What were you doing on the elementary school playground?

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Swinging on the swings. Even back than, I was a Swinger.

I remember wearing windpants with another girl in my class. We did this so at recess time we could play in the snow more, while all the other children ran around gossiping. Her dad died, and our friendship dwindled because her culture put extra pressure on her and her siblings. She never was as happy, which is definitely understandable. : ( life never gets easier.

Stayed close to the teachers otherwise I would have gotten pummeled half to death. The school that housed 1st-3rd grade did not have a special education progran so they made take 1st - 3rd grade at a school that taught 4th - 6th grade. They could the ten, eleven, and twelve year olds could not wait to beat my five year old ass. Just going to the bathroom was an ordeal because if they caught me in there where the teachers could not see me I would catch a beating just because I was smaller and younger. I never caught a break in school until I became a monster.

Up until third grade, I was part of a clique of girls. In third grade, I just wandered around aimlessly or swung until the teacher kicked me off so someone else could have a turn.

I tried to interact with people up until year 3, then I got the message people didn't like me and I just sat in a corner and watched the world go by.

Trying to play on every playground equipment, walked around in the fields, played in the barkdust, played with grass out in the field, Put barkdust on the slide and get yelled at by the duty ladies, asked these girls from my class to tie me up on the playground using a jump rope and I get yelled at for it too, going around spitting at kids once on the playground when I was six and lost recess for about a week (I sure never did that again), did jump rope with other kids, played with tether ball, trying to be with my friends and interact with them, played dodge ball, shot hoops, played red rover until our school banned it, hung out in the classroom by 6th grade because recess was so boring, I also chased bullies who were boys when I was in 6th grade and I would chase my brother's old friends away when they make fun of his ears, played pioneers in 4th grade for a while with kids from my class.


In middle school I would watch movies or do the computer in the resource room, sometimes I would roll a huge snowball in the field, sometimes I would swing and play on the monkey bars or play on the new equipment our school built. We only had one recess in middle school and that be during lunch.

In high school, I just be on the computer in the resource room until i was 17 when my mother found out and told the teachers that was unacceptable. So I tried hanging out with these girls who invited me in their group but their topics were boring and I didn't enjoy it so I would listen to music in front of my locker or play my video games. In my last year of high school, I would play video games, I went to the library for a while until I wasn't allowed in there anymore.

They kicked you off computers and threw you out of the library - it sounds like socialization was more important than education. For heaven's sake, why didn't they just let you do what you're good at.

I'm of an age that allowed me to experience the tail-end of the heyday of playground games. Playtime and lunchtime consisted of playing games like balls, ropes, elastics and handstands. This was perfect for me. I was exceptionally good at balls (throwing 2 balls against a wall, in different ways, whilst singing a rhyme) and elastics (the way we played it you just needed to be good at jumping really high). There were no playground politics to worry about, most days. The only time anyone would get annoyed would be if you weren't turning the rope well. I can also remember walking around with my friend's head tucked under my arm, like the ghost of a beheaded person. She didn't appear to mind.

I watch my 5yr old daughter (who is very like me at that age), in the morning before the bell, and she appears to wander around aimlessly. I can't help thinking that the playground games would help her to integrate better, but no-one is trying to encourage the kids to play any of these things. I bought her elastics, showed her what to do and put them in her bag. It just caused a row in the playground, because she wasn't able to get the instructions across to the other kids. I've never given them to her since.

I don't remember much about my first primary school, which I went to from 3 to 7yrs. All I can remember was being terrified of the teachers and a boy, who was a mini dictator, but the trauma has not stayed with me. A few of the insecure kids clung to me as I was so caring and, for some reason, they thought I could protect them.

High school was a different experience altogether, which I'd prefer to forget, if I could.

I remember in fourth and fifth grade there were some swings I would sit on with the only friend I had in grade school. She was the fattest girl in the school and nearly as unpopular as me but not quite as bad since I was the most hated kid in the school.

Eventually I got bullied off those swings and went a ways away by some trees. As far as I was concerned it was part of the school property (I didn't have to cross the street to get there or pass a fence, school grounds seemed to be the entire block the school was on) but the school told my mother that I was "leaving school property during lunch".

I don't even remember what I did grade 3 and younger. I think I just went to the back or side of the crummy yard we had and tried to avoid the other kids. We didn't even have playground equipment there but sometimes a teacher would take just their class to the nearby park that did.

Pacing and thinking by myself in the corner of the playground.

i remember observering the ants and trying to write a report on them with a freind but the school yard aide took away my notebook saying recess was time for playing not doing school work she didnt even let me explain we were playing it wasnt a real assignment

Swing/Read books/Climb on equipment/Pace around while lost in my own imagination

Overall, I wasn't interacting with the other kids.

I hid and watched. It was lonely, but better than constant rejection.

From age 4 to perhaps 6 I played imaginary games with some other unpopular kids, but even among them I was always given the role of the girl (I'm male) or something demeaning, when we played Pokemon I always had to be Misty. mm :p Whenever I wasn't doing this I would pace through recess lost in my thoughts

Then when I was about 7 a new boy came to the school named John who I became friends with, to this day he remains my only IRL friend I ever had, but eventually he became one of the popular kids because he was quite charismatic, I became more of an outcast as I grew older and my eccentricities became more obvious.

by age 12 I was pretty lonely, the only person I interacted with at lunch was perhaps the only boy in class more unusual then me, and definitely less popular, but..I took what I could get. I didn't consider him a friend since we were sort of stuck together. When I was 13 I briefly went to a new school where I was again forgotten, I was allowed to play games with the rest of the often friendly class but I never really felt like I'd be missed if I was not there. for the final months in my old elementary school I simply paced and walked around, waiting for the bell to ring, totally unwilling to even try get involved.

Then at 14 I entered the Irish version of middle school, during lunch I was ignored, I made little impression and if I ever spoke to a fellow classmate it was only because I innitiated the conversation - no one ever came looking for me or missed me. This was through till I was 17 and left school due to extreme stress, insomnia and that's when I began my foray into mental health treatment..and here I am.

In elementary school I was included in play to a small degree; I was fairly good at kickball and soccer and was sometimes not the last to be chosen for a team! I think that this also had to do with the fact that I was much more accepted by the boys than the girls. But mostly I played in empty soccer field or in the woods (we had nature trails) behind the school by myself. I really wasn't supposed to be there alone, but I snuck in anyway. I also spent a lot of time in the library.