A bird's gotta fly and a kid's gotta play!

This article is at the intersection of Education & Health, and on the kids side of town, so you knew Dr. J. was going to have to comment on it.

Published in the journal Pediatrics about two weeks ago, it is finally making headlines from Saskatchewan to the People’s Republic of MoCo. The investigators interviewed 49 health care providers from 34 child care centers in Cincinnati, Ohio. There was an attempt to have geographic, economic and pedagogic diversity within the group of child care centers studied.

The question being asked is that given from prior studies that there is less and less physical activity going on in preschools, why is this going on? If the investigators can figure out why there is a problem, the next step, obviously is test methods to reduces these barriers.

This is an important question because obesity is on the rise and given that 75% of America’s 3-5 year olds are in some sort of pre-school program, it might be good to ensure that these places that are caring for our wee little tots do not transform them into tater tots. Furthermore, gross motor activities, such as being able to skip and balance on a beam develop at this time in life, and we don’t want our children growing up to be klutzes, now do we?

Now prior to this, the investigators demonstrated a number of barriers existed, including varying weather policies, what kids would wear (expensive monogramed smocking and open toed shoes can make care givers nervous about letting the precious flower get dirty, especially if mom always complains about grass stains).

So, what did the investigators discover?

Regardless of where the child care center was (inner city or suburbs), or the nature of the curriculum and socioeconomic status (head-start to Monte$$$ori), the providers believed that the kids best opportunity to play outside is during preschool. This is obvious because when mom and/or dad come to pick them up, it is late and for part of the year, dark.

There was a fear of the kids getting hurt. There was pressure to push learnin’, learnin’, learnin’ because parents want their kids to be at the top of their class next year in kindergarten as a stepping stone to Ivy University. There is copious regulation regarding the nature of playground equipment resulting in playground equipment that is either too expensive and fun, or boring and safe.

Now this was the sort of thing your Gormogons had to play on before the Castle was built. Nowadays, you would never see this sort of thing on a playground. Only at a construction site would such a structure exist today

So what can we do to combat sloth in preschools? Well Mr. MH-60 Gunship and Mrs. UH-60 Blackhawk, first and foremost you need to get a grip. Encourage your pre-schools to let the kids play. Use terms like gross motor development and they will love you for it. Tell them that the elite academies in town test the kids on skipping ability and balance beam walking (some in New Atlantis do, actually). None of us want our little guys getting seriously injured, but bumps, bruises and a split chin or even a broken bone are not just the price of playing hard, but back when y’all and Dr. J. were kids, a badge of honor. The lil resident split her chin open when she was 5, she got four stitches and did great. You can’t even see a scar anymore. The lil medstudent is on the winning end of most collisions, so all he has are pre-tibial bruises from scootin’ and sliding. Fortunately for Dr. J., physical activity was an important twice daily activity at the the lil resident and medstudent’s preschool. At the Jedi Academy, where they have moved on to, has daily PE AND recess for all. Dr. J. thinks the lil med student and the rest of the younglings have two doses of recess.

Second, if you are of means, feel free to organize a fundraiser, or take it on yourself to donate playground equipment to your child’s preschool. After all, your entrusting your precious flower to these people 8-10 hours a day, the least you could do is help them out, as they have tight margins. At the beginning of the lil medstudent’s last year of preschool, we told the director to pick a piece of playground equipment out within a certain price range. The kids loved the new addition, and one or two of the parents found it cringeworthy (it was a really cool member of the climbing wall family), so we knew it was perfect.

Third, tell your city, state and federal legislators to loosen up the regulations that are on the books that make things as crazy as they are. Safe is good (i.e. no protruding glass or rusty nails), but too safe is useless (a Nerf domed, padded and air-conditioned playground) because it is too expensive and won’t be bought, or even worse, it will be bought!

Remember, you were a kid once, you probably got to play outside, and on deathtraps like Dr. J. and your Gormogons did, and you turned out alright. After all, tuning in here regularly is proof of that…

Dr. J.

The Gormogons

A bird’s gotta fly and a kid’s gotta play!