Today I had a sudden realization when Steve briefly talked about ‘free play’ and ‘risky play’ today. At first I was having nostalgic moments of me as a kid doing pretty reckless activities (for a kid anyways) and wondering why wouldn’t anybody just want to have freedom to play. Then it hit me when I started to look at this approach from another standpoint. Looking at this from a lifeguard and first aid point of view, where I’m taught to be paranoid about all injuries and think safety first at all times, I began to see why P.E. has been on the decline. Yes there is also technology that affects it but if you think about all the other subjects in the curriculum, they can be taught with minimum risk and teachers feel more in control when they are in the classroom. In contrast with P.E., students are allowed to run wild and free in a space that the teachers are not 100% accustomed to.
There is a very familiar saying, ‘prevent it before it happens.’ In a sense, maybe some teachers do not want to deal with students getting injured because it could cause a lot of concerns from the parents. So the best way they can minimize injuries is to decrease P.E. time. However this is just my random thought so feel free to let me know what you guys think!
I can really relate to feeling paranoid about injuries that could occur during a given activity. I worked for an organization running after school programs for five years. For the first four years I was given the freedom to allow ?risky play? whenever possible. The group was excited to arrive each day, loved being physically active and dreaded inside days. When we had optional outside time only three of fourty children would choose to stay inside. In my last year I was sent to a location where I was encouraged to create an atmosphere that was fairly risk-free. There was no playing in the forest, no running when the ground was wet and many more rules that inhibit fun and exploration. When I did optional outside time with this group on average twenty of thirty would choose to stay inside. I am aware there are other factors that influenced the large difference but the limitation of ?risky play? was a major contributor. When we take away risky play we take away so much fun. Hopefully as teachers we will be able to balance our worries with the children?s need for ?risky play?