Chillin' in Abernathy Park on the last full day of school
DAVISON, MI -- Traveling Mid-Michigan photojournalist Brett Dickie and Kevin Usealman happened to stop at Davison's Abernathy park, and also happened to run into a group of 6th graders from Davison Intermediate School, getting out some energy in Phys. Ed. class on the last day. What better way to do that, than at the Davison playscape.
"We came out to the park today because it's my last day with this group of students," said Bob Hatten, the P.E. teacher. "We're always talking about getting outside so it's a good day to get one last hurrah for the classmates before they go their seperate ways in summer."
When posed the question "What are you going to do with your summer"? 6th grader Jacob Chittle says "I'm just gonna hang out with a bunch of friends, the usual."
With one more half day to go, there really doesn't seem to be much more room for information in their head, and understandably so. But Griffen Woichoski was able to squeeze in the right answer to the question "do you have anything else to do in school"? Well, sort of. He said "learn", then added, "and sorta be kind of bored," laughing.
Ryan Schlak added that, in fact, nothing more could possibly be absorbed. "You don't care at this point do you?" "No", said Ryan.
There is something to be said for old fashioned play, and getting outside, though, and now is the time for that. Lots of potential energy was turned to kinetic in this playscape while we were there (one more lesson for the kids there), and all of the kids we talked to said they planned to spend lots of time outside this summer. Baseball and several other summertime activities were mentioned. That seemed encouraging in an era of computers and video games. Maybe the old fashioned "kid" is coming back.
Let the summer begin!
