Dirty Play

I was just sent this article and it made me laugh and cry. Well, not literally, but perhaps you get my point. Children play. Yay. Children get dirty. Ok. School apologizes. Huh?

In brief, this elementary school redesigned its play-yard to include a free-play / unstructured play / exploratory play area (call it what you will) which included a dirty area. Heavier than expected rain turned this area from mud into a bog so previously clean / muddy children were now dirty / filthy.

So the school closed the area and apologized to parents.

The official reason is they want to preserve the muddy area. Apparently, too much play in the mud makes the mud into ... umm ... mud. 

Of course, I would have handled this differently, Firstly, I would have said that any child who wants to play in the mud must bring a change of clothes. Two recesses. Two changes. And they would need a towel and a washcloth. And perhaps we would have large troughs with warm-ish water for cleaning up.

And I would have procedures for keeping the mud in the mud and stopping it from coming inside. And I would allow extra time for cleaning up, or perhaps shortening recess for that reason.

Why would I react differently from this principal? Two reasons, Firstly, when I was young, I lived in a part of the country with rain and we played a lot of football, tag and other running games on the field which inevitably led to falling and getting muddy. We then had to stay in those wet muddy clothes until they dried which they would in time for the next recess when they would again become wet and muddy.

Secondly, I was once Director if a school with a new play-yard and for the first year, we had no equipment or plants etc and so the students played in the dirt. They were dirty, but they were happy; dry dirt for half the year; mud for the rest. They could dig, build forts, move around trucks and constructors, create river valleys and deltas ...

The following year, we had "play surfaces" and play equipment. The students were not so happy and for years, that cohort reported their happiest year in the school was the PK or K year with the dirt surface in the yard.

The article does not mention temperature or washing facilities which would be valid points to consider. However mud? Let children be dirty I say. It's a part of the cycle of life.  

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Further reading

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13920273/headteacher-school-sorry-muddy-area-closed.html