A Recess For Recess?

Gaaaaah:

One sure way to get parents exercised is to take away recess, the playful part of the school day when their kids can run wild. In some places, it no longer exists.

The proportion of schools that don't have recess ranges from 7 percent for first and second grades to 13 percent by sixth grade, new government figures show.

Yeah, because, you know, we don't have enough childhood obesity.

To be sure, most schools still let the kids run around, but lots of parents are concerned that recess is going to get cut sooner or later. It's ridiculous. Even grown-ups get coffee breaks. Between this and some of those schools who keep recess restricting recess play out of liability concerns, it's possible a not trivial segment of our youth will think play time consists of five minutes of standing around, not touching anyone. That's not exactly healthy.

Anyone who knows me know I'm all for solid, basic education. But I think if someone suggested my daughter's school should cut out recess, I'd just about hit the roof. Kids aren't little adults. They need time to play and enjoy themselves, and anyone who wants to deprive my kid of that is going to have to get through me first. And after me, they're going to have to get through my wife. And they're not going to like that.

Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry

This entry has 5 comments: (Add your own)

#5 Comment from elleme2
5/17/06 1:13 PM | Permalink

What ever happened to gym classes? Where you worked off the excess energy in outdoor games when the weather was nice, indoors when it was blustery? And what about outdoor play in the neighborhood after school to have fun, learn social skills and just burn up energy?
#4 Comment from lurkynat
5/17/06 12:41 PM | Permalink

Im totally with you John..and I wonder why we as paretns cant change this
nat
#3 Comment from monponsett
5/17/06 11:03 AM | Permalink

Watching 30 kids while they sit at desks is hard... watching them while they run wild (and that isn't a stretch... about half of them just run straight ahead, screaming) is almost impossible. It's also a pretty bad shot to your ego to lose a game of Monkey In The Middle to a bunch of 3rd graders.

It's why I don't work with the real shorties- my year at the rural Monponsett YMCA day-care program was as difficult as my first year teaching in the ghetto high school. Older kids sort of just lounge when you give them breaks, especially if they smoke.

I used to dangle breaks in front of my high school kids like a carrot. "Get the work done, and maybe teach takes you out for a smoke." It worked so well, I should copyright it... and the kids were always relaxed when I sent them to their next class.

If I was back solo with 3 kids while the others were on a field trip, I used to blitz them through their classwork the teachers left behind, then use the remaining time to take them out to the IHOP in Winter Hill. It set me back a few bucks, but I never had any problem getting them to complete their day's lessons.

This was alternative high school... you can't run school like that at a public high school.
#2 Comment from plittle
5/17/06 10:49 AM | Permalink

My son's school made morning recess one half hour long, rather than the previous fifteen minutes, moved lunch later in the afternoon, and eliminated an afternoon recess. Seems to work for them. The kids get longer to work off their pent up energy in the morning, hopefully allowing them to concentrate more, and the teachers only have to deal with two interruptions of their teaching schedule.
-Paul
http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/
#1 Comment from kevinq2000
5/17/06 10:44 AM | Permalink

I worked as a substitute teacher for a while, and I know that the time immediately after recess is the worst for trying to get anything accomplished. Kids get worked up, and it's hard to get them wound back down. You don't just lose that time they're on the playground, you lose the next half-hour, too.

That being said, I can't imagine how restless and unteachable kids would be at the end of the day if you took away recess completely. I think a chance to run around and be crazy is important to childhood development, and it's a shame we're so afraid to let kids be kids that we're losing sight of that.

K

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A Recess For Recess?