Recess! At a sand still. 2+2= A Fear sum Foursome. (YOUR worst nightmare)

It all adds up; THEY took it all away...one at a time. Insidio-US-ly! 

The Best and the Worst: Two things, a curioUS pairing that tends to command our attention the least two months of the year, commencing right about the time you hear the incessant caroling on a few radio frequencies that now offer Christmas songs, contemporary as well as "songs of old" the year-round. But, as the calendar year winds down, most media the world over offers US a glimpse, a brief reminder, as we get ready to "start anew" -- what was, based on alleged surveys***, what we considered as the songs that we just as soon forget, after too much airtime, as well as horrific events that changed the landscape, at least for the time-being. Here, in the scope of just two well thought outposts, I wrap up the year as well as this mini-series on the thing US Boomers referred to as Recess! -- especially when allowed to go "out of doors". Yes, a Two-fer all my own -- as I own it; claim it as my position as top how WE, who enjoyed, counted on, counted down the minutes, which kept us going...throughout each and every school daze. What WE considered to be the best on even the worst of daze. But what might, if WE are not careful, don't actively advocate, find the school kids of the future, on the inside...looking out (a most curious state of affairs, in the most literal sense), at an empty expanse. As they are "held at bay" -- shedding light onto what would, in the absence of...sans sand...a dark, dismal day. If Recess! was not only taken away for a day, as a "disciplinary measure" (most teachers learn it's only them-selves that suffer in the process) but put on permanent pause. An interesting paradox, given that children, young and old, are known as those beings "in perpetual motion...blessed with abundant energy...we educators can't find enough places and manners in which to assist them in channeling it..." So, given this awareness, one would think, can only hope that this would give rise to logic, common sense, that IT (Recess! that is). But NO. What once was considered a staple of a school day could, one day, find itself relegated to a category of educational fads, that once favored by those in the "ivory towers" fell out of favor, then...cancelled all-together. Which brings me to where the school children and the decision makers who, at the time of this post, likened to be "influencers" -- those that made sweeping decisions on behalf of all the "stake-holders"...could benefit from...

A New Age of Enlighten-meant: This, after the youngsters, arriving at the (ob)scene, might "beg to differ" with the so-called educational experts, as to what is at the "common core", on account of what they are (not) seeing. That is, what was once, in the age of Boomers, considered as almost hallowed ground, is simply now referred to, the new WE, are only allowed to title it as "ground" (as in "mom, I'm going to ground"). Which "way back when" was closely aligned to the concept of "play" -- which also found itself falling out of popularity among the "educational elite". So, no wonder that the implements of play (then known fondly as "equipment") would also be left unattended, fall into disuse, rusted, decrepit -- the latter being how these new kids on the block might see those that left them, "in the dust". As they came upon this barren landscape which used to feature (in order of appearance): first a simple field of play, with some areas of unpaved, as in gravel...followed by what offered a smoother, even playing surface (i.e., "blacktop" which could easily hold chalk marks, until a rain fell) and then, as WE Boomers grew to know and love, "playground equipment" which, partly due to rates of injuries and still pending lawsuits, gave way to newly designed, engineered by some (ironically) Boomers...'play scrapes'. But given the now, futuristically speaking, all are conspicuous by their absence, as the school kids of the future are allowed even a brief breather, allowed to walk around outside for a breath of fresh air, they instead find them-selves gasping, grasping for answers to TWO main questions:

"What's the use?!" followed closely, in kind by

"What's the point?!" 

Both of which I will address, give both their due, enlighten you on both counts, along with one other nagging question...

***"Who asked US; if THEY had bothered to, then perhaps WE would be seeing a whole, completely different scenario, as in "landscape". That is, on that at least resembles that which the Boomers enjoyed, before the "Scorched Earth Society" came into being, throwing out the Best with the Worst...