Jack Black became a comedy hero to my sons when they saw School of Rock. Read my Parents’ Choice posting to find out why it’s a rockin’ way to help your kids start the school year. Here’s an excerpt: “So why is this proper inspiration for your children to want to return to school? Eventually, Finn discovers the kids actually play music, so he switches from talking about others playing rock to showing them how to play it themselves in a collective effort (aka, a band). Simply put, the film is about a teacher taking what inspires him, then finding the unique voices within his students.”

David Elkind, a professor emeritus of child development at Tufts University, wrote a succinct response to the fact that some of our country’s schools are using “recess coaches” to help teach kids to play during their time away from the classroom. Because many schools are dropping recess in favor of more academic time and because children often favor gazing at computers and TVs over goofing around with siblings or friends, our kids are losing the benefits of unstructured time. Elkind believes that recess coaches might be more freeing than intrusive when they force children to play rather than sit around during class breaks. He wants to see kids get the advantages that come from being imaginative with one another, running around for exercise, and socializing (such as solving problems — he finds a correlation between a lack of knowing how to play with others and more bullying among peers).

Elkind does not condemn or deny the reality of changing times. He writes, “We have to adapt to childhood as it is today, not as we knew it or would like it to be. The question isn’t whether recess coaches are good or bad — they seem to be with us to stay — but whether they help students form the age-old bonds of childhood. To the extent that the coaches focus on play, give children freedom of choice about what they want to do, and stay out of the way as much as possible, they are likely a good influence…In any case, recess coaching is a vastly better solution than eliminating recess in favor of more academics.”

What do you think? Right now, I’m going to turn off the TV (which often entertains my boys while I write this blog) to kick off a game of hide-and-seek. It’s a small effort, and I’ll lean on electronics again (not always for worse), but I do think there are lots of things we can do as our children’s personal “recess coaches.”

My older two kids (10 and 7) still talk about what they did at recess before anything else. Sure, I’d love if they talked a bit more about the lessons they learned inside the classroom, but now there is extra proof showing that recess makes learning more effective. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that children who get at least 15 minutes of recess for a school day behave better in the classroom than those who get less or no play time. According to an article in the New York Times, there are other recent studies linking physical activity to improved in-class performance. The reason this is such important research is that, as schools endeavor to improve academic achievement for their students and concurrently battle with shrinking budgets, one thing that should be a staple is recess and perhaps even more time to play (P.E., anyone?) and rest the brain so the kids can go back inside and learn more effectively. Still, not all schools can afford supervision for play time. At our own public school, the parents banded together to raise money to pay for a P.E. teacher and we really feel it’s been money well spent.

Almost a year ago, there was the story about the elementary school child suspended for hugging a teacher (http://www.familymanonline.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=41). Now comes the recent report that an Illinois middle school has banned hugging on its campus (http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_271193938.html). The school principal says the hugging in hallways was holding up the progress of kids going to class and that some of the embracing between boys and girls was often “too long, too close.” Oh, and another thing is that the school frowns on high fives.

What the heck is going on here? Is school, especially middle school, not alienating enough without being told that hugging is wrong? Are they going to ban close-dancing at dance fests, too? Please tell me that middle school adminstrators are busy enough with ensuring great, safe education rather than picking on adolescent friendliness and mile affection. I understand the need to get kids to class, but banning hugging is just going to distance kids from the adults even more. We need MORE hugs and should be teaching kids about appropriate affection if we are worried about crossing boundaries.

I just finished teaching classes for the 2006-7 school year and, in the dust of a hectic two semesters of trying to make literature and writing meaningful for a diverse bunch of 11th graders, I wonder if I was effective. Why did one student think that the B+ he earned was not a good grade? Why didn’t he understand how far he’d come to go from the B to the higher grade? Why did another pupil not study harder after all the tips I gave her for essay writing?

There are lots of other questions, but I realize that my tendency to look at what didn’t work, first, is obscuring all the good stuff. Like the letters and e-mails from students who said “thank you” — and the scores of other kids who may never offer gratitude, yet will one day realize the value of what I and all their other teachers gave them. In his recent editorial for USA Today, Bruce Kluger offers his appreciation to his daughter’s instructor and one of his own teachers whose lessons have stayed with him for almost 40 years (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/06/how_teachers_in.html).

And while you’re at it, would you please post a few notes enduring lessons some of your teachers gave you?

By and large, our children are quite safe taking those big yellow vehicles to and from school. School buses are 7 times safer than passenger cars or light trucks and, in the last year, less than 15 people died while riding in them. However, recent accidents involving school buses alert us to the reality that perhaps the buses could be even safer. Many buses are worn down and too old to be on the roads and, though most drivers are top notch, a few drive too fast — which creates all kinds of potential danger both to the children bouncing around inside a speeding bus and because it increases the risk of an accident — or simply lack the necessary skill to maneuver a large vehicle in poor conditions. While it would be expensive to replace school buses with new ones and to add safety belts to all buses, it’s worth it where our children are involved.

As I mentioned on Sunday’s FOX News Live program, it may be wise to have a federal agency enforce strict standards about bus quality (involving mileage, hours driven, or simply years of age) and driver excellence so that there is consistency across all the school districts of our country (you can see Jamie Colby’s article and a video of the segment at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245082,00.html). Federal funds could be used to supplement for less financially privileged districts. In addition to making sure that buses are equipped with seat belts, I also think that adding another adult to a bus, to keep students buckled in their seats and behaving so the driver can concentrate on the driving, makes good sense. Because of cost, it may be worth it for districts to use parent or grandparent volunteers to ride the buses with the children. One extra adult on each bus may be very beneficial.

As a result of the fear stirred up by the Missouri kidnappings (one boy was abducted at a bus stop), it’s interesting to note that a company called VersaTrans Solutions has software that can not only help buses design their routes, but can also feed a driver information on the registered child predators who live along a given route.

We, as parents, can advocate for changes regarding bus safety. We can also do simple things right now to help ourselves, including making sure we have the names and phone numbers of the bus drivers, dispatchers, and bus companies involved in transporting our children. We can also ask to see bus maintenance records to ensure the buses are kept in top shape.

In the La Vega school district, nearby Waco, Texas, a pre-kindergarten student hugged a teacher’s aid and proceeded to rub his face in her chest (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16159302/). Subsequently, the school suspended the child for what administrators called “inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment.”

I don’t know a heckuva lot of details about the case, but does a hug and a nuzzle from a preschooler make it sexual in nature? Even if this small child knew what he was doing, would it not be better to teach him about physical boundaries — that a hug would be fine but not the chest snuggling? Really, we have to be careful about turning our children completely off of physical contact. Yes, they need to know limits, but this seems unfairly punitive.

We just got a progress report for our eight-year-old. He received good marks, but an “N” (for Needs Improvement) for repeatedly turning in messy homework. He’s only eight, so I don’t know how much I need to get on him about this. He can’t wait to be done with his homework and takes just a modicum of pride in how legible it is. He loses points for the messiness, and this could be a problem as he grows through school (I’ve seen plenty of the results of careless work with my high school students). Is this something I leave completely to his teachers or do I keep making him redo his work at home? I don’t want him to hate me or his homework anymore than he already does! Your thoughts?