Time spent wearing headphones

The students we work with in Salt Lake are a really friendly and outgoing bunch of kids.  Whenever I head out to our schools, it’s easy to strike up conversations with them and easy to get them to play games.  There are a few kids I know by name and more that I know by sight. We usually smile and wave at each other whenever I’m out at recess, but outside of school, things are different.  I see a lot of kids I know from school in grocery stores and parks, but I hardly ever get to talk with them because they’re wearing headphones.

The schools we work in here all have policies that ban headphones on school grounds, which I think is great, but it seems to me that as soon as kids step over the line that divides the blacktop playground from the sidewalk, their ears are suddenly filled with plastic.  I can relate.

I forgot my headphones this morning and so my mp3 player is pretty much useless.  I am still keeping it in my pocket like a child's security blanket, but the comfort it gives me is somewhat limited.  Typically, I wear headphones most of the day.  I go to the store in headphones.  I snowboard in headphones.  When I ride my bike to work, I wear them.  If I go on a walk I wear them.  I wear them at my desk whenever I don't need to talk to others.  I even wear them sometimes when I watch TV.  

There are a number of reasons I love my headphones.  I love music.  That's number one.  I'll listen to just about anything, but a good two part harmony between a lead female vocalist and a male backup is, perhaps the best sound I can think of, followed closely by a really good electric guitar solo.  I listen to music a lot and it gives me great joy, which seems perfectly healthy to me.  Music has a lot of benefits.  It relieves stress, it lowers blood pressure, and it makes people feel good.  Studies show that listening to music in early childhood improves kids aptitude for math later in life.  Music is good.

But my headphones are not all about music.  They are also a way for me to avoid social interaction, and they couch me in a world that is both personal and generic.  I don't pay nearly as much attention to my surroundings when I wear my headphones, nor do I pay as much attention to my fellow human beings.  As a result, I think I may be less sympathetic, less friendly, and less aware than I ought to be.   

This morning, for example, as I was biking to work, I noticed myself looking around much more than I normally do because of the noise of engines approaching from behind.  At times, I slowed down to allow a car to merge or waited longer than normal to make a turn because I could hear a car coming from an unexpected direction.  It occurred to me that I may be less safe in traffic on days when I remember my headphones.

I also said hello to the receptionist in our building this morning.  She smiled and returned the greeting.  On other days, I would have missed that interaction.  This one day without headphones had me wondering what else I've been missing.

What does this have to do with play?  Well, it's not just me who's been wearing headphones.  More and more I notice kids (and adults too) wearing headphones in public places like grocery stores, sidewalks, and playgrounds.  I see them wearing headphones while talking to their parents, interacting with their siblings and hanging out with their friends.  Personal music has become ubiquitous.

It's as if all of us have begun to exist in our own personal worlds of sound.  We interact with other people, but at the same time we're shielded from social obligations and if we don't seem fully engaged, we have an excuse.  It's the music.

Play requires us to be engaged, and the games I love most require complex social interactions.  Headphones make this kind of interaction impossible.  So more headphones means fewer awesome group games.  More importantly, playing games is one of the best ways I know to start deep, meaningful friendships.  Without the possibility of play, I find that I am lonely and isolated.  I'm not great friends with everyone I've ever interacted with or everyone who’s ever played a game with me, but people who have cut themselves off from the possibility of talking with me, seem to be poor candidates for a friendship.  Plus, the friends I do have, including some of the students I know here in Salt Lake seem cut off from me.  We choose to be cut off from each other.  I find myself wondering if this is healthy, and, I wonder, what (and who) I’ve missed out on because I had plastic in my ears?

Playing games is inherently creative.

Sometimes, play takes us in unexpected directions. A game of catch becomes show of impressive leaps and diving catches. Tag morphs into Hide and Seek, which then becomes imaginative play. The hider becomes as a crook and the seekers the police. Or players find a hiding place so spectacular, it sparks a new story. When I was young, we had a tree house where inventive and adventurous games came alive.

In short, playing games is, inherently, a creative exercise. When we play, we assume a role and interpret that role. Even in a simple game of Sharks and Minnows, players decide how to act. The shark may run fast or slow, dart left or right, wait or chase. The minnows can slow down and taunt the shark or to play it safe and run. They can act as a group or strike out on their own. In some cases, a minnow may let the shark catch them so they can take on a new role.

Games demand that we act within a set of rules, but beyond that, players may do as they wish. If a kickball player wants to run the bases like a monkey, she can. If a four square player only wants to use his left hand, that's perfectly acceptable. Not only do we have the freedom to adapt our roles within a game, but games can favor players who experiment with their roles. The most successful wall ball player might not be the strongest or fastest, but the student who invents a new way to hit the ball, perhaps at an odd angle or by faking a huge hit and executing a smaller move, fooling her opponent. Games ask us to think strategically and that requires creativity.

Consider this story from Stansbury Elementary.  

Today at recess I had a random bucket of colorful bean bags. A first grade student grabbed the bucket and went over to the map of the United States. He started tossing the bean bags onto the states that were the same color as the bag. It attracted ten other students. As the students tossed the bags, I quizzed them on those states. It was a fun game and a great learning activity. I plan to continue putting out random equipment to see what the students invent!

This student didn't just innovate within the rules of a game; he invented a completely new one. Coach Raven also molded the game by asking students to name the states. All the participants used creativity in their play by thinking in a new direction, inventing games and letting their curiosity and ingenuity shine. Wonderful to see youth taking play to the next level!

A Rant for Hockey!

Let's take a moment to think about hockey...

I am not a hockey player.  I just can't figure out how to negotiate the skates and the ice.  I fall down, and when I don't fall down, I wobble and stand as still as I can.  I love to watch hockey, though.  It's a fast, exciting game.  I never see a hockey game and think, “I could do that.”  Instead I think, “wow, that's amazing.”  Players are constantly switching direction, skating backwards one moment and then tearing down the ice at full speed the next, running headlong into the boards, and it's not just skating.  In addition to riding two thin metal blades over the ice with nothing less than grace, hockey players have to master the wrist shot, the slap shot, and other more complicated moves with a stick and a puck.  If you've ever played street hockey or lacrosse, you know how weird and foreign a stick can feel.  Many sports don't bother with these implements.  In football and basketball, players use their hands.  In soccer, it's the feet.  Baseball has bats and gloves, but the bat is more of a blunt object than the hockey stick and gloves don't require as much practice to get used to.  A hockey stick, by comparison, can feel very foreign, like a prosthetic limb, grafted onto the end of the arm.  It takes practice to get used to using a hockey stick, and using it well is a real skill.  I'm certainly not knocking other sports.  I'm a soccer player myself and a huge baseball fan, but hockey simply astounds me in a way that no other sport could.  I mean, c'mon, it's played on ice!!!

The other thing about hockey is that it is under appreciated by many here in the United States.  Americans love football, basketball and baseball.  Soccer has even developed somewhat of a following since the introduction of the MLS, but hockey remains the unwanted stepchild of American professional sports.  Most of us simply do not watch it.  There are a lot of reasons for this.  Most of us didn't grow up playing hockey.  If you live in the south or the west, ice sheets aren't as prevalent as grassy fields.  Hockey requires specialized equipment, and many of us can't relate to a sport originally meant to be played on a frozen lake. All of these barriers make Americans less likely to not only play, but go see a hockey game.  Here’s your chance to see the great game of hockey and for a good cause!

Friday, December 16 the Utah Grizzlies play the Colorado Eagles. The Grizzlies, a semi-professional sports team in Salt Lake City, need your support and so does Playworks. December 16th at the Maverik Center is Playworks night. If you buy tickets through our website, the proceeds will go to support physical activity in Salt Lake public schools. Tickets are only $15 (normally $17), and the money goes to a great cause, Playworks.  

If you can't go, but still want to support Playworks, consider donating or volunteering.  We're always looking for enthusiastic people to come out to schools and help us energize recess.

And in the meantime, Go Griz!!!!

 

Salt Lake: A Strange (and cool) Place to Live

Since moving to Utah, I've noticed some strange things about life for kids here.  I'm from a small town in Southern Illinois and so some of the differences have to do with growing up in a city.  For instance, there are groups of skateboarders who hang out in the city parks.  In Edwardsville, where I grew up, there were about three kids who owned skateboards and there was only one park, so there wasn't a lot of skateboarding.  

A lot of other cities have good skateboard scenes, but other behaviors I've noticed seem to be unique to Utah or Salt Lake City.  The most noticeable of these isn't something that affects grade schools much, but I have noticed that older kids, in middle and high school have a creative way of asking each other out on dates.  

My sister went to school in Utah from 7th grade on. She was once asked out with a picture puzzle.  She had to assemble the pieces to see who it was that wanted to go to a school dance with her.  She replied with undeveloped film.  The boy in question had to process it before he knew she'd said yes.  

I've heard of cars being stuffed with balloons, one of which contains a note asking someone on a date.  I've heard of cakes being baked “Napoleon Dynamite” style, and once of someone concealing a request in a block of cheese.  The more creative the ask, the better seems to be the rule.

The same seems to be true for younger kids in the Salt Lake Valley when it comes to recess activities.  One popular game on the playground at Stansbury Elementary is creating an obstacle course to navigate out of cones, hurdles and other materials.  Kids spend hours creating the challenges and then running through them.  There doesn't appear to be any score-keeping.  They're doing for the sheer joy of building.  

Meadowlark Elementary began playing 9-square (a variation of 4-square) last week. Heartland Elementary in the Jordan School District was recently included in a Salt Lake Tribune article with pictures of a unique game called footy tether ball in which students play without the use of their hands.  

I've decided to honor this ingenious spirit with a call to Salt Lakers.  I'm asking, today for two lists.  

One:  What's the quirkiest thing you've noticed about living in Salt Lake

and

Two:  What's the most creative or unique playground game you've heard of or played.  

Please leave responses in the comments section of this post.