[Vision2020] Give the Kids a Break

[lfalen]

Tom 
Thanks for posting.
Recess is very important. Kids  have a limited attention span. With a break, they will be able to concentrate better. The important thing about recess in that it needs to be monitored by an adult. 
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:01:34 -0800
To: "Vision 2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Give the Kids a Break

> >From Steve Rushkin's column in the December 1, 2006 edition of Sports
> Illustrated -
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Give the Kids a Break
> By Steve Rushkin
> 
> Four square and seven years ago we had recess: 20 minutes, twice a day, of
> Darwinian contests whose very names -- king of the hill, capture the flag,
> keep-away, dodgeball -- screamed survival of the fittest. After all, monkey
> in the middle isn't just a playground game; it describes the chain of human
> evolution. 
> 
> Most of these games were passed down like heirlooms. They crossed continents
> and centuries with only small modifications, surviving into the modern age
> with names such as duck, duck, goose; Mother, may I; and Miss Mary Mack.
> Ancient Greeks jumped rope, Caesar's subjects played a form of jacks, and
> blindman's bluff was played in the court of Henry VIII. Pity, then, that
> none of these games may survive the decade, and for one deeply depressing
> reason: Red rover, red rover, recess is over. 
> 
> Or it is for many children. According to the National PTA, nearly 40% of
> U.S. elementary schools "have either eliminated or are considering
> eliminating recess." Twenty to 30 percent of schools offer 15 or fewer
> minutes of daily recess. Lifers at Leavenworth get more time in the exercise
> yard. And the U.S. Department of Education reports that 7% of all U.S.
> first- and second-graders -- and 13% of all sixth-graders -- get no recess
> whatsoever. 
> 
> How ever did this happen to the fabled fourth R? For starters, increased
> preparation for standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind leaves
> little time for recess. That legislation was passed by Congress, which
> through Sunday had spent 138 days in recess during this session, safe in the
> knowledge that eight-year-olds can't vote. In fairness to school
> administrators, no one should have to choose between childhood ignorance and
> childhood obesity. But there are lots of other reasons for the recess
> recession. 
> 
> One is fear of injury. Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, Mass., has
> been roundly ridiculed for banning tag and other so-called chase games. But
> similar bans were imposed long ago by many other schools in places such as
> Spokane; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and suburban Charleston, S.C. Attleboro merely fell
> in line behind them. Trouble is, life is a chase game. At my elementary
> school every recess ended like Round 8 of a prizefight: with a bell, the
> mending of cuts and at least two parties forced to sit in a corner. 
> 
> That kind of unsupervised play literally left its mark on me. The scar on my
> forehead? I hit a pipe while playing tag in the basement. My left front
> tooth? Knocked out by a thrown baseball as I daydreamed in the park. And
> those were just the accidents, independent of the teenage Torquemadas who
> intentionally inflicted all manner of torture. There were no junior high
> Geneva Conventions, and so almost everyone endured noogies, wedgies,
> swirlies, snuggies, sudsies, melvins, wet willies, pink bellies, Indian
> burns, Russian haircuts and Hertz doughnuts -- and a litany of other poetic
> means of coercion. 
> 
> That was then, this is now. Last year a 15-year-old boy in Gold Hill, Ore.,
> was charged with offensive physical touching for giving a 13-year-old boy a
> purple nurple. And therein lie two other reasons that recess is receding: 1)
> playground bullies and 2) fear of lawsuits over injuries incurred on school
> grounds. In Maine one school canceled recess for eighth-graders in an effort
> to end bullying, which is a little like scalping in an effort to end
> dandruff. 
> 
> It's a jungle out there, but you'll be hard pressed on most playgrounds to
> find a jungle gym, or monkey bars, or stainless-steel slides that in the
> summer months sizzle like a fajita skillet. Many seesaws are built with
> springs instead of the fulcrums that allowed one kid to jump off at the
> bottom, causing the other to drop abruptly, as if down an elevator shaft.
> And every piece of bubble-wrapped playground equipment -- excuse me,
> playscape equipment -- is festooned with labels that warn of deadly
> consequences for the smallest misuse. 
> 
> If all of this has you saying, "Give me a break," you've just voiced a
> universal human need. We all need a break. Some Teamsters get two 15-minute
> breaks per shift, the Supreme Court is in recess from July to October, and
> the third Thursday of every June is National Recess at Work Day, whose
> founder, Rich DiGirolamo, suggests that adults drop whatever they're doing
> next June 21 and "play tag and dodgeball, jump rope and eat watermelon." 
> 
> Surely seven-year-olds deserve to do the same. And so National Recess Week
> was observed in September, with Recess Rallies in schools around America.
> The PTA and the Cartoon Network are sponsoring a Rescuing Recess campaign.
> Something called the American Association for the Child's Right to Play is
> also eager to resuscitate recess. 
> 
> All of them agree with G.K. Chesterton, who wrote, "Earth is a task garden;
> heaven is a playground."
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> ***********************************
> Work like you don't need the money.
> Love like you've never been hurt.
> Dance like nobody's watching.
> 
> - Author Unknown
> ***********************************
> 
> 
> 
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