#367 Recess

Neil Pasricha

Ring the bell.

We’re supposed to run around.

We’re not supposed to be still. We’re not supposed to be quiet.

Pull out to our spinning planet swirling on its axis in the middle of our solar system. Pull out to us spinning around the sun flying through the ever-expanding blackness at breakneck speed. Everything outside is flying faster than we can move and faster than we can imagine…

And here we are, sitting at our desks, staring out our windows.

Pull into our chubby bodies full of pumping blood rushing through beating hearts. Pull into eyeball electrons swirling around eyeball atoms in front of flickering brain cells, swallowing stomachs, and flashing nerves. Everything inside is flying faster than we can move and faster than we can imagine…

Everything outside us in spinning and swirling, everything inside us in spinning and twirling, everything around us is flying and soaring…

We’re not supposed to be still. We’re not supposed to be quiet.

We’re supposed to run around.

Ring the bell.

AWESOME!

Wow! Thank you! PC Mag votes 1000 Awesome Things a Top Blog of 2010!

Photos from: here, here, here, and here

33 thoughts to “#367 Recess”

  2. I’m fortunate enough to still experience recess … and I still L O V E it!!

    Even though I’m on duty when I’m at recess now, I still swing and do monkey bars and slide down the slide and kick the soccer ball and jump rope. My kids think it’s a hoot. I love it.

    Adults need recess, too.

    P.S. Congrats about the PC Mag honor! Best one on the list, for sure! :)

    1. I’m with you! I’m an elem and special ed major, but I work in a preschool so when we go outside it’s awesome because the kids just play and run. I live in Eastern WA so it gets so cold outside sometimes (or rainy or snowy) and parents forget to send warm enough coats and gloves and all so the days when we do go outside in the winter are BLISS! Stand there, talk, push the swings, watch the kids while they are actually entertained and not causing (too many) problems because it’s so rare to be outside so it’s a treat. No need to organize anything. Ahhhh. In the spring it’s awesome. We’ve been known to spend an hour outside in the afternoon when it’s basically free time anyway. Another bonus of spring outside play- it doesn’t take longer to suit them up than you spend outside. Summer equals suntan lotion though, so spring and fall are the best!

    1. For a second I thought they were playing Red Rover (“Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Lara over..” and then you come running and try to break through our arms).. and I got really excited.. that was a favorite game of mine in early elementary school, until it got banned.

      I think it was some lame reason.. blah blah internal injuries blah blah.. I don’t recall exactly..

      But that game was awesome!

      Go recess!

      2. Oh, man! Our neighbourhood used to have AWESOME games of this in our neighbour’s huge back yard. I was about 6 years younger than the main “gang” that played, so I was almost always the “weakest link” that the other team would run at. It was especially awesome if I managed to hang on and DENY the other team!

        1. I absolutly love Reccess, especially since I’m still only twelve! But for the past, lets see…. week and a half, the whole school has been inside!! The snow is so bad here in Calgary that yesterday, it was the second coldest place on earth! I can’t wait to have recess and play outside in the snow again!

      3. Whatever they’re playing looks way more intense than Red Rover. The kids forming the circle are running around the little girl in the center. Guess that school wasn’t so concerned about internal injuries and whatnot.

      4. My school also banned Red Rover and a whole host of other games because of “injuries.”
        We also weren’t allowed to go to a certain area of the yard “because the teacher’s don’t patroll there so it isn’t sage.” Yet, somehow, whenever you went there, a teacher would come patrolling and catch you. In fact, teachers often patrolled there just to throw the kids out. If someone can explain this kind of logic to me it would be much appreciated.

          1. LOL, it’s how teachers find out which kids will do something just because they’ve been told not to!

  5. Oh, I loved recess. One school I went to (I moved around A LOT) had these huge teeter totters. I’m talking, if you fell off while at the top, you’d definitely break something. I do miss playing four square, basketball with no rules, seeing who can hang on the longest at the monkey bars, swinging upside down on the jungle gym, flying off the merry-go-round, and jumping on the swinging wooden bridge.
    I wasn’t a big fan of recess inside. We’d be stuck playing with Lincoln Logs or playing ‘telephone’ and we still had to use our inside voices.

  11. Aww T.T now that I’m in high school, recess seems like such a great idea!!
    I’m sorry I took you for granted recess Q.Q
    thanks for the AWESOME, nostalgic post and congrats on the top blogs of 2010!

  14. I think everyone should have recess. Through high school, through post-secondary school, into our careers. We should always get a couple times a day where everyone just stops, goes outside, and runs around like mad for 15 minutes. I think we’d all benefit.

    1. I completely agree! I think I am going to begin having a recess for myself everyday. So what if I don’t run around outside? I can yell and sing and dance and laugh and whatever else I want in those 15 to 20 minutes! This is not lunch my friends, this is recess! Embrace and enjoy!

  16. Don’t even joke around about recess…i lived for recess…. I was a recess machine.squeezed more play into 15 minutes than anyone can imagine.”planning for recess is OK” you need to maximize your recess time by picking teams in advance… I often consider working in a factory just so I can hear that recess horn go off!!

  18. I think they’re playing, “The Farmer in the Dell”…whatever the game, recess should be mandatory everywhere, for all ages…time for a walk, jolly good swing; dance, song…”To everything turn, turn, turn…”

  19. Contrary to the mastering of silencing within-here-but I’m with you on that note of we’re not supposed to be quiet, not supposed to be still.
    I’ll be quiet when I’m on the other side… maybe;)

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