I was stacking the dishwasher when my gaze was drawn out the kitchen window and into the council reserve at the back of our home.
The reserve is pretty neglected. Branches fell from trees months ago that are still to be collected by a lazy council, the grass is always too long and there’s no play equipment. In fact, there’s not even a park bench to rest on. It’s just a patch of nondescript land really.
Nonetheless, two boys around the age of seven were playing boisterously. One had a medieval looking shield with a silver cross on it and the other a stick in the guise of a sword.
Their ‘battle’ was a rather random hurling of various sized sticks in each other’s direction. Eventually, one largish stick hit the non-shielded gladiator on the shoulder.
“Ow!” he admonished. “That one was too big.”
His mate hurriedly inspected the impact site and concluded that it wasn’t bleeding, as an inquisitive parent, out of eyeshot but not earshot, enquired from the house on the other side of the reserve, “You boys ok?”
The boys looked at each other, grinned, chorused, “Yeah, we’re ok!” and then cheerfully resumed their stick/sword skirmish.
It really was a thing of beauty to watch two kids learning to moderate each other’s play without adults diving in to resolve their quarrel, without help and without an app to tell them how to do it.
Then it dawned on me that there’s only one place that this glorious moment would be unacceptable… in a school.
We’ve got to be careful in schools that we don’t get too… Well… Careful. It’s the risk in play that makes it so beneficial to kids’ development and socialisation.
Sure, there are limits to the amount of risk we can tolerate. But too many kids are hunched over screens at home these days, leaving schools as sometimes the last refuges of boisterous, stick-induced and learning packed interactions.
There’s a price to pay for obsessive and over supervised play. Let’s not pay too high a premium for something we don’t even want.
Keep fighting that good fight,
P.S. I often get asked to run a PL Day for schools and I always say… No.
Why? Because I know they don’t really make the intended difference, and they can be a real waste of money for schools.
If you’re a school leader and you really want to learn how to create a positive, restorative culture for your school through partnership, I’m hosting a webinar about just that, and I’d love you to join me.
Transform Your School Culture Webinar
Date: Thursday 31 October 2024
Time: 4.00pm AEDT
Cost: Free
Find out more and register here.
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