The Responsibility of Teachers in the Playground
Playgrounds are a place where children develop their social skills. Is this something that should be done unsupervised? Do children automatically grasp the concepts of sharing, taking turns, and being a good loser, as well as a winner, without guidance?
I will stick my neck out and say no. As a parent, I would like to know that my child’s play is being supervised in a playground by a teacher or playground monitor. However, this is rarely the case at school.
Whilst this socialization is a fundamental aspect of school attendance, children need to learn the wrongs and rights of social interaction, which may not be possible at home, but can be learnt in the school playground.
If it is a kid free for all in the playground, you can expect bad tempers, bullying, swearing, fighting and segregation. All these things do not make good behavior become a habit for these children.
This can rectified by having teacher supervision in the playground that will catch anti-social behavior, nip it in the bud, and by doing so make a better behaved child, who will grow into a more adjusted and stable adult.
This can be done by having school yard rules that must be adhered to (like the strictest law), or else a suitable punishment will be enforced. Another way that supervised play can take place is to organize games, which have set rules and involve children being divided into teams, so they can begin to learn the importance of teamwork as well.
Of course, it is not possible to see everything that goes on in a playground, but really teachers are the eyes and ears of parents, so playground supervision should be part of the package as standard.
