Report by Special PubDef Correspondent David Chilenski
Friday, Sports4Kids wrapped up its demo week at eight locations in the St. Louis Public Schools. The 12-year-old nonprofit which first started in the San Francisco Bay Area is now looking to bring a unique brand
of recess play to St. Louis and New Orleans next year.
Sports4Kids focuses on reducing conflicts during school recess. “You ask a principal or a teacher and they’ll tell you the bullying, arguments and fights all start at recess,” said Calvet Liburd, a Washington D.C. site coordinator for Sports4Kids. Liburd was in St. Louis this week for the demo.
“Our school staff is impressed with the organization and how they integrate sports and play into the curriculum,” said Principal Carey Cunningham of Simmons-Marshall Elementary School.
Sports4Kids focuses on public elementary schools with at least 50% of the children in free or reduced lunch programs. A trained staff member works at a school every day to provide fun and safe structured activities and conflict resolution strategies during recess and after school.
Sports4Kids is hoping to be in eight St. Louis elementary schools next fall. They are now hiring. Click here for more info.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Conflict resolution skills are definitely needed, but I really question whether we should structure every moment of a child’s day. SLPS kids get fewer and shorter recesses than we did as kids (my Kindergartner and my second grader have two recesses less than 20 minutes each, plus a 20 minute lunch. Older kids get less.), and it’s the only times in the day that they get to determine what they do and how they do it. It’s the only time that they get to learn to regulate themselves without adults interfering (unless, of course, they’re breaking the rules). Can’t these skills be taught by adults who work with the problems that develop rather than organizing the few minutes kids have to play on their own?
NPR story: http://tinyurl.com/3on8vn
April 30th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
That’s the thing - kids have forgotten how to play. With the push for accountability through standardized test scores, crime levels and the drug war, kids have forgotten how to play with each other. The Sports4Kids program teaches kids different games and then the students still get to choose what they do during recess. If anything it is just the right amount of structure. Structure here does not mean that all students on the yard play the same thing. Structure is about organizing space so that there are multiple opportunities for choice and play that can be realistically accommodated simultaneously. Recess in must urban schools is typically fraught with fights and injuries and not a fun playful time for students these days.