Getting Rid of School Recess

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Getting Rid of School Recess

At most middle schools in Bozo School District, there are no morning recesses. Recesses are an option at the school district and most secondary schools have opted to have none. This must have been allowed through the Bozo School District Board; nevertheless it violates federal and state law, not to mention that it hurts the developmental well-being of the student and student-body.

There are many "reasons" which have helped rationalize away school recesses. Even at elementary schools, free play time has been reduced, and the extent of creativity, as far as I can make out, physically, is also less motivated because the students are relentlessly watched and monitored.

Children who grew up during an earlier generation remember long morning and afternoon recesses, in addition to school lunch hour. During these times, the staff would hardly ever be present; these were times when children learned to play games and negotiate their play territories. Of course there were fights and small intrigues, but these were accepted as part of growing up. Even if they seemed long and boring sometimes, school recess and lunch hour were formative parts of my life.

We did not grow up being watched by security guards driving around in golf carts, using their walkies-talkies to relay anything they suspect they see which they think is out of the norm.

When I remember the fun and exciting parts about schools in general, they are never about what happened inside the classroom. They are mostly about what happened on the playground, day to day. Even if there were school yard bullies, I would still prefer that over no recess at all.

Recently, a school official cryptically explained why there is no morning recess at her middle school:

Students at this age don't really need a break. It's not necessary.

Of course there are short-term advantages for not having school breaks. Due to austerity measures, school districts are finding new and creative ways to cut corners. Maybe there is some trade-off between being offered free or reduced breakfasts and lunch, and even afternoon snack. Maybe there's no need to offer students the motivation to get rid of extra carbohydrates they gain.

Seriously, reduced school times mean a shorter school day. 8:00 to 2:30 is the new norm at many schools, with extracurricular activities or after-school programs being optional. Activities after 2:30 depends on what is allotted for each school with regard to extracurricular programs. With only a lunch break, students receive 6 hours of class time. Teachers, especially substitutes, don't qualify for  benefits that come with a full 8-hour day. Aides and clerical staff can be scheduled for 3-1/2 hour work shifts which circumvent the labor laws on mandatory rest breaks.

With a more intense schedule, and more technology in the classroom, one would expect more quality school time, however my observations at various schools prove otherwise.

My work mostly involving learning challenged students, such as those with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, slow learner, English Language Learner, these students definitely become restless, fidgety, and inattentive without routine breaks. At the middle school level, that energy becomes disruptive, particularly when there is no other time to expend it. This happens regardless of how creative or technologically advanced the teaching tools are.

The class clown, the rebel, the misfit, and the sociopath are subselves which in normal environments are not the dominant personality of the student. Without recess, these students resent having to sit still, focus on the teacher, and other routines which disfavor their latent interpersonal auditory kinesthetic learning styles. Without the benefit of a natural sociological setting, they become the victims of the school system favoring quietly competitive learners.

In the larger picture of the school-prison pipeline, the security fine-tune the implementation of routines for clamping down on, reporting, suspending, or expelling students who are repeatedly disruptive. Studies show that disaffected students don't realize that suspensions and expulsions are designed to further weaken their performance levels. These students often become labeled by the teachers to the extent that they never get the attention that they need to learn.

In Bozo Land, our school board president, who is the executive administrator of Bozo School District, has cleverly gotten around having to be held accountable for poor school performances. Thus, these students are graduated from one grade to the next, but in fact, their ability to read and their reading problems only compound over time.

Purposely Undermining Teacher Morale

Bozo School District has a vested interest in undermining the morale of unionized teachers. It's been at odds with the teacher's union for a long time and the negotiations have been protracted and painful. They don't want to have to pay the costs of long-term unionized teachers whose health and retirement costs are weighing down the state system.

Hiring many younger substitute teachers, the school district has developed a new system for at-will employees, employees who are easily driven to the extreme ends in neurotic behavior and with unquestioning conformity. The long-term teachers openly regard them as scabs who don't believe they have any kind of employment rights beyond the well-advertised decent pay. (They even collude among themselves and stage conflagrations that help get substitutes poor evaluations on purpose.)

But even normal adults need rest breaks to attend to physiological, biological, or psychological needs. Breaks allow the main consciousness to rest and recuperate; it enhances creative thinking skills. There is a reason for the federal labor law mandating a minimum 10-minute break every two hours.

Online legal experts at Nolo.com describe the law on how workers should receive rest breaks which should be scheduled "to the extent possible be in the middle of each work period." Thus every four hours, there should be a ten- to fifteen- minute paid break for working adults at the two-hour mark.

Federal law requires employers to pay for short breaks an employee is allowed to take during the day. Breaks lasting from five to 20 minutes are considered part of the workday, for which employees must be paid.
 

Unfortunately the law is increasingly ambiguous due to attrition among the unionized labor force.

With the new army of lockstep substitute teachers, why should anyone believe that students actually have any real rights? Once they pass through the gates of the school, whose borders are bounded by iron-fencing, the students are regarded as institutional property. Parents no longer have rights over their children; cell phones must be turned off. The parents are politely but firmly pushed out of the gate or herded to the front office where they are told what suitable activities they may participate in.

 Folsom Prison Photo by S. Worrell

Students are not voluntary workers

    
Apparently learning and classroom work is not very hard work at all, and since the students are unpaid, they are not statutory employees, therefore, recess has become optional. Isn't it more likely, however, that from the standpoint of Bozo School District, giving the students and teachers recess may pose a kind of danger to the security state?

Students and teachers may become capable of independent nonconformist judgment and questioning. They may even become capable of independent organizing. Never mind that it might be for the sake of improving the community, of which the school is a legal part of, but which it often presumes that it is operating as a privileged government franchise. Anything not sanctioned by the school, even a club to pick up litter, has to be viewed as a security threat.

Thus, it's not surprising that some of the permanent teachers, driven to the brink by the threat of the substitutes, by the administrative demands, and by a crowded classroom of learning challenged and bored, restless teenagers, have become so mad, that they accuse anyone offering to actually help the students with their challenges, of being mad.

My opinion is that security risk or not, all schools K-12 should have mandatory morning and afternoon recess. Here is one expert who agrees with me. Caralee Adams writing about "Recess Makes Kids Smarter" at Scholastic.com:

Research shows that when children have recess, they gain the following benefits:

•     Are less fidgety and more on task
•     Have improved memory and more focused attention
•     Develop more brain connections
•     Learn negotiation skills
•     Exercise leadership, teach games, take turns, and learn to resolve conflicts
•     Are more physically active before and after school

[Georgia State's Olga] Jarrett maintains that recess has benefits over gym class. "With recess, children have choices and can organize their own games, figure out what's fair, and learn a lot of social behavior that they don't learn in P.E.," she says.

The supporters of recess are many. NASPE recommends elementary school children have at least 20 minutes of recess daily. The American Academy of Pediatrics says play is essential to children's development and cautions against decreased time in school for recess. Three out of four parents say recess should be mandatory, according to a survey by the National Parent Teacher Association. Eight of 10 principals polled in 2009 say recess has a positive impact on academic learning.

In addition, Liz Weaver, founder of Learning Success, a program to help dyslexic students learn, offered a free hour long video "Three Strategies for Overcoming Dyslexia"  explaining why cross motor skills, activity, and coordination are found to be beneficial especially for students with dyslexia. The philosophy of providing training to stimulate cross-brain growth is related to not just knowledge acquisition, but physical movement and coordination, such as learning new sports. In fact, this explains why several friends I know who are dyslexic enjoy outdoor sports so much. They are unconsciously seeking to stimulate and better develop the kinds of cross-brain connections that help them learn better, whether it is through ping-pong, basketball, fencing, or martial arts training.

 Summary

The doing away with school recess is a district policy that is counterproductive from the standpoint of beneficial long-term development. It further handicaps students experiencing learning challenges. It creates class divisiveness because good students suffer as well. It inhibits any kind of independent thinking and nonconformist discursive formations. It deters teachers from following healthy practices in conformance with federal and state labor laws. It lends credence to the idea that the schools and district can enact draconian school monitoring and surveillance, punishing and clamping down on anyone they feel is a threat to their power. Finally, it stifles parental involvement and discussion about what ought to be an essential part of their neighborhood community, instead enhancing the image that schools are gated communities above and beyond reproach. It curtails honest sincere connection with the concerns and needs of community neighborhoods whose children the teachers serve.

Thumbs down on no school recess!