The Education Wonks
The solution is to put recess on the state exams. Schools are surprisingly good at teaching to the test on a daily basis. And, there's only one way to teach recess. Problem solved.
On an encouraging note, the MIDDLE school I teach at just added a daily 20 minute recess period (separate from lunch)! The last block period after that can be a bit of a mess to get them to focus again, but overall, I've seen it really help our active kids, especially the younger ones!
Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest things that's making me think about sending any future kids to private schools.
When I was growing up (not that long ago--in the 80s!) in K-4, we had a 30-minute AM recess, 1 full hour for lunch, and a 15-minute afternoon recess; in 5th, we got 30 min. in the AM and 1 hour for lunch, and 6th-12th, we got 15 min. in the AM and 40 min. for lunch.
I can't imagine even *teaching* a class full of kids that get one break all day. One of my frustrations with the HS at which I teach is that the kids get one 35-minute break in a 7-period school day. I really don't think it's enough--I think we need at least a 10-minute AM break.
"According to the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, 100% of the nation's children must pass standardized tests by 2014 or else."
I don't follow these things all that closely - just what is the "or else"?
It seems a bit like trying to legislate morality - "everyone will be moral by 2012 - or else".
""We need to do a better job of funding," he said."
Funding has never had an effect on how well students mater material. It's insane to suggest that it would now.
We ran an article on this in our magazine last year ... and we're still getting letters from 4th and 5th graders begging "please don't take away our recess."
Georgia mandates a 15 minute unstructured break during the day by law. For some crazy reason though I've seen two news stories in my area about fears that it will be taken away. Where have they been? Until the legislature changes the law we will be having recess.
Our recess time is a no brainer....we built it into the schedule.
As a volunteer in a local school, I've observed 6th grade recess recently. Although short - about 15 minutes - the kids are, for the most part, pretty active. This is not because of the example of the supervisor's however. As far as I can tell, the 3 aides who "supervise" all sit together on a bench and talk the whole time. (Not surprisingly, they ARE role models for becoming obese.) With an almost total lack of engagement with the kids, there's an awful lot of fighting going on, a lot of guys running around grabbing girls.
Back when I was that age I remember we had one teacher - Mr. Bohna - who used to run around with us at recess time, playing 'Vikings,' a game similar to capture the flag.
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