So I stumbled on this website…

[Greenish]

…This one (http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/), to be specific, and now I'm wondering if it's for real, or just an elaborate troll.

I mean, it's written as if it's serious, but the content sounds patently absurd ("back in my day, we had two recesses in a school day" or automated calls from police to everyone in a city). So I decided I shouldn't have to hunt for the "lol trolled" disclaimer on my own.

[Siosilvar]

...I had two recesses in a school day. That was six years ago (sadly, middle and high school don't give recess). That one's not so absurd.

[IonDragon]

Looks legit to me. In fact, what I'm seeing is basically how I was raised. My mom treated me like a responsible, intelligent person and I acted like one. Taking responsibility when I messed up. Was there a certain exert that you you took issue with?

[Greenish]

...I had two recesses in a school day. That was six years ago (sadly, middle and high school don't give recess). That one's not so absurd.Two? None in middle school? Now I'm thinking "recess" isn't what I thought it was. What is it, and what do you call the breaks between classes?


Was there a certain exert that you you took issue with?I'm having hard time believing such a website is necessary, let alone that the stories (like the "woman charged for leaving a baby outside a restaurant for 10 minutes") are real.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Seems perfectly legit to me.

When I was in grade school, that is, grades 1-6, we had 2 recesses, and 1 lunchbreak. That was when we went outside for free playtime. Then we would head back inside. That's what recess is. Travel-time in between classes is different.
In grades 7-12, no recess, only lunchbreak.

[H Birchgrove]

Is a recess just a break for playing outdoors, or is it school lunch? Because I had several breaks and school lunch in grade school. :smallconfused:

[Cobalt]

I'm having hard time believing such a website is necessary, let alone that the stories (like the "woman charged for leaving a baby outside a restaurant for 10 minutes") are real.

I can see that happening. She's talking about the United States there, right? I've seen people get thrown out of places for not "properly taking care" of their children. Which shows that the place itself doesn't actually care about your children and just doesn't want to get sued when their brain and skull fragments are scattered across the floors, but there you go.

Seems like a good site, actually.

[Greenish]

When I was in grade school, that is, grades 1-6, we had 2 recesses, and 1 lunchbreak. That was when we went outside for free playtime. Then we would head back inside. That's what recess is. Travel-time in between classes is different.
In grades 7-12, no recess, only lunchbreak.Really? When I went to school, the class was 45 min, then there was the 15 min break, rinse and repeat (except the lunch break was longer).

[Ranger Mattos]

I only had one recess in elementary school. And no breaks between classes. And didn't get to go outside during lunch. :smallfrown:

[Greenish]

I only had one recess in elementary school. And no breaks between classes. And didn't get to go outside during lunch. :smallfrown:So you actually have kids sitting in the class for more than an hour at the time from the age of 7? How are they supposed to learn anything?

[The Underlord]

I only had one recess in elementary school. And no breaks between classes. And didn't get to go outside during lunch. :smallfrown:

This is more or less what I had too.

[Howler Dagger]

I only had one recess in elementary school. And no breaks between classes. And didn't get to go outside during lunch. :smallfrown:

same here. The website seems more like a "back in my day...." sort of thing for parents to vent.

[druid91]

So you actually have kids sitting in the class for more than an hour at the time from the age of 7? How are they supposed to learn anything?

By learning.

At least that's how Elementary school was for me.

Of course we had classes like Gym, and library, and music.

Which were all also fun.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

You expect teenagers to sit for 3 hours without break and expect them to learn?
Then give them an hour off, then another 2 and a half hours of sitting, until you send them away?

School systems are flawed, aye. But I actually found the recess system we had worked fine. Of course, when you're 7, many of the activities you do aren't 'sit-down and do this sheet', they're activity-oriented. Later on, they get more and more 'sit-down and do this sheet', until you're in high school, at which point it's 'read chapters 5.1 and 5.2 and do questions 2-4 on page such and such and questions 7-10 on page other-stuff.' With lectures in between. And then I spend half the lecture joking with the physics teacher anyways. :smallbiggrin:

[Klose_the_Sith]

Yeah, it's legit. It's run by this (http://theweek.com/article/index/96342/the-last-word-advice-from-americas-worst-mom) lady and seems a reasonable enough idea in itself.

[Ranger Mattos]

So you actually have kids sitting in the class for more than an hour at the time from the age of 7? How are they supposed to learn anything?

I don't know. Although I seemed to have learned stuff.

[Whiffet]

What about this doesn't look legitimate?

Honestly, while their stories are the most extreme I've heard of, I understand where they're coming from. I know my old elementary school doesn't let kids bring peanut butter sandwiches to school anymore because some kids are allergic to it. Not bad enough to trigger hospital visits, mind you; the peanut ban would be understandable if the reactions were that bad.

Before I graduated, they also made a rule that said students of any age couldn't bring homemade treats to school. Not that it stopped us. Teachers never enforced it in high school.

[Greenish]

Yeah, it's legit. It's run by this (http://theweek.com/article/index/96342/the-last-word-advice-from-americas-worst-mom) lady and seems a reasonable enough idea in itself.Well, I'll be. National news for letting a 9-year old ride a subway on his own. And a website for promoting things I've always taken for granted.

So that stuff is actually real, and people drive their kids to school?


[Edit]:
What about this doesn't look legitimate?The whole thing! It's like an Onion article on government trying to ban people from wearing hats. Maybe it's just culture shock.

[Whiffet]

The whole thing! It's like an Onion article on government trying to ban people from wearing hats. Maybe it's just culture shock.

I understand. It's kinda like the first time I heard there were places where kids had lemonade stands shut down because they didn't have business licenses. I thought that had to be a joke; lemonade stands are a common summer sight around here.

[Greenish]

I understand. It's kinda like the first time I heard there were places where kids had lemonade stands shut down because they didn't have business licenses. I thought that had to be a joke; lemonade stands are a common summer sight around here.It probably doesn't help that I've never seen a lemonade stand. Like "snow day", it's something I've only heard about from american media. :smalltongue:

[Cobalt]

Wait, how's it weird people drive their kids to school? Sometime that's just convenient, and it lets in a consistent opportunity for parent-child conversation when the parents have long day jobs or something. It's usually not some crazy who thinks the bus driver is a molester.

[MCerberus]

Early grade school we had one recess. When I moved the new district had 2 and a longer one with lunch. In middle and high school they didn't even let people outside to hang out in some fresh air. I remember being horrified at that.

I hear from one of my friends still in the district that his niece was angry because they took away all the balls.

[Greenish]

Wait, how's it weird people drive their kids to school?Well, where I live (Finland), if a kid lives outside the walking distance of the school (5 km), it's the school's duty to arrange transport (usually with vouchers for the buss). I mean, most parents would be at work when the school starts anyway.

[Edit]:
In middle and high school they didn't even let people outside to hang out in some fresh air. I remember being horrified at that.First to sixth grade, the school policy was that we had to spend the recesses outside unless the temperature was below -30°C. :smallamused:

[Renegade Paladin]

School in the United States typically starts at 8:00 am, when most day jobs are either 9-5 or 8-4. (For office jobs. Factory workers are arbitrarily made to start at 6:00 am because they hate us, I guess.) So often it's simply a convenient carpool.

[Greenish]

School in the United States typically starts at 8:00 am, when most day jobs are either 9-5 or 8-4. (For office jobs. Factory workers are arbitrarily made to start at 6:00 am because they hate us, I guess.) So often it's simply a convenient carpool.Well, I guess if you're going to the same direction at the same time, it makes sense. I occasionally got a ride that way.

Still, none of the kids in any of the schools I've been to regularly got a ride from their parents (much to the dismay of one of my classmates, who lived 4.5 km from the school), so the idea seems weird.

[arguskos]

Well, I guess if you're going to the same direction at the same time, it makes sense. I occasionally got a ride that way.

Still, none of the kids in any of the schools I've been to regularly got a ride from their parents (much to the dismay of one of my classmates, who lived 4.5 km from the school), so the idea seems weird.
This may have something to do with the fact that the US is geographically much larger than Finland. Our school districts sometimes are massive. It makes sense here than parents would have to deliver their kids.

Not always, of course, but in many cases the districts are larger than you might be used to.

[Greenish]

This may have something to do with the fact that the US is geographically much larger than Finland.Also much more densely populated. At 7th to 9th grade and all through high school, my school was about 20 km from my home. The school organized the transport, and if you couldn't go by regular buses, they'd have a taxi for you.

[Morph Bark]

Really? When I went to school, the class was 45 min, then there was the 15 min break, rinse and repeat (except the lunch break was longer).

15 minutes? Seriously? And you're complaining you only got one recess? :smalltongue:

In grades 7-12, I had 5 minutes between classes tops. (Though I snuck in extra time by putting down my bag and then head to the bathroom for a few minutes.)

[Greenish]

15 minutes? Seriously? And you're complaining you only got one recess? :smalltongue:I'm not complaining about only one recess, because we had one every 45 minutes. :smalltongue:

At higher grades, if we had two (45 min) lessons on the same subject, we occasionally held them together and got off earlier.

Hell, I'm in a polytechnic* now, and it's still the same, 45 min. lessons punctuated by 10-15 min. breaks.


*Though they really prefer "University of Applied Sciences", probably because it sounds fancier.

[Heliomance]

I don't know of any UK school that has less than two playtimes (what you crazy Yanks call recess). Morning break half way through the morning (usually about 15-20 minutes), then lunch later on, usually a full hour, maybe an hour and a quarter.

[IonDragon]

I'm having hard time believing such a website is necessary, let alone that the stories (like the "woman charged for leaving a baby outside a restaurant for 10 minutes") are real.

People are by and large dumb.

These things happen. I read a story last year where a 10 year old boy was charged with abducting a child. The "abducted" child was found wandering about crying because he lost his mother. The 10 year old helped her find her mother and was promptly delayed by security for the local police to show up. Link. (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Broadcast/exclusive-teen-arrested-kidnapping-tot/story?id=10938679)

[skywalker]

Also much more densely populated. At 7th to 9th grade and all through high school, my school was about 20 km from my home. The school organized the transport, and if you couldn't go by regular buses, they'd have a taxi for you.

I've never lived in a place where the local school district didn't send a bus within a block of my house. We live about 20 minutes' drive away from my sister's current school, and they still send a bus, although it arrives to pick her up an hour before school otherwise starts and would drop her off an hour after it ended. Of course, these are all free, school district-run buses. The two cities I'm familiar with the public school system of don't even have any other kind of bus for which one would need a voucher.

Oh, and yes, at least in the US we have a new study/article published about once every two weeks about how we're coddling our children too much, excising the danger from play, taking all the fun elements off the playground, etc.

Personally, I'm inclined to agree with them. Watching my sister (10 years younger than me) grow up and the world she's living in, I don't like it as much.

[Kindablue]

In middle and high school they didn't even let people outside to hang out in some fresh air. I remember being horrified at that.

The year I entered high school was the first one that they had instituted a "no one leaves the building ever" rule in. The story I received third hand was that at the tail end of the previous year a couple of seniors had driven down the street to a fast food joint that took a bit longer than advertised, so they were running late for class. They got in their car and gunned it down the road, hoping to get to class before they were ten minutes late, before the roll was sent to the office. They never did make it. I gotta say, a lot of the rules that that school enforced were crap (the kid who got a several hundred dollar ticket because a spent shotgun shell was lying on his car seat, for example), but I always respected that one.

[Knaight]

This website actually seems pretty reasonable, for the most part. It has some major issues (for instance, it assumes that children who are fat are inherently less than those who aren't, and there is a lot of ignorance and hostility regarding anything sedentary at all), but is also a much needed criticism of a societal obsession with safety.

[starwoof]

Somehow I got to reading this site, favorited it, and signed a petition...

[dehro]

meh...
this website either has me going "back in my days.." or it has me going "americans are nuts"... with all due respect of course:smallbiggrin:
so..I'm 33 and back in my day..
be warned: wall o'text aheadI started life out in Amsterdam, Holland...where I'd go to school on my little bike (I was always the short guy in class), together with my friends who lived in the same street or around the corner.. it was a... uhmmm 4-5 blocks ride, on a bycicle-path and a bit on the street, maybe 2 sets of lights in total, medium traffic.. we would mostly play at school, have one single teacher and 2 recesses, a short break and a longer one for lunch..I can't remember about breaks inbetween one kind of fun and the next one.
we would then go home and play, either on the street with marbles, a ball or waterpistols, or indoors at our respective friends'.
this was normal.
then I moved to Italy when I was 8.
from the very beginning we lived in the countryside and would have to wake up at 6 to go to school..with the bus leaving at around 7. for the first years, our mum would drive us to the bus stop and the au-pair girl/nanny would be on the bus with us to take us the rest of the way (it was a bus for grown-ups, and there was no bus stop nearby the school..in busy trafficked Florence). other mothers looked at mine like she was weird for deciding to send us to a school 20 miles away instead of one nearby. at around the age of 12 I was put in charge of feeding the horses before getting ready for school.. plus I got to play with fire.. meaning I would light the fireplace, which was the only means to keep warm, in the winter, in parts of the house.

pretty soon I would learn to walk that trafficked route by myself, holding the hand of my 3 years younger sister. people (well..other mothers, of the overprotective italian variety) would find this weird, but hey..my business. things have got to get pretty out of hand before someone just takes it upon themselves to go call police or social services on someone else, around here. these mothers were rather surprised also when they found out that on the last stretch home, occasionally we would have to walk home on a 1 mile-long road that was often visited by wild boar, adders, foxes and pheasants (and people are surprised I often play a ranger at D&D).
then I became the weird kid, because people also found out that my parents would put me and my little sister on a train to and from my father..on our own, and that said train would have to travel for 200 miles to reach my dad. this was totally unheard of, and got me quite a few "gosh he's so brave" stares from the girls at school (well..there were only 3 girls, and I was 9-10, and the positive sides of being admired for something were totally lost on me).
my parents weren't nuts..well.. not entirely. they had checked things out, and each time they would warn the train guard (we have such a thing in italy,.he's basically the head of ticket punching staff) that we were aboard and alone, and that our dad would be picking us up at the other end... sometimes we got to ride along in the train staff's cabin. by then I realized that this was not a common thing for kids, especially in italy where there's a lot of cotton wool involved in parenting (I've seen kids of 17-18 go to the mandatory army medical hand in hand with a fussing mother..only to be mocked by myself and other "streetwise" kids)
again, this was not your ordinary occurrence, but nobody on those trains ever thought of doing anything other than praising the little grown up man who would take care of his sister and be so very brave. no talks of calling the cops or any of the like. well..one time I remember being slapped once by an old man who was fed up with our behaviour or with having kids around in general. again, no police was called, even though when we got off the train and told my dad about it he went looking for the guy..to no avail.
school would have again, 2 recesses and the time inbetween classes would depend on whether the teachers took a smoking break or were quick about moving from class to class (yes, in italy it's the teachers that change classes, not the other way around)

now..this was not a very common way of being brought up, and even back then, most kids in Italy would be pampered and fussed over a great deal more than I ever got fussed over.
this has of course increased quite a bit, simply due to the fact of there being a lot more cars about, and the fearmongering etc etc.. even so however, people more often than not mind their own business, and for schools and cops to try their hand at parenting other people's kids is rare enough for it to be talked about on the news.
nowadays we're taught that spanking is not cool, kids should be permitted a whole lot more than we would get away with, etc etc..
I don't have kids, yet.. we'll see what kind of middle ground witht he fearmongering culture and my own common sense I'll find when I get there.

[Greenish]

It keeps popping up, so I'm wondering, what exactly is a "playdate"? I mean, isn't it sort of weird to have little kids pretending to go on dates?

[arguskos]

It keeps popping up, so I'm wondering, what exactly is a "playdate"? I mean, isn't it sort of weird to have little kids pretending to go on dates?
It's not dating, but parents getting together to hang out and have their kids play together. That's all.

[Greenish]

It's not dating, but parents getting together to hang out and have their kids play together. That's all.Oh. Talk about non-indicative name, eh? :smalltongue:

[Knaight]

Oh. Talk about non-indicative name, eh? :smalltongue:

Not really. Its scheduled play, wherein children are set to play together, at a specific date. Usually also a specific time.

[Trekkin]

I can't remember recess from beyond elementary school, actually, unless you count physical education, or a lunch break longer than twenty minutes. High school was particularly interesting. Five minutes between classes--which always became nothing, because the teacher would hold you in class over time, write you a note, and the next class would run long to make up for starting late. If you were out in the hall or between buildings unescorted during classes, you got detention as a matter of course and had to personally go down to the office to explain yourself, which made photography class interesting. I forget what happened if a senior left campus for lunch and came back late, but I'm fairly sure it started at detention and escalated from there; I was too scared to risk finding out. We had zero-tolerance policies for everything imaginable and peanuts, and we had kids get in trouble for things like bringing a pizza cutter to school(with pizza, I might add). I can't personally vouch for how accurate this was, but apparently there was a mandatory minimum number of meetings with the guidance counselor if any of a series of claims were made about a child, which led to several spiteful children labeling the class bullying targets as cutters or bulemics or suicide risks. The high school I attended had four headmasters in my four years there, each tried to deal with the above, and each decided the solution was to institute a stricter dress code and more frequent anti-drug programs.

That all said, most of my friends and I came out of it psychologically and academically all right for college. Maybe there is something to worry about on freerangekids, but having gone through at least the majority of the practices about which they've complained, I can vouch for the enduring ability of kids to expend considerable effort to do what they like despite them. I mean, really, if kids are as resilient as they claim, aren't they going to employ that resilience in dealing with these apparently draconian policies?

So I don't know whether or not the site's in earnest, and I don't know if it's possible to tell. That was a very verbose way of making that point.

[Cerlis]

thats why often in american tv shows (or more, i dont know) some characters give others a hard time for going on a date with someone, when the first didnt see it as a Date. Thats cus some people view a date as an attempt to hang out to further ones romantic needs. and others see it as simply an event of fun between two people. so if you see it as the latter than any two people hanging out are kinda on a "date". its a trope shows often do in shows to basically put the idea of the potential of "dating" between two characters who havent given it thought.

as for the "how can they learn anything", aspect; its just a matter of different forms of classrooms.

K-5th grade we had one True teacher, we would spend all day with. we would gather up before school, we'd have morning announcments with the whole school in the gym. we'd go off to class. we might cover a lesson in this subject, then have snack time, then another lesson. We'd line up to go to lunch, line up to come back. Spend most of the rest of the day there. If it was particular day of the week we'd have library, or music class. But they where teachers who covered the whole school. I think everyday we had recess in the afternoon. I think one lucky year we had recess right before school ended, so most everyday the last hour of school was just goofing off.

We didnt have multiple teachers till 6th grade (from what i understand, outside of texas almost everyone has 6-8th junior high. while for us its k-6, 7-9, 10-12). but back when we where 7....even if we where stuck in class most of the day lessons where interrupted by hands on activities, such as art class or reading time, snack time, naptime.

-------------

as for school buses. well i dont know about the rest of the class, but i always saw the bus as something you where forced into if your parents couldnt take you to class. Lots of parents did and the roads where always congested before school started and afterwards. We never had trouble getting a bus when we needed it, we even used to live in a small town a mile out of my where our school was. the bus would arrive at like 6 in the morning, i think those first two years it even went as far as Midland (20 miles away) to pick someone up, thought that might have been just one of many out of the way houses, outside of city limits.

When my brother got his drivers licence he'd drop me and my sister off at junior high before he went to school. it was always a blessing the occasional time Dad would take us because it means we could usually leave later and of course being an anchovie was never fun. And of course weekends when we where with mom she'd drive us in monday morning.

[Renegade Paladin]

Oh. Talk about non-indicative name, eh? :smalltongue:
Uhhh... Not in the least. :smallconfused:

[Castaras]

Break and Lunch at my schools. At primary, occasionally we had two breaks, one in the morning one in the afternoon.

Seems like a legit site. Yes, people really can be that overprotective. And yes, it looks exactly like how I was raised, and how most of my friends were raised. And the ones that weren't weren't over protected by their parents...

[Eldan]

Never had school lunches. In fact, I only ever heard of them in American media. Lunch break is two hours, kids go home. At least until our High School equivalent, where some kids (me included) lived over an hour by train away and would usually take something edible with them.

In elementary school, it was two hours, 20 minutes recess, two hours, lunch break for two hours, two more hours of school. With short breaks every hour. Five or ten minutes, I think, but that was more or less left to the teacher, who could decide to do more or less. We only ever had one teacher for all classes any way, for the first six years.
That was in the first few years, later it was more. I remember when I was really little (1-3 grade, I think), we had school on Saturdays too.

[Feytalist]

Huh. For my whole school career we had two breaks, about 40 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. We had about ten minutes between periods to change classrooms, and never had more than double periods. Periods were 50 minutes each. It did feel a bit lengthy at times. School hours were from 8 till 2. (On a related note, work hours are 8 till 5. I really wish we also had 9 till 5 hours, heh.)

We were never really restricted in our movements, except for obvious school rules (don't leave school property during school hours, etc). Of course, this was about 10 years ago. I'm not quite sure how things have changed since then.

Also, no school buses. Not for my school at least. Cycling was a common method, and people who lived far away, like myself, had car pools and such driven by parents.

Kids these days are really much more restricted than we ever were. Although I suppose it's justified, the world being a dangerous place and so on and so forth. Some people do really take child safety to extremes though.

[Eldan]

Also, yeah. Walking to school. Took me ten or fifteen minutes, but I was a slow kid. Kids that lived more than, I think, 1 km away were allowed to use their bikes. For some reason, there was a rule on that.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My school has 5 periods, but technically you're only supposed to have class for 4... It's a little over two hours of school, then an hour's break for lunch, then a little over 2 hours for school again. With, like, 2-3 minutes for travel-time in between.

Back in grade school, we had 15-30 minute recesses, and then an hour long lunchbreak, at the half-hour mark of which we were allowed outside to play.

[Knaight]

Kids these days are really much more restricted than we ever were. Although I suppose it's justified, the world being a dangerous place and so on and so forth. Some people do really take child safety to extremes though.

Its no more dangerous than it used to be. That said, my school at least, was reasonable (in this regard. I have plenty of angry tirades relating to other policies). By high school, you could leave for lunch, leave during off periods, so on and so forth. We had a well and truly open campus, based on the assumption that high school students would be responsible - and for the most part, we were. If you ignore a handful of edge cases, effectively everyone was reasonable, and its not like a closed campus would have helped with the edge cases.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Its no more dangerous than it used to be. That said, my school at least, was reasonable (in this regard. I have plenty of angry tirades relating to other policies). By high school, you could leave for lunch, leave during off periods, so on and so forth. We had a well and truly open campus, based on the assumption that high school students would be responsible - and for the most part, we were. If you ignore a handful of edge cases, effectively everyone was reasonable, and its not like a closed campus would have helped with the edge cases.

My high school would only let you leave for lunch if you were a junior or senior.

I really do think parents are a little bit too cautious these days. Yes, it's good to look out for your kids. But, if you don't ever let them go out or talk to new people, how can they function normally in society when they leave home?

[Karoht]

Seems perfectly legit to me.

When I was in grade school, that is, grades 1-6, we had 2 recesses, and 1 lunchbreak. That was when we went outside for free playtime. Then we would head back inside. That's what recess is. Travel-time in between classes is different.
In grades 7-12, no recess, only lunchbreak.

Canadian Elementary School
1 morning recess, lasting 20 minutes, get outside and play OR ELSE.
1 lunch break, lasting 1 hour. They had indoor activities in the second half hour, or you could go outside.
1 afternoon recess, lasting 20 minutes, get outside and play OR stay inside.

We were in class by 9am and out by 3pm. No half days or anything.
Summer vacation lasted from second week of june to second week of september. Christmas break started 3rd week of december and lasted until 1 week after new years. Easter break was sometimes 2 weeks sometimes 1 week, depended on when easter sunday and easter actually fell. It was weird.

We also had 1 hour long Phys Ed all the way up to grade 12. We had 1 hour of free reading time every day until grade 7. So in a 6 hour day we were only actually in class doing class stuff for less than 3 hours a day typically. And that was if we weren't sent to the library or to the music/art room for a class.

Fast forward a few years to high school. Classes started at 8am, I usually didn't leave until 5pm because I needed computer lab time to type out all my reports and such. 5 minutes between classes, 1 hour lunch, 1 hour phys ed. Thank god for spares. Grade 12 year I had so many credits that I basically only went to school for maybe 4 hours a day, and most of that was for computer labs or to run the school store as part of the management and marketing courses.

But, by the time I graduated grade 12, summer vacation started on second week of july and ended around 3rd week of august. Thats right, first day of classes was usually the last week of august. Went from nearly 3 months of vacation to 1.5 months. Christmas was a week, spring break was a week, easter or any other kind of holiday was a long weekend.

And the obligatory...
I had to walk about 30 minutes to school every day. Spring and fall wer awesome because bikes were awesome.
Oh wait, canada. Spring started in may. And fall ended in late september/early october. Yeah.

[Starwulf]

My school had "A" day, and "B" day(later on, it evolved into "A" semester and "B" semester, but I was gone by then). 4 Classes a day, 1 1/2 hours each, only 3 minutes in between the classes to go to the bathroom and get to your next class. 30 minute lunch, and that's it. Next day, you have 4 different classes. (as in: "A" day was English, Math, Science, Music, "B" day was History, Computer, whatever and whatever".).

Also, around here, the elementary school doesn't let the kids go outside for recess if it's colder then 32 degrees outside ><.

[Safety Sword]

Here in Australia it's pretty typical for Primary (Elementary in the USA?) School to start at about 8:50 am.

20 - 30 minute break at about 10:30 - 11:00.

2 hours of classes, lunch.

90 minutes of classes.

Afternoon recess.

Home time at 3:30 - 4 pm.

It varies from place to place, but it's a basic similar format.

Older children don't necessarily have the afternoon recess.

In Secondary (High) school you typically have 50 minute lessons with a 10 minute change over and and hour for lunch in the middle of the day.

[Knaight]

My school had "A" day, and "B" day(later on, it evolved into "A" semester and "B" semester, but I was gone by then). 4 Classes a day, 1 1/2 hours each, only 3 minutes in between the classes to go to the bathroom and get to your next class. 30 minute lunch, and that's it. Next day, you have 4 different classes. (as in: "A" day was English, Math, Science, Music, "B" day was History, Computer, whatever and whatever".).

Also, around here, the elementary school doesn't let the kids go outside for recess if it's colder then 32 degrees outside ><.

They refer to those as Block Classes, its a common set up. As for the second bit, that had better be Fahrenheit. And even then, its way higher than it should be.

[Erloas]

They refer to those as Block Classes, its a common set up. As for the second bit, that had better be Fahrenheit. And even then, its way higher than it should be.

They had the block schedule when I was in HS too, but I believe the district has now gone back to a 7/8 short period day. It worked well for some classes but not so much for others.
And yeah, even in F that temperature is high for not letting kids out side. Around here I don't think kids would ever get to go outside between November and April if they couldn't go out below 32F.

As for recess, we had them in elementary and middle school. I think they were 15 minutes long, but its been 20 years and I don't really remember. Middle school mostly just involved standing around and talking.
And with the longer classes in HS, we also had 15 minutes between classes, which wasn't a recess as such, but it was plenty of time to do other things between classes (like the homework you didn't do at home).

[Eldan]

Hmm. 32° F is about 0° C, Google tells me.

Yeah, that would be at least three or four months out of every year. And no more snow fights.

[Sipex]

Canadian, south western ontario (as we have different school boards which run differently depending on area). Public schooled between 1988 and 2003.

Kindergarden was half the day, every day. I hear it operates on block days now (ie: Day A is a full day of Jr Kindergarden, Day B is a full day of Sr Kindergarden. Keep alternating)

Grades 1-6 tended to be school from 9ish to 3:45 with a 15 or 20 minute recess in the morning and afternoon and a 1 hour lunch break (30 minutes inside, then 30 minutes outside to play).

You always had to play outside unless the weather was extreme. We're talking pouring rain or blizzard-like conditions. This is how kids in my area built up a resistance to cold as bathroom breaks were heavily monitored during recess (so much that you'd get denied if they suspected you just wanted to get in to warm up).

Walking to school was normal although there were buses for kids who lived further away. I had about a 10-15 minute walk to school every day, along with tons of other kids in the area. We had the whole 'stranger danger' thing going on at the time but we were still allowed to walk to school without parent supervision, we were just told to report anything suspicious to the office and not talk to strangers...all that jazz. It worked out pretty well.

Kids going home for lunch had to have this information known to teachers as we did attendance while we ate lunch inside. We also had one primary teacher for the entire year with minor exceptions for specialty classes (like French).

Also, there were no snowball fights allowed which was dissapointing.

Grades 7 and 8 were different, we lost our second recess but got out of school 30 minutes earlier. This was awesome for kids who didn't have to wait around for younger siblings. We could also sit in the library and read during lunch so you can guess what I spent my winter lunch breaks doing.

I typically walked 15-20 minutes to school at this age, by myself. It was normal for a kid my age. By this time all the kid gloves had effectively come off and schools (and parents) were slowly encouraging us to explore our neighbourhoods better. Kids could go home for lunch without anyone caring. Still had a single primary teacher for the majority of the day (50%) but had more specialty classes so there were more specialty teachers. We had a different schedule each day depending on what specialty classes we had that day.

Highschool just threw the gloves away completely. They took attendance but didn't care if we left the campus during lunch (1 hour). School typically lasted from 8:45 to 2:45 and was separated into five periods. 2 class, 1 lunch, 2 class. No recesses of course.

[Knaight]

Hmm. 32° F is about 0° C, Google tells me.

Yeah, that would be at least three or four months out of every year. And no more snow fights.

Exactly 0° C. 32 F is set as the freezing point of water at sea level, as is 0° C.

[Keld Denar]

When I was in high school, a bunch of us used to bring our rifles to school in the back of our cars or trucks. I had 6th period PE, so I'd shower with my scent-remover soap, put on my long johns and first layer of my hunting clothes, and drive straight from school to my hunting spot. It was the only way to get a solid 2-3 hours of hunting in before dusk settled in and closed the day.

Nobody ever got shot. It was just the way rural culture was. Opening day of deer season was pretty much a holiday, and passing hunter education was pretty much a rite of passage.

I recently heard a story about a kid in a town I used to play football against who was EXPELLED from school because he had a bread knife in the back of his pick-up. He'd been helping his grandmother move that weekend, and the knife must have fallen out of its box into the bed of his pick-up. Someone saw it, reported it, and the kid got expelled. Really, he should have been given a freakin medel for helping his granny move. Now he's probably gonna have a tough time getting into college, which will make it rough for him to get a good job, which could literally impact the rest of his life. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[Karoht]

A bread knife? Like one of those serrated jobs that you would be hard pressed to use as a weapon? In a place where gun culture is mostly accepted and norm?

Yeah, thats a big fat double you tee eff right there.

[Starwulf]

They refer to those as Block Classes, its a common set up. As for the second bit, that had better be Fahrenheit. And even then, its way higher than it should be.


They had the block schedule when I was in HS too, but I believe the district has now gone back to a 7/8 short period day. It worked well for some classes but not so much for others.
And yeah, even in F that temperature is high for not letting kids out side. Around here I don't think kids would ever get to go outside between November and April if they couldn't go out below 32F.

As for recess, we had them in elementary and middle school. I think they were 15 minutes long, but its been 20 years and I don't really remember. Middle school mostly just involved standing around and talking.
And with the longer classes in HS, we also had 15 minutes between classes, which wasn't a recess as such, but it was plenty of time to do other things between classes (like the homework you didn't do at home).


Hmm. 32° F is about 0° C, Google tells me.

Yeah, that would be at least three or four months out of every year. And no more snow fights.

Yeah, when I was in school, we were allowed outside almost the entire winter. I remember getting in snow-ball fights. But now-a-days? Nope, colder then 32 degrees Farenheit, and they are staying inside and have to watch a cartoon or something >< Don't even let them go to the gym for their recess. It's kind of sad.

[Gnoman]

There have been students in this country expelled from elementary school because the little LEGO policeman they brought to play with at recess had a rifle. It's called a Zero-Tolerance policy, which was invented in the UK and became increasingly popualr in the US in the late 90s.

[Karoht]

There have been students in this country expelled from elementary school because the little LEGO policeman they brought to play with at recess had a rifle. It's called a Zero-Tolerance policy, which was invented in the UK and became increasingly popualr in the US in the late 90s.
But it's a rifle that doesn't shoot. Heck, it's not even a rifle, it's not even a good iconography of a rifle.
And yet I'll bet most of those kids have a knife or a gun with them. Real ones.

[Whiffet]

But it's a rifle that doesn't shoot. Heck, it's not even a rifle, it's not even a good iconography of a rifle.
And yet I'll bet most of those kids have a knife or a gun with them. Real ones.

... you think most elementary school kids bring guns to school?

[H Birchgrove]

... you think most elementary school kids bring guns to school?

/An European's Scandinavian's opinion ON/

While I think US media (fiction at least) exaggerate the problem, USA is a big country with many cities and communities which have issues. When I first saw RoboCop, I thought it reflected the crime issues during the 1980's... I was shocked to find out that Detroit still has issues with unemployment and violence today. Which contrasts with how New York City has evolved during the 1990's.

/An European's Scandinavian's opinion OFF/

[Howler Dagger]

Yeah, when I was in school, we were allowed outside almost the entire winter. I remember getting in snow-ball fights. But now-a-days? Nope, colder then 32 degrees Farenheit, and they are staying inside and have to watch a cartoon or something >< Don't even let them go to the gym for their recess. It's kind of sad.

I ws the opposite, at least for gym. We would stay inside if it was too hot, not that im complaining. The cold can be more fun than the warm (see also: snowball fights).

Really? Kids bringing guns to school? My school doesnt allow the teachers who are certified to carry a concealed gun to bring it to school. Heck, my school gets mad if a student brings part of a bullet to school. At most, a student maybe has a pocketknife, if they left it in their backpack after a boy(or girl, but dont know too much about them) scout trip.

[Knaight]

Really? Kids bringing guns to school? My school doesnt allow the teachers who are certified to carry a concealed gun to bring it to school. Heck, my school gets mad if a student brings part of a bullet to school. At most, a student maybe has a pocketknife, if they left it in their backpack after a boy(or girl, but dont know too much about them) scout trip.

They aren't bringing them to school, they have them in their car while at school so as to go hunting later. Its a big difference. Pocket knives were brought into schools, but calling pocket knives weapons is inaccurate at best, they're tools.

[Fiery Diamond]

They aren't bringing them to school, they have them in their car while at school so as to go hunting later. Its a big difference. Pocket knives were brought into schools, but calling pocket knives weapons is inaccurate at best, they're tools.

Besides the fact that you can do nearly as much damage with a sharpened pencil as you can with a pocket knife anyway.

...not that I have personal experience doing that...:smallwink:

And here (in Virginia) we've had kids get suspended when they got caught with guns in their cars that while they were in school that they were going to use to go hunting with later. Doesn't stop people from doing it.

[Shpadoinkle]

I vaguely recall having two recesses (morning and afternoon) when I was in 1st-3rd grade, which got cut to one from 4th to 6th grades, then in middle school we just got a lunch hour (well, it more like 30 or 40 minutes but that was what they called it.)

So it's not unheard of, but I'd be really surprised if any school had two recesses anymore because of the big push for improvement NCLB requires (despite studies showing kids learn better when they have the chance to move around.)

[Eldan]

Well, you can't bring cars to school anyway here, so that's not a problem :smalltongue:

What I mean by this is that your 9 mandatory years of school are over when you are 14 or 15 years old. Driving age is 18. So yeah, that doesn't come up. As for guns... those people who served in the military (about 60% of men these days, I think?) have their assault rifles at home (bullets not allowed), but otherwise guns are pretty rare.

I'm honestly not sure what they'd do if someone brought a gun to school. I did a quick ten minutes of investigation, and all the newspaper articles I could find were in the style of "Kid brings gun to school! - Today, in a school in Texas, USA..." Even when I tried to narrow it down to articles from Switzerland.

[Knight9910]

When I was in high school, we only had one break, that being for lunch, but it was about an hour long, so yeah.

Anyway, this site seems legit. It's about treating kids like they're intelligent human individuals, as opposed to the typical idea of treating them like stupid, brainless animals that are just waiting for the right opportunity to jump into a wood chipper.

Also, the name "Free Range Kids" totally made me think of a restaurant chain that sells food made of human children. Just throwing that out there. "I'll have one order of tots, please!"

[Erloas]

I remember in high school people having gun racks in their trucks, and occasionally guns in them. And I'm sure there were a lot that you never saw. But if you didn't see them, it was probably because they were hiding them so no one else would try to steal them, not because they thought they would get in trouble for having them.
I don't know of any incidents of anyone actually bringing any into the school though.
As for knifes, most people I knew had them. I know I've been carrying one in some form or another for just about forever, though lately (well like 10 years I guess, but after HS) just in the multi-tool designs. I can't say if I had one in middle school, but I know in HS at least.

I have no idea what the situation is now.

But around here knifes and guns don't hold any mysteries for most people. They are just something everyone has and has been using since they were little kids.
There is still hunting holiday around here, even where I work has it. Its just that they give it a different name now, but it is still always the first Friday or Monday after elk season opens.

[Knight9910]

I remember having a pair of nunchucks in my backpack that I'd accidentally left in after taking them to karate practice. I was so sure I'd get caught.

No, what I got in trouble for was refusing to take off my coat in the classroom of the teacher who refused to set the air conditioner above...well, I don't know the exact number but it felt like the surface of the moon. I could've sworn I saw nitrogen droplets forming from the air...

:p But seriously, though, it was absolutely freezing and in the middle of January. I couldn't imagine what problem she could possibly have had with my coat. It wasn't even bulky, it's not like I could've hidden a weapon in it, which is what I told her. Well, specifically I said, "What's the problem? You think I have a machine gun up my sleeve?" That was probably my mistake.

The principal just sort of sighed and shook his head at the whole thing.

[RecklessAbaddon]

Funny note, in middle school I was a really violent kid with a lot of issues; I used to bite people a lot because they would bully me around and i was to weak to get into any actual fight back then. Because of the strictness of the infraction system they had to categorize my actions, and because of this my teeth was considered a "weapon" so while I was in in-school-suspension I would have to fill out a packet with questions such as "why did you bring the weapon to school?" and other hoots like that. Although then I started to meet with the counselor every week in middle school, and then joined sports in high school to get me in shape and I just got suspended for throwing punches and random fights. I just got bored with school though, the only reason they wouldn't let me into "gifted" classes is because they thought I had ADD and needed medications. All while I was really just bored with what they were teaching because I learned what they taught the first time they said it so I passed out. That's just saying with how I experienced the rules of my school; because of zero tolerance even when i was just defending myself I got suspended, got used to it and decided suspension wasn't such a big deal because I got to sit in a room alone and just finish the work without anyone distracting me, AND I got to read as much of my Forgotten Realms books as I wanted while I was in there so I didn't care (plus my cousins already carved my last name into the desks so that was nice).

In high-school though we had a 50 minute or so long class, 5 minutes between. We got an extra 5 minutes at one break after our 3rd class, and an hour lunch after the 5th. Which sounds bad i guess until you realize even a freshman gets about 2 electives a day, with a senior getting about 4 electives (but some of them being limited in choice). And we were in charge of enrolling ourselves into what classes we wanted. I mostly just slacked off in high school and failed a ton of classes, but I took P.E. so an hour of my day every year for high school was just exercising and playing sports.

But I have to say I learned a lot more once I enrolled in my community college after getting a debate/forensics scholarship. But that's college and not your standard education, but I enjoyed being able to have hour long breaks. Being able to take 3 hour long classes once a week instead of 1 hour 3 times a week was nice too, it helped me stay interested in subjects I considered "boring." I'm glad I slacked off so much in high-school, but only because I knew it wouldn't really effect me in college; however, I was wrong about one thing. I slacked off in English every single year and never wrote a paper longer than 2 pages for a class, so when I got into college English comp 1 and 2 were all horrible because I was learning grammar and how to write a paper all over again. But I was a debtor so I learned just to structure a paper how I would a speech, which works incredibly well honestly.

But I wouldn't call my experiance "normal" at all, and for clarification my school was the only one in town and only had about 500-600 kids in it. My graduating class was 150 people; 100 girls and 50 boys.

[Knaight]

I remember having a pair of nunchucks in my backpack that I'd accidentally left in after taking them to karate practice. I was so sure I'd get caught.

I've accidentally brought slings - open pouch ones at that - to school before, and had the same worry. Despite it being an off chance that it would even be recognized if it got out of my pocket, where it took up basically no space and was functionally invisible.