It’s recess all summer long

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- For Rush Stevens and his fourth-grade classmates,

Thursday began like every other school day.

They trotted into class with book bags in hand and their math problems

ready to correct.

But the little cubbyholes were empty. The walls were bare except for a

forgotten black chart above the chalkboard with yellow letters that

carefully listed the alphabet in cursive.

And even as the students corrected their math problems, there was an

antsy excitement in the air.

“Everyone wants to do it because it’s the last math problem we’ll do,”

said 9-year-old Rush, who raised his hand skyward, eager to answer the

questions.

It was also one of the last bits of work they would do all day. From

then on, it was games, games and more games. When his teacher, Scott

Singer, announced it was time for silent speedball, Rush clamored onto

the top of his desk. He explained in one quick rush of breath that to

play, you had to be on top of your desk and throw the ball. And if you

talk, you’re out.

“It’s a lot of fun though, unless you’re out. Then it’s not a lot of

fun,” he said.

Then they played four corners, another quiet indoor game, before heading

outside for potato sack races.

“C’mon -- go, go, go, go, go,” Rush shouted impatiently. “Lie down and

kick it off your feet.”

It was a never-ending stream of activity. But before heading out to

recess, Rush and his friends talked about how excited they were to be

getting out of school, how they planned to be junior lifeguards this

summer and what they had heard about being in the fifth grade.

“Fifth grade I’m kind of nervous for,” Rush admitted.

“Yeah, fifth grade is even harder than sixth grade -- that’s what I

heard,” said his friend, Clay Adler.

Then they were off again. It was a rousing game of tag in, on and around

the playground. Young Rush had an ingenious tagging technique.

He would lie in wait at one of the curves on the slide so that when the

person who was “it” came by, he had multiple escape routes.

“I can either go down or jump over the side,” he explained.

It was something he did again and again, leaping from heights that would

have surely struck terror in his mother’s heart had she seen his actions.

As if the adrenaline wasn’t enough, the room mothers provided a fun snack

of almost pure sugar before students went out to run relay races.

“I’m sad recess is over, but I’m glad school’s almost out,” Rush said.

“We have one more hour. And that was the craziest, most action-packed

game of tag we have ever played.”

A scant four hours after the day began, they placed their chairs atop

their desks and were declared fifth-graders.

“I’m excited, but kind of sad too, because I’ll be leaving my class and

my teacher,” Rush said.