Should We Have Recess?

Recess. We all had it back in elementary school. We either loved it or we hated it. Go outside to play on the playset or out on a track to run or kickball.  But what you don't know is how much officials want to take recess away partially or entirely. 

 

Said by the Seattle Times, "Roughly 40 percent of U.S. school districts either have eliminated recess or are considering eliminating it."  Also from the Seattle Times, "Portland public schools eliminated swings from their playgrounds, along with merry-go-rounds, tube slides, track rides, arch climbers and teeter-totters." 

 

But on the flip side, there are certain states—Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Connecticut, and Virginia— that have made it mandatory for elementary schools to have at least 20-30 mins of recess. Recently, legislators in Connecticut proposed a bill to increase that state’s time commitment to 50 minutes. 

 

So we have two sides to this story. One side says that we should eliminate recess to have more time for classes and prepare for standardized testing. The other side says that we should keep recess to help improve the child's development. Most of the people who think that schools shouldn't have recess are school officials who haven't been in school in years. 

 

Another reason for recess being something that people shouldn't be able to take away is that children have very active minds that need to be stimulated constantly to keep them occupied. If you leave a kid in a room to learn something that they probably don't want to learn for longer than 2-3 hours they will start to riot or act out. These things also apply to kids that have disorders like ADHD and ADD. Giving them a period of exercise and fun will give them refreshed and ready to learn again before or after lunch.

 

When a kid is stuck in a classroom that they have been in for at least six months, they get tired of looking around to find new things about the room or if the teacher changed the room. This will cause the students to get agitated by the underestimation that they are receiving. This could cause problems like stopping their social and physical development. When a class of students is to not talk, make friends, or communicate to their peers it can take a toll on the limits of their social skills. 

 

When we bring up the argument that, If you have less recess, it could be useful class time for academic success. But what you saying is that an extra 20-30 minutes of class time will benefit the students' academic success in elementary school. Most students in elementary school do not care or do not understand the benefits of having good grades. 

Earlier in this essay I said that reducing the time for recess could be used as time to prepare for standardized testing. These tests do not accurately measure a child's overall development because every student develops differently and at different paces. Then you give the same test to different students you get results that you wouldn't be getting if we used different ways to measure a child's overall development. 

 

So sum up all that I have said about the idea and action of reducing recess to make room for more testing and more class work. 

1. It can stunt the students' social and physical development of students without recess. 

2. Having students stuck in a classroom for 8 hours a day can lead to outbursts in class and distraction from other students. 

3. The academic success of students is not as important in elementary school as it is in say middle school and high school. 

4. Standardized testing is something that is not built for child students who have different ways of thinking and taking on challenges. 

 

For these reasons, I know I can say that recess is beneficial to the development of the children that are put in these school systems.