Parents of Preteens!

Typically I am in the classroom and in high school, but this week I was at an elementary school teaching a rhythms/gym class.

It appears MANY parents are highly unaware of the activities kids have at school on a regular basis and how to dress them appropriately.

Over the course of the first two days there were fifty kids at a time for certain time intervals. This means I got to work with every single child in the entire school and see how they played and what their parents gave them to wear.

Here's an example of activities and what is seen during those activities:

Activity: Mountain Climbers: Child stands, leans down with hands on floor, and slides feet up and down as if climbing up a mountain.

What happens: Kid's heads are practically down to the floor, so their shirts come up. WAY up. PLEASE have your children wear body hugging undershirts and appropriate other clothing! Kids that young are often blissfully unaware of their bodies and even if your child hasn't started hitting that wonderful age of development, some other kids are and they ARE looking at yours!

Activity: Cherry Pickers. Children stand up, feet apart, then reach down to between their feet on the count of one, on the count of two move their hands back more, count of three reach even further back, then bring hands back up and clap. Repeated quickly (121-1, 123-2, 123-3, my apologies to those of you flashing back to basic training, hehe)

What happens: You've got girls in skirts with no shorts underneath. The kids are standing in line, so unless your child is in pants, you better hope your kid isn't still wearing underoos style stuff or they're gonna get teased for a LONG time! Same goes with sitting on the floor with feet apart and leaning over doing toe touches...except this time it's anyone facing the child.

People, skirts are NOT more modest than pants in a gym, on a playground, in a music or rhythms class, and sometimes just not even in the classroom where they might do more than sit at a desk.

If a skirt is a must for modesty's sake, you either have to accept that shorts are okay or put pants underneath the skirt. Even a skirt that goes almost ankle length can quickly become immodest in school.

If you put your child in jeans and a skirt, that does NOT mean they're dressing more modest than the kids in skirts! Those shirts ride up and I've yet to see a kid whose parent put an undershirt on their child. There's been other types of clothing, but when it comes to modesty, you want something tight underneath like an undershirt or leotard. And as much as I hate seeing kids have to think about it so young, explain the concept of modesty to them! You might trust their teacher, you might trust others, but trust me when I say that even at the elementary age, some of the other kids out there are NOT trustworthy and will take every opportunity they can to sneak a peek and a whole lot of parents who won't bat an eyelash if their son gets caught because they have the attitude that "boys will be boys" and some actually seem PROUD of their kids for starting to do this stuff so young.
Ew

Provide appropriate clothes for your kids. Please!

 

Don't worry about it getting derailed, I'm actually glad that came up so I can give some input!

Matt, music is part of life. Music does amazing things for moods and minds and I believe it can enhance a child's thinking because they learn perception and listening skills. Did you ever think about the creation of earth? It started with sound. Sound waves. God spoke, and that sent a scientific reaction in motion that continues on today. The heavens continue to sing! How neat is THAT?! Rhythm/gym teaches kids the importance of keeping their bodies in good condition. A healthy body also helps a mind stay sharp and focused and God's word encourages us to keep our bodies physically fit.

This isn't the wonderful old days where kids can go run outside and play and be safe and carefree. They rarely have farm chores and the like nowadays. There are more single-parent homes than ever. There are more child molesters roaming the streets. We get alerts to look out for such and such vehicle because the person in it accosted a child. The road to our church...the kids can't walk there alone because men stop them EVERY TIME to ask their age. Men looking for prostitutes. People looking to kidnap and molest little ones.

It's a sick world.

These kids come to school. The job of the school is to teach.

Parents typically don't bother to supplement that teaching, they depend on the school to do it all.

So we do.

Extra stuff offered like team sports? Well, I agree. We could live without it. On the other hand, a lot of times these after school sports keep kids from being on the street after school, trying drugs or getting in trouble or being home looking up porn because the parents are still at work and the kids are unsupervised. It would be unfortunate not to offer those things, but it's nice that they do.

Of course, a lot of things WOULD be nice. It would be nice if all families were not just Christian in name, but GOOD Christian families, and two parent families with the time, money, and energy to devote to their children's learning in all areas of life.

The reality is this: most families aren't two opposite sex, married people with children. They aren't Christian. The kids often don't HAVE a place to run and play outside and if they do, it often isn't safe.

Can you honestly ponder these things and then come back and say that taking 55 minutes out of a 24 hour day to focus on physical fitness isn't a positive move?

Besides that, it's just common sense. Who in their right mind expects a kid to sit for almost seven hours without having any physical activity? The different schools vary between giving recess on certain days and having rhythm/gym on other days. Some have gym time every day and then give an occasional 5 to 15 minute break from class for unorganized play. It all depends.

To add even MORE, I generally choose to work special ed. Music and rhythm plays a HUGE role in helping out kids with learning disabilities, kids on the autism spectrum, all kinds of stuff. It helps them SO much.

I'd really like to hear more about why you think this should be taken away from school children. I've never heard anyone say this before and for the life of me I can't come up with anything negative about it, so your idea makes no sense to me. Will you please explain?

 

Just saw this last sentence and had to add this. I really wish you could have seen this class.

It is very tight and disciplines, not just kids running around. They came in and followed rules. They went through a pattern of stretches and exercises together, learning to work and respond as a team. After the music, stretches, and drills, we did play. They had to follow rules. We explained honesty, integrity, and good sportsmanship. We stop kids who are dishonest and pull them aside and they learn that actions have consequences and we talk about choices and why they are important.

That doesn't happen when kids are running around with minimal supervision. This is SCHOOL, not the streets and not a public playground. Whether they're doing a physical activity, a mental activity, or a combination of both, the goal is to learn.