Playtime in the Primary School - Assignment Example

School Playgrounds. Playtime has been relegated by the current educational policy to a place of unimportance in the school curriculum by being allotted less and less time or by being eliminated altogether. (Pellegrini and Blatchford: 2002). Contemporary schools provide a barren environment for children's play which is in a state of terminal decline. The different aspects of play include the contribution to formal language acquisition, while working across cultural divides and generations and helping promote spiritual and psychological well being. (Bishop and Curtis: 2001). Traditionally, games provided vital and meaningful modes of play which were highly verbal and imaginative with greater margins of physical content. The more dynamic modern play has more emphasis on adaptations and innovations. While encouraging inter-ethnic friendship and a vibrant oral culture, break time gives children the chance to explore the boundaries of their gendered experience within a safe conservative environment. Children ought to have the right to play and to choose what they play, which gives them a chance to put their dreams into action. The loss of play for fun has resulted to disillusionment and depression. The absence of challenge in the 'remodeled' playgrounds limits creativity, explorations, practice and fosters the development of attitudes that imply shying off from the face of challenges and taking risks. "It is through play that children explore their environment encountering numerous challenges to personal competence that involve decisions for risk-taking behavior" as argued by Jambor (1986). This freedom denial has not only resulted to the absence of fun but also risks the social health of the children. Break time is important for academic achievement, a more healthy development and maturity of peer relations and for general school adjustment. The reasons for limiting play and the increased adult supervision are inclined on affording more time for academic excellence, fears of developing negative peer relations and aggression by providing the children chances to exhibit antisocial behavior. (Pellegrini and Blatchford: 2002) The exposure to physical dangers while children play under trees, in tackling games, playing within school buildings, jumping off playground equipment or playing in wet areas must be controlled and guided. Conflicts and petty squabbles can arise, teasing and name calling, taunting and bullying and even violent incidents such as the murder of a British Asian boy in a Manchester Secondary School playground showing that violence, possibly racially motivated could erupt in playgrounds. Concerns also arise with students' behavior that could arise over the break and spill over into the school. (Blatchford: 1989) Break time has a positive 'educational value' in the sense that the longer children work on standardized tasks with no break the less attentive to the task they become and so breaks facilitate improved attention and focus on learning in the academic program (Pellegrini: 2005) This can be explained by the massed vs. distributed practice theory which explains that breaks inserted between periods of intense work help distribute effort and increase cognitive performances. (Bjorklund and Pellegrini: 2000). The playground at break time is the place where pupils interact on their own with minimal adult interference and they consider this time significant and enjoyable. Here, they play and meet friends in cooperative interaction involving governed games with their peers. Games are particularly important at the commencement of the school year when peers are not familiar with each other, but the knowledge of the rules of some common game forms the basis for interaction after which they become familiar which results to an interaction in the other domains. (Pellegrini and Blatchford: 2002) During recess periods, students learn to resolve conflicts, solve problems, negotiate, and work with others without adult intervention and also serves as a developmentally appropriate strategy for reducing stress. Playground games are also important in the development of heterosexual relationships, for example boys generally play with boys in rough rigorous games that girls opt to keep away from (same sex play grouping), but these preferences increase with age through to puberty as the adolescent boys adjust their play as to include the girls while using the opportunity to foster heterosexual relationships. Therefore break time provide one of the few times in the course of any school day when the children interact with their peers on their own terms and learn while practicing some important social skills and so, the policy makers should not cut further into this valuable childhood resource (Pellegrini: 1995). Even though we need improvements in the safety standards in the playgrounds, the freedom of children to play should not be compromised, the rules should not be as strict as to restrict the children's creativity or to take fun out of play as we attempt to clear the risks involved. (Titman: 1994) Our principle apprehension should be in making the children more active and healthy and to unleash them to greater engagements so as not to limit their social development. The staff should focus on making more efforts to improve behavior, teach children the supposedly forgotten outside games. (Blatchford: 1998) In developing policies and approaches towards behavior in school, the staff needs to be aware of the perceptions of those that matter most - the pupils, whose views and reactions will help in encouraging their involvement in the life of school and its governance. (Burke and Grosvenor: 2003). It is a common argument that breaks can be replaced with physical education classes but then, a recess is different from physical education, in that the students need unstructured time where they can make up their own rules and have more freedom to choose what they want to do and with whom. In conclusion then, the available research suggests that the break time and recess plays an important role in the learning, social development, and health of school children. Arguments might exist as highlighted herein, but it is clear that no research clearly supports not having a recess. More research should be done to determine the effects on student test scores, attitudes, and behaviors and the effects of how long the breaks should run, and how much adult supervision should be employed over this discretionary time and the opportunities to engage in physical activity that helps to develop healthy bodies and enjoyment of movement. It also allows students to practice life skills such as conflict resolution, cooperation, respect for rules, taking turns, sharing, using language to communicate, and problem solving in real situations. References, Bishop, J. & Curtis, M. (2001), "Play Today In the primary school playground". Philadelphia: Open University Press. Bjorklund, D.F. & Pellegrini, A.D. (2000). "Child development and evolutionary psychology Child development", 71, 1687-1708. Blackwell Publishing. Blatchford, P. (1989). "Playtime in the primary school". Routledge Publishers (UK). Blatchford, P. (1998). "Social life in School". Routledge Publishers (UK). Burke, C & Grosvenor, I. (2003) "The school I'd like". Routledge Publishers (UK). Pellegrini, A. (1995), "School Recess and playground behavior". Albany: State University of New York. ED 379 095. Pellegrini, A. (2005), "Recess: It's role in education and development". Sage Publications Inc. Pellegrini, A. & Blatchford, P (2000), "The child at school". Routledge Publishers (UK). Pellegrini, A. & Blatchford, P (2000),, "Time for a break". Routledge Publishers (UK). Titman, W. (1994), "Special Places; Special people: The hidden Curriculum of school grounds". Cambridge University Press,London. Read More