I need to learn this lesson, too!

I recently read this statement from James Clear: "Play — schedule time to play into your life. We schedule meetings, conference calls, weekly events, and other responsibilities into our daily calendars … why not schedule time to play? When was the last time you blocked out an hour on your calendar just to explore and experiment? When was the last time you intentionally carved out time to have fun? You can’t tell me that being happy is less important than your Wednesday meeting, and yet, we act like it is because we never give it a time and space to live on our calendars." (http://jamesclear.com/positive-thinking)

Those of you who know me personally, know that I am a schedule-oriented person.  We have many students who are also schedule-oriented and know when the daily routine is altered.  It often affects outward behavior in children and I believe it affects our behavior as adults, too.

Much research across the US and in European countries shows the importance of physical activity and play in the lives of children.  However, many lawmakers appear to think they know better because they keep heaping more and more expectations on students in spite of scientists and medical doctors advice.  As political as that sounds, I think the parents and educators in our society need to start advocating for our children.  No one else is going to do it for them.  Not only do they need playtime, they need outdoor playtime. They need time to lose themselves in creative play, imagination, pretending and having imaginary friends. 

In addition, many children do not even get home in the evening much before bedtime. They are picked up at 6:00 from after school care, stop at the grocery store, eat supper, maybe do homework, take a bath, then it is bedtime.  No time for play or it is just a video game or watching TV. 

As a librarian, I see the long-term effects of this lack of play in various ways. Students cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes because they are so full of pent-up energy.  Stamina is lacking in staying with tasks whether it is reading a book or attending to a conversation.  Reading suffers because they can't focus on it because of all of the signals their bodies are sending needing to be acted out.

Our school does its very best to provide as much movement as possible during the day. However, it needs to start at home.  We need to put pressure on our lawmakers to stop forcing our children to try to do things they are not developmentally ready to do.  Is this a soapbox? Yes. However, many do not want to hear the truth and do not want to admit there is a problem. In my efforts to start keeping a better balance in my personal life, I have decided to start speaking out on behalf of our children.  I cannot be balanced if I ignore what is going on around me.  As I recently heard at a meeting I attended, "When you are unaware of what you don't know, nothing changes. When you become aware of what you don't know, everything changes."

My job is to help educate, inform and encourage children. Sometimes that means speaking up for them and stepping on toes.

Where has the reading gone?

Today I let one of my 5th grade classes spend library time just reading. They had completed a portion of the state achievement test earlier in the day and came to me at the end of the day. This class loves to read and begs for me to just let them read. Today I did that. They got my pillows, bean bags, and stuffed animals out and sat around the room and just dug into their books. When it was time to go one of the boys came to me and asked if we could do that every library visit. My reply was that my state of Tennessee evaluation rubric does not include reading for enjoyment so it is out of my hands. He asked, "If you could allow it, though, would you?" "In a heartbeat." Because when I was in 5th grade, my library visits were either reading for enjoyment, a film strip, particularly Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, or Mrs. Easley (my librarian) would read to us while she sat in her rocking chair. Of course he did not know what a film strip was. [Therefore, I have included an image of one just like we had back then!]

I think I turned out OK as did many of my elementary classmates. This got me thinking about "the good old days" and were they really better? Maybe, maybe not. However, the fact is clear that much has changed and reading continues to be a concern for employers and educators. Maybe we need to remember the simple pleasure of being read to or watching animals in countries that we have not encountered and may never visit or see. But our lives are enriched, and our vocabulary is enlarged by being exposed to something that has no "assessment" attached to it.