development and positive relationships- all of which are threatened by companies who are more concerned about making money than about what is best for our children and families. This year, although I am looking forward to re-connecting with advocates for young children, I am not thrilled about the “Disneyfication” of the event. In the pre-conference mailing, I spy a session focused on Walt Disney’s contributions to early childhood education and an evening event to celebrate imagination at Disney’s California Adventure Park. What else will we encounter upon arrival? I am bracing myself.

As a young child I visited Disneyland and watched the Mickey Mouse Club on TV. These were fun times, no doubt. However, Disney has taken advantage of the trust that parents have in the Disney name. As an adult, I now worry about the vast influence that Disney has on our children and on us. Disney encourages young children to play online with websites such as Club Penguin and World of Cars. Disney confuses parents about how babies learn by selling Baby Einstein videos. Check out this list of companies owned by Disney, complied by Lisa Ray. (Her family is documenting their Year Without Disney!) Disney controls so much information – that just cannot be good. They also market heavily and directly to children – including the brilliant move to market all the Disney Princesses together in a way that has appealed to girls the world over. But what messages do the Disney Princesses send our girls? Check out this short video about the Princess Effect from the Empowering Girls to Fly High.

And check out what the updated TRUCE Action Guide says:

If you are one of the tens of thousands who will be attending the conference, please stop by and visit us in the exhibit hall. We will have copies of our free guides on hand and we’d love to talk to you. We’ll be sharing booth 1044 with TRUCE steering committee member Hugh Hanley and his Circle of Song!

Fighting to reclaim kindergarten? Watch this video…then share it!

Geralyn — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:34:54 +0000

One of the best new resources I have seen is a powerful video by the Gesell Institute, The Role of Play in the Overly-Academic Kindergarten. The Gesell Institute of Human Development is a non-profit organization located on the Yale campus. Their seven and half minute video is a clear look at what works in kindergarten – and how the academic push-down in this country, and our focus on raising test scores – has gotten us seriously off track. This resource can help teachers everywhere explain to parents how young children actually learn – through play. Many parents have heard that “earlier is better” and are nervous about “wasting time on play”. For them, learning that research actually supports the long term benefits of play in the classroom will go a long way to alleviating their concerns. September is the month of Open Houses and Back to School Nights at many schools throughout our country. Imagine the potential power that can be unleashed if kindergarten teachers show this video to parents. Imagine if more parents start advocating for playful learning and start putting pressure on administrators and policy makers to return our kindergarten classrooms to kindergarten classrooms (instead of first grades!). The Internet is our powerful friend here, and I urge you to spread the word about this video.

The video can also help parents who are frustrated with their child’s stressful kindergarten experience show their school administrators a better alternative. An Alliance for Childhood report found that teachers and principals in the same school often differed in how they talked about play “…including emphasis, allotment of time, urgency, priority, and degree of conflict with other activities.” Teachers often feel their hands are tied, and while they know their students need more active, hands-on learning, their administrators are pushing worksheets, workbooks and flashcards. Parents can use this video to help push administrators to think about the misguided policies they are imposing.

I know I’ll be sharing it with the leaders in my local school district, whom I have been trying to work with for close to a year now – ever since my sons encountered public school kindergarten. The pendulum needs to swing back toward developmentally appropriate kindergarten. The time has come for it. It needs our help, though, to gain momentum, and this video is a fantastic tool for it. Thank you, Gesell Institute!

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word Bingo

Kinder kindergartens, please

One Teacher’s Story

You can help protect preschoolers from too much screen-time!

Geralyn — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:49:11 +0000

I am in the joyful and exhausting throes of “Cousins’ Camp” (this year we have 15 first cousins, ages 4-13!) and don’t have time for a long post. But I felt compelled to let everyone know about an important window of opportunity to advocate for our youngest children. Currently NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) is re-drafting their position statement on Technology and Young Children. NAEYC is at the forefront of early childhood education. Just to give you an idea of their influence, their Annual Conference draws more than 20,000 early childhood teachers, administrators, professors and others. Lots of people pay attention to what NAEYC has to say. Right now we have a unique opportunity to have input on their statement – and help steer NAEYC in the right direction in limiting screen-time in daycare centers, preschools and other early childhood settings. In a brilliant move, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has teamed up with the Alliance for Childhood to draft a letter to NAEYC – signed by over 70 early childhood experts. Please visit CCFC’s website today to read their letter to NAEYC and for a wealth of information about this topic. Then you can contact NAEYC yourself. The window of opportunity closes July 30, 2010, so I urge you to act soon and to spread the word! Thanks so much.

Fighting to bring back childhood? Here is a powerful new book!

Geralyn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:08:00 +0000

My latest favorite book, and newest addition to my arsenal in the fight to bring back childhood, is A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool – Presenting the Evidence. This small, yet powerful review of research is written by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Laura E. Berk and Dorothy Singer. It lays to rest any doubt about the value of playful learning and unstructured free play. It also clearly describes and defends the link between play and learning. Misguided policies that are pushing developmentally inappropriate curriculum and benchmarks into young children’s lives can not stand up against the evidence presented here.

If you are a parent worried about the academic success of your young child, this is an excellent book for you. You might be surprised about what you find out. If your young child is suffocating under an avalanche of worksheets, here is something that will breathe new life into your conversations with your school. If you are a teacher or child care provider who is feeling pressure from parents or administrators to eliminate quality play experiences at your school or day care, this is the book for you. Consider using this tool to change the conversation and help get your program back on track, or keep your school the playful learning place you want it to be.

I first heard about this powerful new book from colleagues at the NAEYC (National Association of the Education of Young Children) annual conference in Washington, DC last month. I have not received money to endorse this book, I merely aim to spread the word.