Playground Poem - Stager-to-Go

As far too many American schools become obsessed with time-on-task, achievement, and beating the rest of the world in long division, play, recess, and even socializing over lunch fade into memory. Kids in schools lucky enough to still have art, drama, or music programs often have to wake before dawn to attend “zero period” or stay at school until dark, followed by an obscene quantity of homework. Stress levels are up, childhood obesity increases, school shootings have become commonplace and somehow still, the Dickensian shopkeepers tyrannically shaping education policy wish to extend the school day, lengthen the school year, and speed up the conveyor belt they mistakenly confuse for a learning environment.

it is worth noting that many of the nations “beating” the USA academically (as if learning were a zero-sum game of winners and losers), have more recess than the United States. K-12 schools in my second home of Australia have a 20-30 minute late “morning tea” and an hour for lunch and recess – through graduation.

My favorite school in the whole world is Spensley Street Primary School in Melbourne, Australia. It’s my happy place. Spensley Street is a joyful K-6 public school of approximately 300 students that for decades has been based on open education (the real kind, not the open-source software nonsense). Everywhere you look, kids are doing things, making things, singing, playing, performing… Every two years, 6th graders go camping and compose a musical that the entire school then performs in.

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When the Australian government mandated standardized testing in order to rank schools from A-F, the Spensley Street community politely and quietly said, “No thank you.” They are not freedom fighters. Just parents and educators who know what is best for the children in their care. If you want your child tested, write a letter requesting it. Last year, I believe that 14% did.

A few years ago, the community built a spectacular garden-like playground, complete with working vegetable garden, and wood-fired pizza oven. It is on the playground where the real joy of childhood is in full bloom. One day, I walked around the garden, ball field, and school yard observing the plethora of joyful ways these lucky kids were allowed to be kids. A five year-old girl escorted me at intermittent intervals.

Playground (likely the first and last public poem by Gary Stager)

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Eating
Drinking, shrieking
Yelling, screaming, running
Chasing
Tagging
Jumping
Falling
Picking flowers
Turning tree branches into magic wands
Chatting
Gossiping
Piggybacking

Kicking

Throwing
Catching
Dodging

Digging
Flopping on the ground (“because you’re supposed to”)
Holding hands
Trying on a cape
Wearing funny glasses
Studying a leaf
Cuddling a stuffed stingray
Driving an invisible car
Shouting pow pow pow while waving an imaginary weapon

Tickling a furby
Tree climbing
Swinging
Dressing like a fairy princess
Making new friends
Wrapping a scarf around your friend’s face
Kicking a pal down a slide Shooting hoops
Hissing at classmates
Smooshing a flower into your hand and then licking the resulting pollen

– Explaining to the visitor, that’s “my special talent.”
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Hiding under the stairs

Tying your feet together and walking around “for no reason”

Wearing my shirt inside-out and backwards

Discovering that your snack box is covered in pesto
Singing
Hugging
Laughing
Faking tears
Cleaning up litter

Being “stealthy”

Gary Stager

Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.

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