There's a response to the playground consultant story on the editorial page today. It's from the director of the organization that does the consulting, and as you might expect it defends the idea. Here's the line that stuck out:

Leveraging the power of play. Do you know what that means? I don't. It's the sort of jargon you get when you're trying to impress people with Important Concepts that are so self-evidently great you don't need specifics. Next paragraph, same thing:

Thre's a lot of power-leveraging going on, in other words. Let's look up "leveraging."

1. The exertion of force by means of a lever or an object used in the manner of a lever: my spade hit something solid that wouldn't respond to leverage.

Since kids aren't digging up large buried objects during recess, it can't be that.

2. The ratio of a company's loan capital (debt) to the value of its common stock (equity).

Unlikely, unless kids are making deals behind the slide.

3. The power to influence a person or situation to achieve a particular outcome.

That's the one. Good news, kids! Leverage time! Yaay! More:

So refined techniques are utilized in a methodology that does the leveraging. More:

To clarify, then: refined techniques are utilized in a methodology that does the leveraging for environment-creation that empowers community-contribution.

We're talking about recess.