Not my story, but my now 14 yr old son's. While still in public school, 4th grade my son like mist boys his age had TONS of energy. They were only given a 30 minute recess once a day, on a playground but with no "toys"...so the boys started bringing their own basketballs or footballs from home. But after a day or two were told that wasn'…
Not my story, but my now 14 yr old son's. While still in public school, 4th grade my son like mist boys his age had TONS of energy. They were only given a 30 minute recess once a day, on a playground but with no "toys"...so the boys started bringing their own basketballs or footballs from home. But after a day or two were told that wasn't allowed because they were "being too rough". So they improvised, as boys often do and began tossing, kicking and running after a single serve water bottle. This was also very soon removed as an option of something to play with. Made no sense to this mother of four. Eventually we pulled our children out of the public school system, and he enjoys his days of freedom to be all boy, all day. So thankful for this option!!!
I'm sorry this happened to your son, it sounds similar to my son's story which I just posted. He's 18 now. Unfortunately for us homeschooling didn't work out for a variety of reasons, and we had to hang in there with public schools. It's really terrible what's been happening lately in so many places! I'm always so moved when I see the school kids where I live now, running around freely, boys tackling each other playing football... my son wanted to do that so badly and did enjoy when they were still allowing it. We decided to move as soon as we were able to do so, even though it was too late for him to get his needs met. I don't have any data to back it up but from what I've seen personally, politics might be a correlation. I went from a very politically conservative area where high control religion was prominent, children were to be "good" and individual children's needs were largely ignored (for eg. our son's IEP was not enforced to his detriment), to a liberal community in the Western states where not only recess is still thriving, but my other child's individual needs are being addressed swiftly and compassionately. I could be wrong, I'm sure it's not a direct correlation, but I am curious if others could chime in? On purpose we moved to a very left-leaning city that also houses a college, and the difference is profound.
That's actually really interesting/ironic, given that a common "conservative" gripe against liberals is the whole "nanny state" argument. I'm more inclined to think that you've been blessed with a competent administration staff than that it has to do with location though.
I'm from a very conservative/religious area, and my husband is a public school administrator. He's at high school level, so I can't speak to recess, but I do know that his district takes IEPs very seriously, and that he took them seriously as a teacher too.
My elementary aged son has moderate ASD: for the first two years his teachers did fantastic with him, the last year there were some major changes in leadership and the effects trickled down. The teachers still cared, but their administration no longer equipped or supported them. It was no longer a good fit and we ended up pulling him out. SO much depends on the individual district/school and whether the people running it know what they're doing (and care enough to do it right).
My kid's elementary school let the boys self-organize to play (American) football, but occasionally if someone got hurt in some way, they would shut it down for awhile.
Women in charge have a strong tendency to make ever more specific rules in response to a single instance.
The water bottle made me think of something - I was sitting with what I considered to be some "popular crowd" mothers, very with-it and well-connected in our left-liberal university town, and they were talking about toy guns and little boys' desire for them (this was nearly 30 years ago - I don't suppose the conversation would come up now). I remember one saying that of course her small boy had no such toys - but rebelled by eating a piece of bread in such a way as to form it into the shape of a gun.
Not my story, but my now 14 yr old son's. While still in public school, 4th grade my son like mist boys his age had TONS of energy. They were only given a 30 minute recess once a day, on a playground but with no "toys"...so the boys started bringing their own basketballs or footballs from home. But after a day or two were told that wasn't allowed because they were "being too rough". So they improvised, as boys often do and began tossing, kicking and running after a single serve water bottle. This was also very soon removed as an option of something to play with. Made no sense to this mother of four. Eventually we pulled our children out of the public school system, and he enjoys his days of freedom to be all boy, all day. So thankful for this option!!!
I'm sorry this happened to your son, it sounds similar to my son's story which I just posted. He's 18 now. Unfortunately for us homeschooling didn't work out for a variety of reasons, and we had to hang in there with public schools. It's really terrible what's been happening lately in so many places! I'm always so moved when I see the school kids where I live now, running around freely, boys tackling each other playing football... my son wanted to do that so badly and did enjoy when they were still allowing it. We decided to move as soon as we were able to do so, even though it was too late for him to get his needs met. I don't have any data to back it up but from what I've seen personally, politics might be a correlation. I went from a very politically conservative area where high control religion was prominent, children were to be "good" and individual children's needs were largely ignored (for eg. our son's IEP was not enforced to his detriment), to a liberal community in the Western states where not only recess is still thriving, but my other child's individual needs are being addressed swiftly and compassionately. I could be wrong, I'm sure it's not a direct correlation, but I am curious if others could chime in? On purpose we moved to a very left-leaning city that also houses a college, and the difference is profound.
That's actually really interesting/ironic, given that a common "conservative" gripe against liberals is the whole "nanny state" argument. I'm more inclined to think that you've been blessed with a competent administration staff than that it has to do with location though.
I'm from a very conservative/religious area, and my husband is a public school administrator. He's at high school level, so I can't speak to recess, but I do know that his district takes IEPs very seriously, and that he took them seriously as a teacher too.
My elementary aged son has moderate ASD: for the first two years his teachers did fantastic with him, the last year there were some major changes in leadership and the effects trickled down. The teachers still cared, but their administration no longer equipped or supported them. It was no longer a good fit and we ended up pulling him out. SO much depends on the individual district/school and whether the people running it know what they're doing (and care enough to do it right).
My kid's elementary school let the boys self-organize to play (American) football, but occasionally if someone got hurt in some way, they would shut it down for awhile.
Women in charge have a strong tendency to make ever more specific rules in response to a single instance.
The water bottle made me think of something - I was sitting with what I considered to be some "popular crowd" mothers, very with-it and well-connected in our left-liberal university town, and they were talking about toy guns and little boys' desire for them (this was nearly 30 years ago - I don't suppose the conversation would come up now). I remember one saying that of course her small boy had no such toys - but rebelled by eating a piece of bread in such a way as to form it into the shape of a gun.