![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Vialet, now 46, has a casual, friendly demeanor that belies her many accomplishments. ![]() Now at schools like Maxwell Park and Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, and John Muir in Berkeley, as well as many others, kids are learning to play games like kickball, basketball, and four-square at recess and after school-and to peacefully resolve their conflicts. Initially operating under the name Sports4Kids, Playworks, headquartered in an Oakland office near Jack London Square, was launched in 1996 at two elementary schools in Berkeley: Cragmont and Rosa Parks. It’s about play itself-an essential activity through which, experts say, we learn to interact and develop socially, and to value fairness, inclusiveness, and kindness. But really the kids themselves, with the assistance of some pint-sized junior coaches who wear purple T-shirts proclaiming their status, run the show.Īs the name implies, the Playworks program isn’t just about encouraging physical activity. Gordon, a fresh-faced, relaxed young man whom all the kids call “Coach,” circulates and supervises playground activities at Verde. That’s what Colby Gordon, an Americorps worker, does. We had somebody whose whole job was to make recess safe and fun.” “When we got Playworks, I immediately saw the difference. “We spent a lot of time doing apologies and finding out who had hit who and who had lost what,” she said. We estimate each classroom recovers about 36 hours a year because teachers aren’t breaking up fights and dealing with the aftermath of recess.”Įyana Spencer, the principal at Manzanita Community School in Oakland, remembers how much time her class wasted doing just that when she taught first grade at Markham Elementary School in Oakland 10 years ago, before the school had a Playworks program. “With us there to teach the kids to play, those playground conflicts don’t come up. “Teachers lose a lot of time because of settling conflicts that arise on the playground,” Vialet says. There are no fights: The kids settle disagreements about who’s out or whose turn it is with a quick game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Verde kids, who range in age from 5 to 12, use recess time to play soccer, battle it out in four-square, challenge one another to tetherball games, and shoot baskets. Recess at Verde no longer means the kind of chaotic, barely-supervised free-for-all you see in many schools, with some kids wandering around aimlessly and others looking for a fight. Today, the fruit of Vialet’s labors is visible on the playground at Verde Elementary School in Richmond, one of 41 public elementary schools in the East Bay that has signed on for the Playworks program. Twenty years later, after many twists and turns, she founded Playworks-a national nonprofit that now works with 265 low-income public elementary schools-to make that happen. Vialet decided all kids need a Clarence to make sure they get in the game. He just created this environment where if we went to play another team and they’d say ‘You have a girl on your team!’ the boys on my team would just be like ‘Yeah, we do.’” If there was the slightest bit of guff, he dismissed it. “What was so cool about him was he made it no big deal at all. “It was the ’70s and often I was the only little girl there,” says Vialet, now an Oakland resident. She vividly remembers Clarence, a big African-American man in his 20s, who always made sure she got to play. With her parents working full-time for the federal government, Vialet spent her afternoons there playing peewee football and basketball. in the ’70s, she attended a recreation center every day after school. When Jill Vialet was growing up in Washington, D.C. An Oakland program helps kids play better at recess and teaches life skills at the same time. ![]()
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