One of our friends has kids at a very high profile elementary school. A few weeks ago that school had what they called a “daddy-daughter” date to trick the dads into coming to the school where they were strong-armed into signing up as “volunteering” to take a day off work and monitor recess.

Apparently the playground is so out of control they feel they need masculine help. That isn’t the kind of socialization I think we’d be missing out on if we choose to homeschool. Thanks for sharing this article.

Sad, but true.

I wonder if that is a sort of cultural difference? When I was a kid, everyone was out until the streetlights came on. You would wonder about a kid who wasn’t allowed to leave the yard. Now? There is so much fear about what will happen that I am concerned that most of the kids out are those whose parents don’t care as much.

When I worked as a substitute I HATED recess duty. I was supposed to be generally supervising all the kids when I didn’t know one child from another, was one of only a few adults watching over what must have been a hundred children, on a playground that was almost too big to see to the other side. And when it was all over, I had to round up all that belonged in my class (and some were invariably out in the “back forty”), make sure I had the right ones, and get them back inside in time for the next bell. It was an insanely stressful ordeal to be endured from time to time at a school where I otherwise enjoyed subbing. Herding sheep would have been more relaxing.

It was so much better when I worked at a small private Christian school — I was “the recess lady” among other odd jobs; and it was a different world; the playground was of a reasonable size, the classes were very small and only one or two classes went to recess at a time, and there were clear expectations about how to behave and treat one another. The children usually played group games of their own creation, and I don’t remember any conflicts between them.

ChristineMM wrote: “When I was a child in the 1970s we were forced to be outdoors all day by our mothers and all the neighbor kids (save for one family with an obsessive mother who feared her children would get dirty or hurt)—we all were out there finding our own play for many hours a day, from when school got out to dinner, then after dinner to bedtime. We had all different ages of kids and both boys and girls. The older kids taught the younger kids certain games.”

I live in a very small town where many children still get the opportunity to “run around the neighborhood” freely like this. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I want my children to have a little space to roam and visit and play. On the other hand, I’ve observed some of their friends who are allowed to prowl the neighborhood until sundown are, in some ways very independent and responsible, and yet in other subtle ways, disrespectful and rude, and I wonder if they don’t have too much freedom and what certain unchecked habits will yield when they are teenagers. A few annoying behaviors have cropped up in my dc that have been learned from friends and had to be nipped in the bud — but they have also picked up good habits, like calling home to check in or ask permission. They have had to contend with the poor socialization of others — but they have also learned to play foursquare and taught their friends to play Chinese jump rope. So I struggle to find the balance.

I have to think about my health, you know.

(Just kidding. Brilliant as usual, Dana!)