[originaltext] (16)Ask a young child "How was school today?" and you’re lik

(16)Ask a young child "How was school today?" and you’re likely to hear about time for break. My son is seven years old, and like many children at his age, break is the emotional core of his school day. Whether he comes home light- or heavy-hearted depends on what happened during play time. This is not exactly a groundbreaking insight.(17)Philosophers have been trumpeting the importance of play for centuries. Piaget said that children discover the world through play. And Plato believed that children had to grow up in an atmosphere of play to become virtuous citizens. In the face of this accumulated wisdom, the question is why so many educators across the nation have, in recent years, decided that it is acceptable to reduce or eliminate time for break.(18)Those principals tend to do so for two major reasons: They feel they need to maximize every minute of instruction time to improve student test scores and, in many cases, break has become a behavioral headache. I attended a Playworks training program a few years ago and(19)I was surprised by the strictness with which the organization prepares its play coaches. Trainers spent hours helping coaches with practical challenges like how to manage transitions smoothly, how to get children’s attention without yelling at them, and what to do if African American, Latino and Asian kids aren’t playing with one another. At face value, play may look like nothing special, but I saw that the training helped coaches gain a deeper insight into their work.
16. What is a kid likely to talk about when asked about his school day?
17. What does philosophers insist for centuries?
18. Why do some schools want to reduce time for break?
19. How did the speaker feel after attending a Playworks training program?