Bringing Back Recess

[thalassa]

I've decided to become a Recess Activist.

My kids get, at a max, 10 minutes of recess a day (sometimes only 3 days a week, if "time runs short and they had PE").

This is pretty much the standard across the state (and if you asked around, it wouldn't surprise me if its not much better most US communities). Despite the fact that (in VA) the Govenor's Whatever Its Called School Panel Thingy recommends 30 minutes a day and the State Board of Education's Rules of School Whatever the Heck requires daily recess.

This is complete and utter BS.

(and that's before I get mad about the fact that my son's KINDERGARTEN class doesn't have recess until 3 in the afternoon (and apparently Phee won't have recess starting next year in the 3rd grade) and they routinely take away recess for "behavioral problems", which is pretty much the worst thing in the world you can do for a child with ADHD, something that I plan to address in his IEP shortly)

Multiple studies show that unstructured play time (particularly outdoor play time) (AKA "recess") is a bigger predictor of academic success than pretty much anything. Also, it reduces behavioral issues in the classroom, improves student performance and attention, and lowers student stress. Also, it increases fitness and social skills. And for children with ADHD and similar "disorders", it is even more important.

I'm making this thread my repository for studies, articles, etc...

If you would like to add to it, that would be awesome.

I'm planning on a massive email and letter writing campaign, and I want legit stuff to stuff into it.

[thalassa]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full

http://www.nyam.org/dash-ny-program/pdf/MandatoryDailyActiveRecessGuide.pdf

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140127/entlife/701279987/

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/807.html

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/9346.html

http://recessfacts.wordpress.com/legislation/recess-across-the-united-states/

http://www.lwv-fairfax.org/files/marchvtr-schoolsstudy.pdf

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

My elem. school in NY didn't have P.E. but we had recess. I remember playing out in the schoolyard, running around, and jumping rope. The nuns would hold the rope for us. Sometimes the younger 2 priests would come out and run around, too. I don't know what time of the day it was, or what we did on rainy days, or how long recess lasted, but I do remember having it, and liking it!!! As soon as the whistle blew, we stopped and lined up, according to size, and went back in.
They must have staggered it by grade since there were so many of us, but I don't remember for sure. Recess was like a coffee break would be for adults - it refreshed us.

In 6th grade we moved to NJ & I went to public school. I remember going outside in the afternoons, and sometimes we could do whatever we wanted, and sometimes we had tetherball or volleyball. We also had P.E. That was the last year of elem. school in our system - 7th, 8th, & 9th were Junior High and nobody let us out because we were dangerous by then LOL

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

I didn't check any of your resources, Thalassa, because I know you are right.

But... (don't you hate that word?)

Here is something you need to make sure you can respond to, because it is almost certainly the objection you will be met with.

If another 20 minutes are added to recess, does that mean that you would like to:
A) increase the length of the school day
or
B) leave something important out of the curriculum?

If you go with option "A," you MAY be told that there are issues with buses shared between schools that make it impossible to add time in. This is a money issue.

If you go with option "B," you MAY be told that adding 20 minutes of recess per day for 180 days = a loss of 60 hours of instructional time. Sound stupid? It is. The benefits of adding in 20 minutes of recess time per day would far outweigh the benefits of an additional 60 hrs of instruction time spread out over a 180 day school year.

In Michigan, the state just mandated that we add 15 hours into our school calendar to make our students "more competitive." At the high school, we have 5 class periods - 15 hours spread over a 180 day school year = 5 minutes per day, divided by 5 class periods = one minute added per class per day. Boy howdy. Imagine how much education we can pack into an extra minute per day...

(when you are dealing with school officials, expect the whole thing to be idiotic. No matter who says that "it is important," or how much benefit there is to it, or how much careful research goes into it, that is never what the decision is made on. It will always be money and politics)

Again, I agree with you. I just want you to be prepared with good answers.

[thalassa]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

My elem. school in NY didn't have P.E. but we had recess. I remember playing out in the schoolyard, running around, and jumping rope. The nuns would hold the rope for us. Sometimes the younger 2 priests would come out and run around, too. I don't know what time of the day it was, or what we did on rainy days, or how long recess lasted, but I do remember having it, and liking it!!! As soon as the whistle blew, we stopped and lined up, according to size, and went back in.
They must have staggered it by grade since there were so many of us, but I don't remember for sure. Recess was like a coffee break would be for adults - it refreshed us.

In 6th grade we moved to NJ & I went to public school. I remember going outside in the afternoons, and sometimes we could do whatever we wanted, and sometimes we had tetherball or volleyball. We also had P.E. That was the last year of elem. school in our system - 7th, 8th, & 9th were Junior High and nobody let us out because we were dangerous by then LOL

I had after-lunch recess in junior high. High school didn't have recess, but we had 10 minute breaks between classes with a campus set up like a college and 30 minutes for lunch, that you could eat outside. And, of course, PE for at least 1 semester a year (freshman year its PE and health, and jr or sophmore year it was PE and drivers ed). In elementary school, we had AM (15 min), after lunch (20 min), and PM (15 minute) recess--not counting the 30 minutes the playground was open before the AM bell rang (1st bell @ 8:10, tardy bell @ 8:15).


Did school days get shorter? My kids go to school from 09:25-3:55...but I went to school from 08:10-3:30...

[thalassa]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Again, I agree with you. I just want you to be prepared with good answers.

Actually, that is super helpful! Thanks!


How about 1/2 and 1/2--make the school day 10 minutes longer and take away 10 minutes of "instructional time"--time probably spent yelling at kids and trying to get them on task because they are squirmy and need a break anyhow. Would you, as a teacher, be adverse to spending 10 extra minutes "on duty" (with students in your room) if it meant making your day easier and more productive?

Honestly, I think there's a problem with the idea that recess isn't "productive" as far as class time goes---when it comes to neurodevelopment, etc...it seems to be more useful than another 10 minutes of math there, and reading here.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Do they still have "Homeroom"? I always thought that was a waste of time in high school. I guess it was basically to take attendance. Anyway, there's a few minutes that could be cut.

My high school (grade 10 - 12) was quite progressive. We had free periods, where you could go anywhere. I guess I don't think of that as recess but it really was. Seniors were allowed to leave campus for lunch. We had smoking areas. It was all pretty cool.

[MaskedOne]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Finding 20 minutes shouldn't be that difficult. Pull 2-5 minutes from each other class and if recess results in calmer, more attentive students then you won't lose a thing. I defy school districts to tell me that every second of every class period is productive. I casually and randomly derail college classes for longer than 5 minutes because I'm mildly interested in a tangent and I'm much less energetic than a number of elementary students.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Actually, that is super helpful! Thanks!


How about 1/2 and 1/2--make the school day 10 minutes longer and take away 10 minutes of "instructional time"--time probably spent yelling at kids and trying to get them on task because they are squirmy and need a break anyhow. Would you, as a teacher, be adverse to spending 10 extra minutes "on duty" (with students in your room) if it meant making your day easier and more productive?

Honestly, I think there's a problem with the idea that recess isn't "productive" as far as class time goes---when it comes to neurodevelopment, etc...it seems to be more useful than another 10 minutes of math there, and reading here.

That's the direction I would take - something along the lines that the lost instructional time will be more than made up through increased student attention/motivation/health.

Adding in additional time to the school day may be problematic. I can tell you that here, it is always shot down because we share busses with different schools, including the local Catholic school. Our district covers the entire county, so bussing is a big cost, and pretty much essential (some students actually get on a bus at 5am, and don't get to school until 7:30am). You may want to research how that goes in your district.

You'll present your ideas to the local school board. Find out who is on it, what they actually do for a living, and, like a good politician, gear your presentation to their hot buttons. You might want to (if you don't already) attend a few school board meetings to get a feel for the people on it, and how they think. School board meetings are, usually by law, open to the public - though few people ever actually attend. Info should be public, and most likely can be found on the school website.

Another thing you may be met with is this: it isn't only the time spent in recess that is lost, but also the time it takes to get kids settled down and back to work afterwards that is lost. This is a VERY answerable issue. We know, and your research undoubtably supports this, that the brain works better with periodic rest periods, and following physical activity due to increased blood flow (some teachers actually have kids do a little walkabout or a couple of jumping jacks before a test).

[Heka]

This actually surprised me. I dunno what use it is, but I'll tell you whats going on here.

School starts at 8.40. Recess is at 11 till 11.20. Lunch at 12.50 till 1.30. School finishes at 3.

So a 20 min recess and a 40 min lunch. Students in Junior Primary (reception to year 2 (age 5-7ish)) also get an extra 10 minutes on both. It comes out of class time before each break, and is eating time. (I hate this. For some reason it's the teachers job to teach kids to eat?! But it's what our communtiy pushed for).

We here have no doubt that recess is an extremely important part of the day. Across the country I've even seen stuff about more breaks in the day, but I'm sure you have stuff on this.

In regards to length of the school day, here our union says it MUST me 1600 hrs week. We were actually at 1625 up till this year and spent ages in negotiotions on where we would take the 5 min from each day. I heard our union rep say that if you are going more or less than this, you're wasting money. A longer day doesn't mean a more effectivr anything.

In fact school in some Scandinavian countries I think is shorter every day and they still grt better PISA results..

On Hawks note about home group, we're trying to get more of this. Our hugh school is struggling to manage atendance and truancy and general knowing where kids are, let alone passing on message, daily management and maintance of spaces with 5 min morning and afternoon. We're trying to get 10 in the afternoon and I know some of our primary agrees, but it's another 5 min to cut from somewhere...

All students here, with the new curriculum must do HPE (health and physical education) up till year 9. The physical component looks something like this:

Junior primary: 30 min a day
Middle/upper primary: 2.5 hours a week
High school: gets complicated but we have 3 lessons of HPE a week, one health, at the moment. But there is less physical activity involved. Well not in the same way.

[nbdy]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Here is my truth: the time argument for education is as BS as the money argument in politics. There is always time and/or money to do what they decide to do. Right now, sadly, public schools are top-heavy and enamored with numbers; in other words, more administrators than teachers and greater interest in metrics than human development. Priorities need to align with what is developmentally needed by the kids, but there is no incentive for anything that cannot be quantified.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

In parts of Virginia I saw recess start going away in favor of more cultural diversity. Then I watched Home Eco and such go away in the name of that same cultural diversity. Needed to introduce various cultural things to broaden their exposure to others and those influences. When asked about physical fitness we actually heard a broader mind is better than a physically fit body. Recess encourages competitiveness between children which was undesired.

I worked for a county school system in Virginia and it amazed us at the inputs we got for needed classes. That tended to go along with removing classes which were seen as not needed such as gym, home eco, some music classes etc. Of course that also doesn't touch upon the core methods that are being pushed.

I wish you luck. So far here in WV our kids still have a descent recess but who knows what the future holds, If weather forbids then they do other things but not specifically physical fitness.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Whaaaat? They don't have recess? What is with that?

They still have it where I grew up. They get 10-15 minutes in the morning and a chunk of time at lunch (lunch plus a longer break to play). It hasn't changed much since I grew up and I had time to go home and eat lunch and watch TV for a bit (when I was 11-12) and eat lunch and then play tag (when I was younger).

Edit: and we still had time in our regular school schedule to learn about extra things like cultural diversity, recycling, what to do if you see a bear, and other things that you need to know living on the west coast.

[Shahaku]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

A note, be prepared for the overzealous, under-informed parents as well. You won't just be fighting the school administration, but the parents out there who don't want their precious genius distracted from their studies.

[Medusa]

Re: Bringing Back Recess

Then: Recess was THE place to socialize and work on those monkey bar routines. I loved playing on the jungle gym in 6th grade. And I also loved lunch gave me some outdoor time as well. You learn to be part of society there. How to flirt with the first cute boy who looked at you. How to even the score with that girl Cyndy you hated. You'd beat her at tether ball. (true story!)

Now: It's where lawsuits live. Sexual harassment charges like to hang out there. Discrimination on size and shoe color live. Battery charges waiting at the first sign of a broken pair of glasses from a ball.

It's a mess now. No wonder our kids are snotty jerks who grow up to be snotty adult jerks.