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Push for middle school recess: Parents want city to give students a break

The good news is that parents are pushing for recess, not algebra. More good news is that the online comments at the newspaper, which are usually filled with hate and abuse from Loonytunes Land, are cogent and supportive of the need for recess in middle school. Here's one point made:



We are asking of teenagers to sit still and egnage in structured academic work 7 hours per day with a 21 minutes break to shovel down food. We don't need research to support say that this is an unreasonable expectation. Common sense says that it's unreralistic to think that teenagers are capable of sitting still at a desk 7 straight hours.



Modest Proposal: Everybody working with children should sign the Certificate of the Right to Play.

And also Bob the Workaholic.

By Molly Walsh

What's too old for recess?
's not sixth, seventh or eighth, according to a group of Burlington parents who would like daily recess to be a guarantee not just for young children, but also for tweens and young teens.

The parents want Burlington's two middle schools, Edmunds and Lyman C. Hunt, which serve students in sixth to eighth grade, to build daily recess into a schedule that currently has none. They’re also calling for fifth-graders to have a guaranteed recess every day. Current practice at some city schools, including J.J. Flynn Elementary School in the city's New North End, is to let teachers decide whether fifth-graders should be let out for recess. Children in kindergarten through fourth grade have daily recess at most city schools.

Recess for kids in pigtails does not look like recess for kids in pimples. Older children and teens are less likely to hang upside down on a jungle gym or sail through the air on a swing. But they still need a chance to unwind outside or in an indoor gym with their friends during the school day, said parents lobbying for more recess.

"I think they need that social and physical outlet during the day to just move around, get some fresh air and give their minds a break from everything they are learning," said Christine Horton, a Burlington mother whose two daughters are in sixth and eighth grade at Lyman C. Hunt Middle School. "I think it would be really helpful for their ability to retain what they've learned and do better in school."

Horton recalls that when her older daughter graduated to sixth grade and middle school, she was shocked to learn that recess would not be a part of the school day. "When my oldest went to the middle school, the first thing she said was, 'Oh, my gosh, there's no recess.'"

Recess is a staple at Vermont elementary schools. However, many middle schools phase it out, and it's essentially nonexistent in high schools, although high school students might have free blocks or open gym periods that allow them to relax between classes.

Several parents, mostly from Burlington's New North End, have gone before the school board twice this fall to ask for more recess and longer lunch periods at the middle schools, which now allot 21 minutes for the midday meal, plus three minutes before and after to get to and from class. The parents have also met with Burlington Schools Superintendent Jeanne Collins and the principal of Hunt, Linda Carroll.

No decision has been made, and administrators are studying the matter, Collins said Friday. She predicted it would be difficult to accommodate middle school recess in the school day. "I find it hard to think that we could do it without extending the school day," Collins said.

The middle school schedule is packed with courses in the core subjects as well as foreign language, band, gym and various specials that rotate in and out of the schedule — music, art, health, family and consumer sciences, and technical education. Many requirements are set by the state. "We have school quality standards that mandate the subjects we teach, and there's not a great deal of discretion in what we can offer and how long it should be," Collins said.

Parents who want more recess point to studies that suggest physical exercise cleans out the mental cobwebs and sharpens the brain. Collins said the district's commitment to physical education classes is a nod to such research. Sixth-graders, who are in their first year of middle school, have gym every day, for example. "That's one way we've tried to respond to the research that kids need physical exercise," Collins said.

Gym is not a substitute for recess in the minds of parents who want more of the latter. They point out that physical education is typically a structured class, often highly so, with a set activity planned by a teacher. They say students need a supervised recess to chat with friends, toss a Frisbee or turn cartwheels around a playing field if that's their fancy.

"It's about free time and unstructured time, for the brain and the health," said Bella Nadworny, a New North End mother of two children, including a fifth-grader at Flynn Elementary who will transition to Lyman Hunt next year.

Children need recess not only to relax and rest their brains, but also to let off steam that otherwise might build up and fuel misbehavior, she added. "There are so many reasons to do this."

As for the fifth-grade recess, Collins said she needed to study that issue before she could comment. Graham Clarke, principal of Flynn, said some fifth-grade teachers do a daily recess at the school and others don't. Students in the lower grades have recess every day, but district policy gives fifth-grade teachers discretion on the matter.

All 330 students at the school take a lap around the field after lunch, every day, he added. Clarke agrees that recess is valuable for many reasons. The more difficult question is when it should end, he suggested. "Clearly, college kids do not have recess, nor do high school students," he said.

So, should children in the middle years of their schooling have recess?

Yes, says Annika Ljung-Baruth, a Burlington mother. Her daughter is a student in a fifth-grade classroom at Flynn where the students do not have recess every day. "I think it causes some stress on the students because some classes go and some of them don’t." She'd like recess to be a daily guarantee for fifth-graders at Flynn and she'd like to see recess in the schedule at Hunt Middle School when her daughter goes there next year.

She doesn't agree with the notion that middle schoolers are too old for recess.

"Has anybody outgrown recess?" she asked. "I mean, we all need to get a break."

— Molly Walsh
Burlington Free Press
2009-10-18
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091018/NEWS02/91017012/Push-for-middle-school-recess

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