3/9

Day 5: Well, if nothing else comes of this weird venture at least I'll have gotten into the habit of writing daily, even if it's basically a log of what I cooked and ate today. What I cooked and ate today: well, warmed up leftover soup from yesterday. It was giving off a faintly peachy scent. I added more vegetables and heated it up and had it for lunch. (Oatmeal and croissant for breakfast.) It's kind of a very anti-Atkins diet except I wouldn't call it a diet, because diets are structured and designed with weight loss in mind. I'm not sure what I have in mind aside from eating different things that are hopefully healthier, but I sure as hell am not eating less. Oddly enough, this is not the most drastic Lenten resolution I have ever made. THe most drastic was giving up soda a couple of years ago. I don't think I'll keep this vegetarian thing up past Easter, because I don't want to develop one of those stomachs that turns itself inside out at the sight of a steak. But maybe somewhere along the way I'll find a great salad dressing recipe or maybe learn to tolerate mushrooms. Or at the rate I'm going maybe by easter I'll have sworn off vegetables forever.

After church this morning we went to Cindy's in Chinatown to look at flowers for my brother's prom date, Melissa. It's so cute that they're going together because they've known each other since preschool.

I skipped current events this morning and looked at R/T fares and unfurnished rentals instead. West coast, east coast, europe, asia, all cheap. Makiki, not cheap. Go, figure. If I had a thousand dollars to muck around with I don't know what I'd do with it -- go somewhere far away for a little while or move somewhere not that far away for hopefully forever. Well, put down a deposit on that place anyway.

Shit -- I can't just run off. I'm teaching PE tomorrow morning.

Actually, if I could, I'd teach PE all day. Five-year-olds are supposed to move and talk and explore. But what do kindergarteners learn all day? To sit still, control their bodies, be quiet. That moving and being curious about their surroundings is bad. I think it's stupid that they sit inside all day. I think it's stupid to ask them to eat quietly, and it's a stupid, terrible idea to run organized games during recess like they want to start doing. Why is that stupid? Because there again, play is being undervalued and put aside in favor of regulated activity. People tend to view play as expendable because kids are supposed to be in school to learn, but what do they think happens on the playground? Kids learn a LOT from social interaction.

My opinion is that PE is for organized games and developing motor skills and teaching behaviors that lead to physical fitness. Recess is for pure play. If you attach rules and points to recess, then every minute of their day is regulated. As it is, lunch is so regulated that if you talk too loudly you get pulled up to the front of the cafeteria and lose your afternoon recess. Most teachers don't even do PE, because it's considered so unimportant held up next to content and performance standards and benchmarks. Anyway, that's why I love teaching PE, because I have them during the only part of their day that they're allowed to move. I try to make the most of it for them.

Unregulated play is important because play is how kids learn social skills. By unregulated i do >not< mean unchecked. Obviously if one child punches another you take steps to make sure he or she understands why that's not OK. What I mean is, there's a difference between a basketball game and a game of make-believe. Both have value. Basketball is a team sport with certain rules that you have to apply in order for it to actually be a game of basketball. Playing house or any other kind of make-believe, on the other hand, teaches different skills. Kids use their imaginations and what they've already learned from parents, friends, peers. They create these stories and situations and become people they admire, or people they don't like, and try on different solutions, different voices, different actions. Peer reactions teach louder than the yard duty teacher yelling at you.

These kids that I babysit drive me crazy, but I will say one thing for them. They possess a skill that a lot of kids don't: they know how to play without toys. They know how to "play pretend." I think between them they have about three toys they really love (I'm countign a basket full of army men as one toy) and if you took those three toys away, they would be just fine. They have a big backyard, and they know how to use it. When they misbehave, I really have to get creative. They are completely, sometimes annoyingly unmaterialistic. While this is inconvenient in a discipline pinch, I know it's way better for their character in the long run. I think. THey don't even have a TV. Actually, I think they're a little cut off from reality sometimes. But my point is, they don't need toys. I don't think parents should throw all their kids' toys away, or that playground equipment or organized games are bad, just that kids should know how to play without them.

Anyway, this teacher @ KSchool wants to start having organized games during recess. Forget that. How about using your PE time instead of filling it with worksheets. And let them go out to recess instead of taking it away as punishment for not sitting still which they had a hard time with because you didn't take them out to PE. I think child development courses should be mandatory for all elementary educators. I think any teacher, new or seasoned, could benefit from regular development/psych courses. It's pretty simple -- the farther from your own youth you are, the less you can relate to youth itself. Child development study shoudn't be viewed as an insult, but as proof that you still give a damn about kids.