" Timely breaks ".
Time period : 1940's.
Following a couple of stiff classroom lessons, it was, for most of the children, a joy to escape to the school playground for the mid-morning and the mid-afternoon break periods.
This was where the children had the chance to play a few quick games and mix with some of the other kids.
At the sound of the " break " bell all the children were expected to leave their school classrooms and take to the school playground.
For the most part, various little area's of the playground quickly became " gamespaces"for the various " like minded " groups.
The boys seemed to favour the activities that either involved a fair bit of dashing around or those that had a bit of rough and tough physical contact.
The girls, it seemed, were almost the opposite. They tended to favour the more sedate and precise activities such as " skilful skipping " , anything that called for clever footwork or anything that called for a more gentle approach.
Others, of the school population, that weren't of the activity type, could enjoy their playground break period taking part in " chats " and " little discussions with their like minded friends,swopping " jokes " and " stories " and generally " chewing the fat ", made for a nice break for them too.
In general the boys did their own thing. The girls had their separate interests.
You can imagine the girls not seeing the possibility of the boys being able to join in their games because " The boys can't do proper handstands and neither can they skip properly, they're a bit rough when they're playing games anyway ".
From the boys it probably went something like " The girls can't kick, or throw a ball properly to save their lives. They're a bit soft as well. Not much good for our games really ".
What happened on rainy days ?
Trying to recall such days, I think that the procedure at our school was for we children to move out of our classrooms and gather ( packed to-gether, Sardine style ) under the shelter of the veranda roof that ran around the school class rooms, desperately hopeing that the weather would ease up so that we could get out onto the " playground ".
On good weather days ( and there seemed to be plenty of them, thank goodness ) it always seemed to come too soon as one of the teachers wandered out to the central area of the playground and commenced to ring the old hand bell to signal the end of the " break " period and summon us all to form " lines" in front of our class rooms.
Looking back at these school break periods. Did they have the right " regenerative " effects ?
Absolutely.
Were we " Refreshed ".
Absolutely.
Were we ready to absorb some more " Scholastics ".
Absolutely.
BRING ON THE " ALGEBRA ", We're ready to have another crack at it.