My mother grew up during World War II and she often talks about her involvement in extra-curricular activities in high school, particularly about her prowess in sports. She loved participating but feels it detracted from her studies. After hearing these stories repeatedly, I strongly suspect that in fact my mother's teenage life was greatly improved by taking part.
Back then, extra-curricular activities only existed at the secondary school level and this was true for me too. After school and particularly during summer months, we were mostly "free-range kids". We explored undeveloped fields and woods. We skipped rope or played hockey on the street or in the basement during inclement weather. We bicycled to a local swimming pool and stayed for hours without any adults in tow. There was some television but relatively little and we were mostly responsible for fashioning our own activities.
The formal activities that did exist for children were mostly organized by scouting groups, church, or community organizations such as the YM/YWCA. Parents did not worry about their children's safety except to warn us about strangers. In hindsight, perhaps they should have warned us about some of the adults we knew.
Over the years, I have seen numerous studies linking participation in sports or the arts to increases in student motivation and to improvement in student achievement. Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally renowned educator, makes this point and more in an excellent animated video, http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html. And attuned parents know this just by listening to their children. The real question is why have extra-curricular activities taken on such importance?
Today's parents are much more aware of children's safety, some would say overly concerned, and school is seen as a safe refuge for children. This is one reason why extra-curriculars in elementary schools have flourished in recent years but there are others. Let's take a moment to shine a spotlight on elementary school extra-curricular activities.
Most parents understand children need a well-balanced life that includes more than simple reading and math. We all decry the loss of music teachers but it's not just the music teachers who have been dropped. Rather it is music itself that has been pushed out of the curriculum.
In the last post, I addressed how curriculum content has become politicized and it is also crowded with programs and academic subjects that can be measured by tests, particularly EQAO tests. As certain content is added by well-meaning educators and politicians, "the frills" are removed. Music, art, drama, gym and sports are all seen as non-essential and so they reduced or shunted off as extra-curriculars.
Many parents and teachers know these activities are essential to normal child development and overall academic success so they look for other ways to provide them. Parents fund-raise to bring arts and music programs into schools and teachers organize activities after regular school hours. They put in a lot of effort to replace what the curriculum used to provide.
Today's after-school activities also come with associated costs. Children who participate come from families with the means to live in the catchment areas of schools with lucrative fundraising programs or from families who can pay school or private activity fees. As well since school boards provide busing only at the end of the school day, participating children also need access to transportation to return home after activities.
As we try to understand the dynamics of the dispute, we should realize that secondary teachers have a long history of volunteering after school and they are more likely to see extra-curricular activities as a regular part of the job. We should also acknowledge that the level of salary has a role to play. Secondary school teachers are generally paid more than elementary teachers and because we often judge the value of work based on its compensation, this difference becomes a sore point for elementary teachers.
Most everyone agrees that children need the arts and physical activity to develop and to learn. These activities used to be part of the school curriculum or they were a natural part of children's after school play. What has changed is the content of the curriculum and the perceived need for supervised safe places for children to congregate. As a result, children's after school activities are now either run by teachers in the school or they are provided privately at costs only the middle class can afford. Really it's not so much a question of elementary teachers curtailing extra-curricular activities; it's more that others have squeezed these important subjects out of the curriculum.
Next time ... Dreaming in technicolor -- what are the possible solutions?
The views expressed in this blog are my personal views only.
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