Slow Down to Catch Up by Peter Dargatz LET'S GET IT STRAIGHT. Everyone wants to get back to school! Safely. However, one reason many are pushing for schools to fully reopen irks me.
“The kids are falling behind. They need to catch up!” Let me counter that position with a statement of my own: Education is not a race! Sadly, many feel the best way to “catch up” is to increase academic rigor, expand expectations, and inundate students with the work they missed while away from the brick and mortar classroom. If there is any way to crush creativity, amplify anxiety, and eradicate the enthusiasm of getting back into the classroom,
this would be it. Maybe the kids can “catch up” by slowing down. That may sound oxymoronic, but in my experiences as an early childhood educator, I learn more by seemingly doing less. Forget the image of a teacher lounging in a hammock with a cold beverage in your head. Instead, think of a duck. Calm on the surface but paddling like crazy under the water. Don't get me confused, teachers are certainly working harder than ever. When I say doing less, I mean saying less, directing less, and controlling less. In other words, slow down. Breathe. Observe. Think. We can only control what we can control. The pressure to pick up the pace, complete more in less time with fewer tools, and make up for lost time will be incredible. But how can this be done, especially considering another additional round of distance learning seems inevitable? The best way to push back on this unnecessary yet unavoidable pressure is actually quite simple. Play more.
8 PLAY AND PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE FALL 2020
Providing the time, space, and opportunity to play will catch the children up. There is a disheartening misnomer out there that equates play to being a waste of time and only utilizing it as a reward in the classroom if utilizing play at all. The truth couldn't be farther from the truth. Play is not a break from learning. Play is learning. Play is not an alternative to work. Play is work. Play is not a reward. It is a right. In play, the skills necessary for academic endurance and achievement are practiced and perfected.
Want your students to be a problem solver?
Play.
Want your children to improve communication?
Play.
Want your class to express creativity?
Play.
Want everyone to think critically?
Play.
www.playgroundprofessionals.com/magazine
