Turning Off TV

TerryS · Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 93 Location: California

San Francisco Chronicle

In Richmond, kids getting lesson in play
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The sound of laughing children playing tag or hide-and-seek
isn't often heard on the streets of Richmond's notorious Iron
Triangle. Gunshots are too common, producing an unexpected
casualty: Some kids have forgotten how to play.

They grow up these days inside sheltered places, with electronic
playmates at home and extra study hours in the classroom to boost
test scores while recess is canceled. "Kids are so restricted in
some places they're not allowed to be kids," said Olga Jarrett,
an associate professor of early childhood education at Georgia State
University. "Some children have so little chance to play that they
almost need some guidance from adults on how to play and not get
into fights, for instance."

And so, on dozens of school playgrounds across the Bay Area, kids are
being taught - or perhaps reminded - how to play.

On a cold winter morning, children burst through the doors of Lincoln
Elementary in Richmond, running headlong onto the playground. Within
minutes, there were two games of four square, two games of tag, dodge
ball, kickball, soccer, three groups playing basketball, two lines
of jump rope, a handful on the jungle gym, and a few kids tossing a
football.

A half-dozen first-graders stood waiting their turn at a jump rope.
"Ice cream soda, cherry on top, who's your best friend, I forgot. A, B, C,"
they chanted as they took turns jumping and turning. The rope was a blur
as 6-year-old Nancy Maciel hopped to the rhythm, her long braid
bouncing at her back. "It's my favorite thing to do," she said after
her turn was over and she moved to the back of the line.

Recess used to be a headache for the school's principal, Stephen Riave.
Almost every day, students were sent to the office from the playground
for fighting or bad behavior, resulting in 10 suspensions or so per month.
Those who weren't arguing were often sitting around or aimlessly walking
the blacktop. The students didn't know why there were four squares painted
on the asphalt. The kickball court sat empty. More than 30 students would
converge on a small jungle gym, oblivious to the rest of the expansive
playground, said Evelia Ramirez, who was brought in to bring play back to
the playground.

Ramirez, 22, is site coordinator for Sports4Kids in Oakland, a nonprofit
that promotes physical activity and play for children. The Lincoln Elementary
students call her "coach." Teachers and school staff say she has transformed
the schoolyard. In September, none of the first-graders knew how to jump
rope, Ramirez said. "There weren't many games going on. The girls weren't
playing at all. "They didn't know the rules of the games," she said.
The first game Ramirez tried, a tag game called Fox, lured 50 children to
the otherwise empty kickball court. "The first question I got was,
'Can I play?' " she said. During a recess earlier this week, Ramirez ran
from game to game, standing in line for jump rope and then for four square
before jumping into a mass of kids vying for a soccer ball in an everyone-plays
game.

Sports4Kids started in 1996 at a couple of schools in Berkeley. Now there are
coaches at 131 schools nationwide, including 92 in the Bay Area. "We're
single-handedly bringing kickball back to the Bay Area," said the organization's
founder Jill Vialet, laughing. It's a job requirement to play with the kids,
Vialet said, to help them work through winning, losing and picking teams.
"Who knew you could build a whole organization around the power of rock, paper,
scissors," she said, describing the group's preferred approach to resolving a
conflict. Kids don't always have the skills to play together, she said. They're
not always learning that in schools or their neighborhoods anymore. "I think
there is a play vacuum and video games have filled it," said the Harvard graduate.
"The culture of play has fallen away, this thing we assume is an inherent part of
childhood."

Play can be perceived as a waste of time, a wrongheaded approach, said David Elkind,
author of the 2007 book "The Power of Play." But studies show play increases academic
achievement and teaches children a wide range of skills, he said. "Play is a basic
human need. Children learn through play," Elkind said. "A lot of learning takes places
through their bodies," he said. "They're learning to take turns. They're learning
body language and communication. A great deal of social learning goes on. That's
very important too."

Across the country, however, schools have eliminated free time. Others have slapped
rules on recess. "Kids are not allowed to run, they're not allowed to play tag or
they're not allowed to play ball games like dodge ball because someone might get hit
by a ball," said Georgia State's Jarrett, who is also the president of the
International Play Association USA, the motto of which is, "Promoting the child's
right to play." Elkind agreed that children face a lack of opportunity to play,
whether at home or at school. Children are being so over-programmed with activities
that they never have time to just play, he said. And many kids, often lower-income
children, are pushed into academics too early because "they're behind," Elkind added.

Sports4Kids is funded by foundation and government grants as well as donations and
the participating schools. It costs $55,000 to run each school's program - $23,500
paid by the school. First-year coaches fall under the AmeriCorps umbrella and are
placed in schools where more than half the students are considered low-income.
At Lincoln, all 430 students fall in that category.

For many, violence can inhibit outdoor play at home. And it hits close to school,
too. Principal Riave walked out the front door of the school and pointed across
the street to a house just around the corner. There was a killing there last spring,
he said. Then he pointed to a house in the opposite direction a few doors down:
There was another slaying there last fall, he said. And down two blocks, another
one, he said. The school went under lockdown last semester, not an uncommon
occurrence.

Yet for the kids, school is their safe haven - a place where they can be kids and
where they are remembering how to play rather than fight or fret.
"The consequence of that is they're in school," Riave said. "They're learning."

Learn more

For more information about play, go to:

Sports4Kids: www.sports4kids.org

Alliance for Childhood: www.allianceforchildhood.net

National Institute for Play: www.nifplay.org

Association for the Study of Play: www.csuchico.edu/kine/tasp/

International Play Association: www.ipausa.org

jlotus · Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject:

I don't know if it's because it's a grim Chicago February, but that story broke my heart. I'm sorry to think that kids are trapped inside watching videos all day.

I'm also sorry that a school has to pay $23,500 for someone to teach kids how to jump rope and play four square.

I think adults are more easily annoyed by normal exuberant kid behavior because children CAN be drugged with videos. Some teachers think kids on the playground are possessed.

lpowers · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Riverside, CA

A moderately interesting book on the subject: "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," by Richard Louv.

Lester, in Riverside, CA

jlotus · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:50 pm Post subject:

I've got the Louv book, and I wanted to love it, but it's written in so many anecdotes that are not really relevant that I think he doesn't make his case.

People I know who work for the local Park District and the National Forest Service love the book, tho, because screen-devices are stealing away so many campers and hikers that park participation dropping steeply.

The new campaign is called "No child Left Inside."

lpowers · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Riverside, CA

Reminds me of a bizarre incident a few years back. (Stop me if I've told this here before -- it's a fave story of mine.) The scene: A little neighborhood minipark. I'm sitting there on a park bench practicing doing nothing -- a very important art form that has alas been lost in this beloved nation. So. Here comes a family: mom, dad, two kids with bags full of stuff. They arrive, unpack, and proceed to erect a large tent. Aha! I guess they're going to the mountains and want to practice setting up the tent in advance. The tent goes up, and then there is much discussion, much of it loud and excited. I overhear, and I learn their plans. Yep, they're going up to the mountains all right. BUT, the reason they're practicing with the tent is to figure out where to put the TV in it. In fact, from what I can hear, their *ONLY* plans for their mountain trip is to watch TV in the tent. That's it. Nothing else. Just the TV.

Lester

TerryS · Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 93 Location: California

I haven't read that book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving
Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder", but it
does seem to have struck chord with a lot of people.
They even did a study, looking at nature as a treatment
for ADD/ADHD and found it was helpful (of course there
aren't too many TV's out in the forest, so that could
have been a factor too).

http://www.upliftprogram.com/h_children.html#h67

And I definitely agree with Jean, it is really,
really sad that so many kids hardly ever play games
anymore...