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Third Street School

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School front

Third Street School Front View and faculty Parking lot on the left and bike racks adjacent.

Third Street School is an elementary school located on Third Street in Unnamed City and is the main setting for almost every episode of Recess. The school is named after both the street itself and the streets' namesake, Thaddeus T. Third III.

History[]

In "My Fair Gretchen", it is revealed that Third Street School is located somewhere in the state of Arkansas and maybe even the city of Little Rock, but the exact location remains unknown. In a statement written by the show's co-creator Joe Ansolabehere, he recounts creating the look of the school based on Cooke Elementary—a school he went to in Detroit. Book illustrator Dave Shannon composed an initial concept drawing of Third Street based on a school he attended in Washington State, which was "exactly what [Ansolabehere] was thinking".

When it came to naming the school, Ansolabehere stated "...when naming the school, we were trying to think of a name that could be in any city...so that lots of kids would think 'Hey, that's my school!' or 'I know where that school is.'" The show's other creator, Paul Germain, decided on the name Third Street based on the public elementary school his kids attended in Los Angeles (in the Hancock Park area).

Perhaps the most notable features of Third Street School are the ever-present clock on the back of the main building; the playground and particularly Old Rusty, the jungle gym on which much of the story depends. Third Street School is also unique; there are many secrets hidden inside and outside the walls. Its first-class was held in 1928.

The school hours seem to vary from episode to episode; sometimes school begins at 8:00 am, 8:15 am, or 9:00 am, and sometimes ends at 3:00, 3:15, or even as late as 4:00. Recess is always held at 10:00 am.

Areas[]

There are several areas at Third Street School that have appeared in the show. Like other schools, it has many different classrooms and other spaces.

  • Playground: The playground is where the majority of Recess episodes take place. There are two jungle gyms, one being Old Rusty, a blacktop with four square courts and basketball hoops, tetherball poles, a baseball diamond, and a large grassy outfield. The fenced-in Kindergarten Area is also located on the playground, and as revealed in Buried Treasure, used to be a garden. An abandoned playground behind the current one is shown in The Legend of Big Kid and The Lost Ball, and features rundown equipment that, according to TJ, hasn't been used since the 1970s.
  • Auditorium: The auditorium is where assemblies and performances are held. Mikey sang in front of the school and Superintendent Skinner in The Voice, there was a head lice assembly in Some Friend, and the auditorium is where Principal Prickly was (unintentionally) hypnotized in The Hypnotist.
  • Cafeteria: The room where students eat lunch. There is a kitchen, a platform above the room where Miss Finster usually stands watch, and large tables. The very first episode, The Break In, features the cafeteria heavily as TJ is put in detention and the others try to break him out.
  • Music Room: Shown only once, in The Voice, the music room is where Mikey and Miss Salamone, the middle school music teacher, first begin to practice for Mikey's performance in front of the superintendent. It can be assumed that Third Street has a music teacher, but the gang are never shown in music class.
  • Art Room: The art room is only briefly shown in Lawson and his Crew when the Recess gang goes to make signs to protest the administration banning chocolate milk.
  • Gymnasium: The gymnasium appeared in a couple of episodes, including The Bet. Physical Education classes, taught by Coach Kluge, are held here.
  • Library: The library is featured mainly in The Library Kid, where The Recess Gang finds the legendary Library Kid, a girl who seemingly lives in the library and never goes to class. Gretchen also uses the library to check out books on Ancient Egypt for King Bob's pyramid in Pharaoh Bob.
  • Miss Grotke's Classroom: The classroom where The Recess Gang have fourth grade with Miss Grotke. Occasionally students like Randall will appear in the class, despite him being in another class in most episodes. Mr. E also taught in this classroom while Miss Grotke was absent for a week.
  • Office: The office is where Miss Lemon works as the school secretary and Menlo works as her "aide." Principal Prickly's office is located inside the main office and is where students who get in trouble are sent.
  • Miss Finster's Classroom & Office: Despite Miss Finster not actually shown teaching anything in the main series, she is shown to have a classroom in To Finster with Love where she is grading papers, and an office in The Fuss Over Finster where the Recess Gang break into to retrieve their confiscated candy. This is also where she has the June Box, a vault that she uses to keep all confiscated toys until the end of school in June.
  • Nurse's Office: Rarely seen, the nurse's office is where Nurse Kramer works. Spinelli visits the nurse when she thinks that something's wrong with her after losing the football game at recess for not tackling a fifth grader, Johnny V. She assures Spinelli her feelings, a crush, are "all part of her blooming" and shoos her out of the office. In Omega Kids, the Recess Gang visit and feign illness to be sent home sick like everyone else, but they accidentally mix up their fake symptoms with a very serious illness, frightening Nurse Kramer.

Faculty & Staff[]

Trivia[]

Regular[]

  • The school teaches grades K-6th and feeds into Spiro T. Agnew Middle School.
  • It is revealed in "The Great Can Drive" that Eudora B. Finkelstein was a graduate of Third Street School's first class in 1928, suggesting that as the founding school year. This would make sense, as Principal Prickly and Miss Finster (who have both been working at the school since at least the 1970s) were shown to have been students at Third Street when they were kids.
    • Also, in "The Rules," the kids found an Official Playground Rulebook that was written by King Morty (real name being "Mortimer") all the way back in 1935, during the height of the Great Depression.
  • In the Recess: School's Out DVD bonus feature "Digital Comic Book: The Trouble with Shorts", Spinelli mentions that it is against the law that the school does not allow students to wear shorts; the only exception Miss Finster will allow is if a student plays basketball. Despite this, Vince LaSalle and many other students are seen wearing shorts throughout the series.
  • Principal Prickly and Miss Finster were both students at Third Street School, with Prickly being in fifth grade during the 1958-59 school year.

Possible Locations[]

  • In "Spinelli's Masterpiece", T.J. gives Knarf the coordinates 40.5 N, -80 W to locate Spinelli's drawing. That puts Third Street near 1621 Saw Mill Run Blvd., Pittsburgh PA, 15210, USA.
  • Third Street uses the Arkansas State Exams, which could put it as E Stem Public Charter Elementary School on West Third Street in Little Rock. The school does resemble some satellite outlines as the Third Street School in Los Angeles, CA, which would make sense as in Recess: School's Out, Phillium Benedict mentions California freezing even though he first mentioned flooding on the east which could support a Third Street School in Belvidere, NJ.

Gallery[]

The Recess Wiki has a collection of images about Third Street School
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