Technolandy

Day 17 (of SOL 2025) Summer of Learning… Dear Dr  @chrkennedy  physical literacy 

In his annual year end blog, Chris had some good questions… here is question 

17. What would it take to fully integrate physical literacy into our academic priorities?

Not having the projector/touchscreen mounted to continue to the habit of always facing one wall. Seiroulsy – nothing says ‘sit and stare’ better than the 1885 model of education. 

Okay…

Embrace more free play – in a time where medias complain about the lack of kids riding bikes around town and not playing the way they (we) used to… we can only blame ourselves – with ministries coming down on families who were encouraging students walking home on their own (and riding the public bus!) but we have too much scheduled play time – from play dates to organized sports – less organization and more chaos. 

Embrace boredom. Seriously set the timer for 5 minutes for yourself and do nothing. No sketching walking etc. just be with your thoughts. Might take some time before you can actually get into the boredom zone for that long…

Change perspectives of (free) play – society needs to stop being concerned when kids/teens are out and about without supervision. Those true news stories of People getting in trouble for letting kids be on public transit or in the backyard without supervision need to halt. We ought to model free play in schools (yes, I have older blogs on this: https://technolandy.wordpress.com/physical-literacy/

One focus could be on “deep play” – short story is that the lack of direction and no known end time is important. Long story is in the link above… Frustration points are typically at the 15 and 30 minute mark but if you can push past the 45 minute mark, deep play sets in and is amazing to watch (and take part in – good to model what you want to see) as long as you don’t end it too early. But gotta get rid of bells and class changes to embrace the unknown end time in school settings… 

But best is when physical literacy shifts to something we “get to do” rather than “have to do” – that’s how we have been sneaky at connecting some students with our recreation center and local trails. Come for the social interaction, stay for the health benefits!! Probably similar to how we need to enhance physical literacy – here is how it’s fun, now you get to do it, not have to do it (cuz the old people who wrote curriculum and grad paths say you have to).