Recess in Pieces

If RedDirt were around today, he would undoubtedly bemoan this as further evidence of the disappearing Great American Childhood: Apparently, school recess is becoming a thing of the past.

In the St. Petersburg Times, writer Lane DeGregory reports that about 40 percent of schools nationwide have scrapped recess for a variety of reasons, including the rising costs of playground equipment and liability concerns.

DeGregory writes:

"Remember recess? Four-square, jump rope, hanging upside down on the jungle gym. Red Rover, stickball, climbing trees, hunting for caterpillars. Or just being by yourself.

"Recess meant diving into leaf piles, hurling snowballs, blowing dandelion tufts. Gossiping and freeze tag and getting dirty.

"Sure, recess could be a drag. Bullies and crybabies showed their true selves on the playground. You got skinned knees and bruises and sand in your eyes.
But good or bad, everyone over 30 remembers recess. It was a chance to run and swing and use your outside voice, to climb and jump and hang out without grownups butting in, to invent games and rules, to form your own teams and make your own choices."

With the exception of a few fond memories playing doctor with a girl named Lisa Farrington in a tucked-away corner of the schoolyard, my chief memories of recess are decidedly ambivalent. Being picked last for dodgeball, ducking bullies, being forced to eat a beetle, that sort of thing. As for me, I will shed no tears for the loss of recess.