Elementary P.E.
We went to visit the kids at school today - brought them pudding snacks. Noticed Lynnaea had a sack lunch today. She shared one strawberry with Journey, and ate the other - certainly healthier than whatever the school was handing out.
When we walked onto the playground, Lynessa was watching Lynnaea do P.E. She saw Gunilla, ran across the playground, and literally leaped into her arms. Very cute. :)
Lynnaea was doing some kind of co-operative P.E. exercise… they had these long boards with ropes attached to them; you (and several others) stand on two boards laid side by side, hold onto the attached ropes, and then try and co-ordinate lifting the boards, your feet, and moving forward at the same time as all the other folk on the board. Quite amusing. We really regretted not bringing our camera.
Lynnaea’s first group was the only three person group, and they got in the rhythm and managed to make a lot more progress across the field than any other group.
The second group she was in had four people in it, including Journey, and had more difficulty progressing forward… they eventually figured out a trick: if everyone stands on one board, and they swing the other forward, much more rapid progress can be made… of course, they kind of cheated.
I commented to the P.E. teacher about this, and he was like, “Oh yeah, one group or another always discovers that… then when the other kids copy it, they complain about having the idea stolen from them.” He mentioned various rule variations he uses to make it more challenging.
The principal came over and was observing. When I mentioned how neat I thought the activity was, she commented, “what we really need is K-5 P.E. specialists”… I agreed, and we talked a bit about the absurdity of expecting the average classroom teacher to be able to provide the same quality and variety of activities; they have enough to worry about as it is.
At some point, Lynessa decided to take Gunilla on a tour of the building — apparently, she got in a bit of trouble for sneaking up onto the cafetorium balcony during lunch hour with a friend of hers, and wanted to show Gunilla where it had all happened.
Lynnaea ate lunch with a couple of friends I recognized from previous classroom/lunchtime visits and field trips.
While we were sitting there, one of her friends ran up to her, said something about a classmate of theirs, and then exclaimed, “He likes me!” just before running off. Lynnaea just giggled.
I notice that all her friends (and her sister’s) are female… which I’d guess is a pretty typical phenomenon. Gender segregation seems to be a very strong pattern throughout the American social experience. I wonder how much of that is genetic, and how much of it is cultural… in the mythical utopia of the future, can we expect different patterns to develop?
I think the kids who won’t get elementary P.E. are going to miss out on something pretty cool… especially from what I’ve seen of the activities our P.E. teacher puts together.
