Playgrounds and Education,
Once in a while a story begins at the end.
I went to the back porch, popped open a coke and poured it over the ice into a red solo cup. It fizzed. I smiled.
I settled back into my green Adirondack chair. The lace bark elms to the west covered the porch in shade. A soft breeze stirred the air.
A few sparrows were playing on a bare spot beneath the swing where children’s feet had scuffed away the grass. Wings fluttered and dust flew.
Then, the neighborhood cat made a stealthy and almost successful run at the birds. Some sparrows flew to safety in the waters of our aging bird bath. Others retreated to a safe perch atop our fence.
I watched as the sparrows cautiously made their way back to their dusty playground beneath the swing. Birds or kids, we all need playgrounds. Here we draw conclusions about our competencies. It is on our playgrounds that we learn about ourselves and each other.
Some playgrounds naturally occur while others must be built. They are equally important. As I look at my youth, I know that I consider the swimming hole on the Mountain Fork Creek, the one with a rope swing, a natural occurrence. The strip pits rather evolved. Lordy, I guess I really started in Snake Creek and a few farm ponds. There was the rare trip to Creekmore Park in Fort Smith or Honor Heights in Muskogee.
I’ve loved water my entire life.
I settled back in my chair and shook out the Sequoyah County Times. The first thing I saw was an article on a pending school bond issue. My first thoughts were that I knew nothing about the Sallisaw schools or their needs. Then, I saw the track and football upgrades. I am passionate about the role of athletics in the education of a student. Now, I don’t believe every student should play football any more than I believe every student should be enrolled in Calculus or Orchestra. But those that can should.
As I read I recognized these were the same concerns I discussed over coffee in Lessley’s Café in 1968 with Perry Floyd Lattimore and Dick Mosley. Today I looked at a picture of Lattimore Stadium and wondered if beneath the aluminum seats were the same bones that a group of World War II veterans, fresh home from the war and committed to living their lives out in Sallisaw, ordered and assembled.
These athletic fields, these playgrounds are important to each of us. Each time I ask myself how important I think back to the Duke of Wellington’s quote after the English victory in the Battle of Waterloo. “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.”
Our playing fields are vital.
No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant – George Washington (in his 1796 Farewell Address)
