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Monday, June 27, 2011

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Too poor to play? I doubt it.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Too poor to play? I doubt it.

Too poor to play? I doubt it.

As you probably know by now, there's no love lost between me and corporate reformers who dismiss poverty and racism as mere "excuses," used by apologists for failing schools and poor teaching.

But I also have difficulty understanding some otherwise well-meaning educators who look at kids growing up in poverty as if they had some incurable disease and therefore incapable of learning complex ideas or critical thinking skills. Even worse are those who assume that poor kids aren't even capable of partaking in group or play activities with each other or with other children.

I was troubled by an AP wire story by Dan Stockman which appeared in Saturday's Sun-Times as "Teaching the poorest to work, play" and which began this way:

There are no swings at Hammond’s Lafayette Elementary School. In fact, there’s almost no playground equipment at all. That’s OK, though, because they don’t really do outside recess here.