We all know that kid – the rule follower.  The one that listens to what you say only so they can be right and tell others what to do or the kids who want to please and impress you.  It’s that kid in marching band who can be completely out of the form and actually look you directly in the eye and say “but I’m in my spot!!”.   It’s the kid on the playground who runs up to you every two minutes to tattle on the kids who are going up the slide instead of going down.

Well, I’m sorry to admit that I too was once that kid, mostly because I was afraid to break the rules and following them seemed to get me praise.  Until one day in high school marching band.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  We’re marching in this big company front, moving towards the front sideline and I’m close to the 50 yard line.  I’m flanked by a junior and a senior and I’m just a lowly sophomore, but I’m really getting into this marching thing.  It’s easy, right?  You just make sure you’re on your dot on the right count.  So there I was, playing my part with gusto (which on saxophone is pretty easy), so proud of the fact that the two on either side of me weren’t keeping up by going to their dot on time like I was.  Until I noticed my band director, from high up in his tower, was saying my name, loudly on the megaphone.  Judy, Judy, Judy.  Ohhhh Judy.  I could tell by the drop in his voice I had done something wrong.  It was then he informed me, in front of 120 others that I had not worked with my colleagues, but against them.  (I’m putting this in much less embarrassing terms than I heard that day).  By being so focused on ME getting to the right spot, I was actually the one person not with everyone else.  I had the opportunity to teach that lesson many times to others once I was on the other side of the megaphone.  But not actually with a megaphone – I hated those things.  Anyway….

I believe we’re creating this kind of “ME” mentality early with our kids and part of it has to do with how we allow, or shall I say, don’t allow them to play like kids.  Teachers as a rule, like to make rules.  Rules help with classroom management, they make for smoother pacing, they give kids needed boundaries.  But there’s one place where we need to let go of most of the rules and that’s during what little free time they have and that’s on the playground.  Aside from making sure no one gets hurt, as adults we need to let them figure out how to play together.  The little ones who haven’t had years of rule following just make up stuff and have fun.  Like last year when the first graders created the rolly polly hunters.  A small group of them ran around the playground, “rescuing” rolly polly bugs and putting them in the grass to be safe.  It went on for weeks.  I had another group who wanted to see who could go up the slide best, so they set up a line where everyone could take a turn and if someone wanted to go down, they just waited and then started up again.  And there was that group who swung from the bridge and took turns gently kicking each others behinds and laughing hysterically.  I’m not kidding.  No adult intervention needed.  Playground manufacturers are adults who have a vision of how kids should play on equipment, but I’m here to tell you, kids will make up all kinds of things to do on it that adults never dreamed of.  And that’s the beauty of just letting kids play.  It stimulates creativity and collaboration which is really more about “us” and less about “me”.

And although this promotes collaboration, it certainly still supports individual personalities as well. Again, let’s look at a marching band. Those of us who have been a part of this activity know that different instruments follow different personalities – or is it the other way around?  Anyway, you’ve got those sweet kids saving the rolly polly bugs who will play in your flute or clarinet section, the kids going up the slide who will be in your percussion section, the kids kicking each other (gently) who will be your low brass players.  Your sax players will be those kids just chasing each other round and screaming and your french horn players will be walking around together talking about how silly everyone is.  And something else I didn’t mention, are those kids who want to show off how well they hit, throw or kick a ball.  Those would be your trumpet players.  Somehow, allowing all of these personalities to be themselves also allows them to bring that uniqueness together to create some really great things.

This then can transfer back into the classroom and into life.  How wonderful would it be if kids could just let go of some of the rule following,  be themselves, share their strengths and work collaboratively to create new things and ideas?  Imagine if we paid as much attention to the people beside us as we did to ourselves?  We could be marching together to accomplish something really amazing!