The School Timetable for 2nd graders revealed a big surprise.
I was happy to see the amount of hours dedicated to sport and physical activities. It is great to see that the school prioritises health and physical wellbeing. Three hours pr week seemed perfect for our very active kids, but one thing made me wonder… because there was two names for the physical hours: Physical education – and physical activities.
So when we went for an introductionary meeting with the teacher, I asked about the difference. She laughed and said “yes the world has changed a lot and it has changed fast. When we were kids, we would be out and about all the time, inventing games with whatever we had available. From a wooden stick to a piece of chalk, a ball or an old can. Kids would spend a lot of time outside and were forced to use their imagination, since there was no adults around and no devices to keep us entertained”.
She continued “We have seen a surge of digital devices (playstations, mobile phones, tablets, watches etc), internet access in all locations and also a change in parenting, in which many no longer believe kids are capable of playing without supervision and entertainment available to them. All-together this means that many kids no longer know how to interact socially by playing – and what to play. So we had to put a lecture on the timetable focusing on teaching kids how to invent and play games. Basically all the stuff we took for granted when we were kids”.
So….. In less than two generations we have gone from having a class on “computers” to now have classes about how to be a child without them(!)
I am very happy that our kids are super energetic and was delivered with a Duracell battery – and I will make sure to keep motivating them to do all sorts of outdoor activities also. They will eventually have to spend a lot of time in front of a monitor, so we better get them introduced to the real workd while we can……..