My response:
Recess in schools allows the children to have fun with the other students after their classes. When children paly and talk with each other they learn how to socialize with the people in a society. In the essay ‘‘Playtime Is Over’’, David Elkind posits that hiring recess coaches is better than eliminating the recess time as some schools do to get more time for teaching their students although coaching is ‘‘over programming ‘’ of the students. He also mentions the study of Michigan university which shows that from 1979-1999 children lost eight hours of free time. The loss of free time results in the disappearance of culture of childhood. Childhood culture plays an important role in social development of a child ; for instance children learns how to settle their matters and which friend is kind and which one is cruel. Furthermore, Elklind acknowledges that if coaches pay attention on children games and allow them to make their own choice, they have good effect on children. Finally he states that recess coaching is better than having no recess and it is proved by the studies that physically healthy children get good scores in exams.
One idea, I counts significant in the passage is that taking part in the culture of childhood Is a socializing process. Playing with peers help in social development of a child as Herbert Mead, a sociologist said,’’ Play is a part of child socializing process and if that process is not complete child will not socialize when he or she is grown up.‘’
Socializing process helps child to understand his or her feelings and feelings of others around. Charles Harton Cooley, a sociologist said that this concept is like looking glass self and it is how an individual imagine how others see him and then he adjust himself in order to develop a self concept.
I read in a sociology book about a girl Jeanie whose grandfather tied her in a chair and locked her in a basement since she was born. When police found her she was 13 years old. She barely walk and talk; she looked at others with wandering eyes.She takes others property as her owns.T he experts then trained her how to speak and walk. As a adult, she can only speak short sentence. Later on she was sent to the institute where others woman have the same dilemma. This example shows that if children are not allowed to play with their peers , they cannot develop socially and physically.It is also evident from my personal experience that I learned a lot about social life during playing with my friends at school. I learned to how to behave and how to deal with people in the society. I also learned by trail and error that life is not always fair as author says in the passage.
In conclusion, i agree the author’s point of view that children should take part in culture of childhood such as songs, hide and seek and it helps in socializing process of the children. As sociologist reports that socializing process of child remains incomplete without playtime. The example Jeans shows how the fun time is important for the social development of a child.
Hi Huriahkh, I thought your writing was generally pretty good in this one, though I thought your example was probably too extreme. There seems to be too big a difference between spending your life tied to a chair and not having recess at school to compare the two situations. I was sort of looking forward to hearing you describe how the “culture of children” is different between the US and your native land (Pakistan, right?} Here the author is lamenting a lack of recess, but what about the children in some third world countries forced to work in farms and factories from a young age - how does this affect their socialization? Or are kids everywhere resilient enough to have fun somehow despite their struggles? Or on a lighter note, were there some unusual games or songs or rhymes you knew growing up that have not real equivalent here in the US? Or another angle, do you think missing that childhood American culture immersion makes it more difficult for you to assimilate into society as an immigrant? It is amazing to me how quickly second generation immigrants (children of immigrants) assimilate into American culture, unfortunately adopting many of our bad habits along with the good. Anyway, I always think it is easier to write about personal experiences, so it might be worthwhile when looking at a topic to see if you can somehow apply it to your personal experiences.
