Figure 1.--Prep school children have many different ways they can use their free time. Here the children are enjoying the gold fish in a pond at the school. |
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The children use it in a variety of ways, depending on the time and weather. Age, gender, and individual interests are all factors here. Many younger children like free play, building forts or playing ad hoc games. Activities for which free time is needed. There is also inside recreation. Some schools have gym for various games or other activities like rollar skating. Some children bring small pets which they care for in their free time. The schools have a good supply of board gamesand chess a prenial favotite. Several schools have model railroads. This is something that is difficult for boys to do in a small house, but with interested staff some schools have wonderful lay outs. Some children take the opportunity to go to the libray or read the newspaper. Generall television is not incouraged, except for the news. And now with the computer, there are a whole range of interesting activities.
Some schools have assault courses or elaborate play ground equipment. Therevmay be playground equipmnt for the pre-prep children. Some schools may have more elaborate euipment for the older children. Often freetime is more devoted to sports than playground equipment. This varies from school to school. These tend to be popular, especially with the boys. They are used both for free play and as part of P.E. classes, depending on the school. The schools have, however, encountered problems with insurance.
The children of course wanted to use the computers to play games as well as for their studies. The boys in particular were fascinated with computer games. The games in the 1980s were still fairly basic, but rapidly improving. Here there was a wide range of policies at the various schools. Some schools did not want the children playing computer games. This was especially the case when the computers just arrived. Not allowing boys to play computer ganes is a bit of a challenge, especially as more computers were installed. And the schools did want to make the computers available for school work. There was quite a range of policies here. At one school there was a computer room for the older boyss where they could play computer games in their free time during the evening.
Many boarding schools have extensive grounds. Some of the grounds are done into gardens of varying formality. Large areas are also devoted to games fields. Other areas are used variously by the schhools for a range of purposes such as agriculture or animal husbandry. One of the most popular areas for the younger children is areas which hve been left in rustic condition. Here the children play games. One of the most popular activity is to build dens and stahe low-level combat with the boys in other dens. The area is also sometimes used for camping. The area for such activities varies grealy from school to school as it the schools attitude toward such activities.
We didn't notice a lot of children throwing frisbees, but children at a few schools were having fun with them. They were one of a range of items popular with the children.
Many schools allow children to bring small pets. Gerbils and hamsters are popular choices and some have fancy cages. We also niticed rats and rabitts as well as some more exoticc pes. The pets are not allowed in dormitories. Instead they are generally kept in a hut or other facility. The children then care for them during their free time. They are allowed to take them out of the cages and play with them and of course they need to be fed and the cages cleaned.
We have some decriptions from the children of general play during free time. Play time is of course significantly affected by the seasons. Days are very short during te inter given Britains high lattitudes. Play tends to be more indoors and the gym is used quite a bit. Here the schools vary quite a bit as to availavle facilities for indoor play. During the summer term there is much more opportunity for outdoors play. All this affects the actibvities the children pursue.
One popular activity we noted were radio controlled cars. They always seemed to be cars of various description. The cars came read made although there was some maintenance involved, especially given the hard ware they were subjected to by the boys. They seem to have been very popular in the 1980s. We are not sure when they first appeared, but by the 1980s improvements in electronics and minuarization was making possible increasingly xophisticated toys. . Different schools had various rules. Some schools did not want the children, almost always the boys, to bring them. Other schools tolerated them. Here there was no club or organized activity. Instead the boys wjo had the cars enjoyed informal races. Here we do not know a great deal about this activity. We saw a number of boys with these cars and working on them to make sure they were in good condition for the next race.
One of the most popular free time activities for the boys during the 1980s was skateboarding. Some schools let the boys bring their skateboards to school. This varied and some schools banned them. The schools that allowed skate boarding tended to be very strict about the children using them. There were restricted areas and protective gear was required. This seem to be an activity that only interested theboys. We did not notice girls with skate boards.
Prep schools have televisions, but the children's access to them is strictly limited at most schools. The televisions are used because of available educational televisions. Also important sports events might be viewed. Many schools do allow the cildren to watch the news in the evening after tea. Rarely are the childre allowed to watch television for recreation. Some exceptions may be made. One headmaster allowed the boys to wach a popular science fiction program once a week.
The children for the most part leave their toys at home. They do bring trunks and some favorite toys. Rules here vary from school to school. The favorite toys we saw besides the stuffed animsals on dormitory beds were transformes. We also began to see some simple electonic games.
