President's Corner

Dear PoliteChild family, supporters, and friends:

Well, here we are in May! Hard to believe it, but another school year is rapidly drawing to a close. And, summer is looming. There are graduations, summer camps, celebrations, time off, lazy vacation days.

For many parents, it’s also the time to get a jump on the coming school year. Whereas a few years ago, summer camps offering art, gardening, cooking and other “soft arts” were popular, more and more, parents are opting for academic enrichment camps. These might include math camps, science camps, and more. Tutoring is becoming a hot topic, too, as more and more we are afraid that our children will “lose ground” over the summer and not be optimally prepared to start in on the new school year come September.

So, is it a good thing to use every available opportunity – like the Summer break – to promote and practice academic skills? I was recently interviewed for a parenting magazine that was discussing the trend among schools and parents to reduce or eliminate entirely recesses or lunch breaks, offering students instead the opportunity to add in another academic session or study lab. In this interview, I was being asked if this was a good idea, in my opinion, as a way to boost academic performance or results.

Well, those of you who have read this column regularly can probably predict my response: not only is this practice not a good idea for boosting performance, it’s likely to have exactly the opposite result. How many of us adults can keep truly focused concentration for 2-3 hours at a time, without a break? I’d venture to say not many. Now, ask the same thing of a child or adolescent. They usually already have that much time between class and recess; now take away the only break they have in the day and see what the effect will be. We all need to have a chance to shake out the cobwebs, to clear our mind, to de-clutter. And, we’re grownups that are expected to be able to use “mind over matter.” Union workers are mandated to take regular breaks and go to great lengths to ensure that their contractual rights are upheld. Why? Because the human body needs to take breaks now and then.

And, recess and lunch breaks mean so much more to our kids than just time-out from studies. It’s also an opportunity to practice and try out social skills. Sitting together at a meal, sharing their opinions about the latest trend or movie, playing a new game, learning about each others’ interests – it’s the time to focus on others, not just on the teacher. If our kids don’t have these built-in breaks during their day, where they can socialize and burn off extra energy accumulated during long stretches sitting in a classroom at their desks, what do you suppose will happen? Just like carbonation in a bottle, it’s going to be let out somehow – slowly over time, or explosively, all at once.

No doubt, we all know what it’s like to be cooped up with kids that have not had a chance to burn off their energy, whether it’s from a prolonged period of crummy weather or from illness. We can’t WAIT for them to get their “jollies out.” Kids become fussy, argumentative, disgruntled, frustrated. So do we adults when we have a bout of “cabin fever.” Now project this onto your grade-schooler or teen-ager. When the “bottle” blows, it won’t be pretty. How many of you read about the Illinois hazing incident recently? I’m not saying this was due to cooped up kids, but you can see what damage an excess of negative energy can do.

So, if we’re going to spend time working on the preparatory skills our kids will need in the coming year, perhaps it’s time to teach them more about the virtues – self-control, self-discipline, perseverance, patience, and tolerance. These are skills that will truly benefit them, but are also different enough from what they normally learn as classroom lessons that it will likely get them interested and keep them engaged. Give them coping skills that they can use, whether they have organized “social” breaks or, even more critically if they don’t. Even their academics will improve as a result. And, that’s a pretty good investment of so-called “downtime.”

We welcome your feedback and insights into this topic!

With kind regards,

Corinne A. Gregory
President and Founder, The PoliteChild

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