Ask any child what their favorite thing at school is and without a moment's hesitation they will say, "RECESS!"
In “Give Students Time to Play” Debbie Rhea explains:
Kids are built to move. Having more time for unstructured outdoor play is like handing them a reset button. It not only helps to break up their day, but it also allows them to blow off steam, while giving them an opportunity to move and redirect their energy to something more meaningful once they return to the classroom.
When a human sits for longer than about 20 minutes, the physiology of the brain and body changes. Gravity begins to pool blood into the hamstrings, robbing the brain of needed oxygen and glucose, or brain fuel. The brain essentially just falls asleep when we sit for too long. Moving and being active stimulates the neurons that fire in the brain. When you are sitting, those neurons don't fire.
www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/02/26/22rhea.h33.html
In another article I found that Anthony Pellegrini, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, emphasized that the new science of recess says that recess isn’t a waste of time at all:
Having recess is much, much, much better than not having recess…That’s unequivocal, I feel. That’s a no-brainer.
Pellegrini says, “because attacking recess has got this sort of intuitive feel: If you give kids more time doing something, they’ll do better in school. When in fact the opposite is probably the case.” Repeated studies have shown that when recess is delayed, children pay less andless attention. They are more focusedon days when they have recess. A major study in Pediatrics found that children with more than 15 minutes of recess a day were far better behaved in classthan children who had shorter recess breaks or none at all.
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Recess_Elementary/
One more fascinating article I found was “Get Tech out of Schools.” Researcher Patricia Greenfield argues that:
Precisely because young people spend so much time with digital media outside of school, schools must offer them a very different kind of education in order to even the cognitive scales. In Greenfield’s view, this means reading copious amounts of old-fashioned literature—just what young people are not doing (according to research) on their own time…. schools could also strive to provide more of the face-to-face contact, the in-person social interaction, that has been largely displaced by young people’s use of Facebook, Twitter, and texting in their off-hours.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/08/technology_in_the_classr
I’m obviously a believer in play and recess, and you must be as well if read my blogs. This is some powerful information that I hope you can share with your parents, administrators, and legislators!
Precisely because young people spend so much time with digital media outside of school, schools must offer them a very different kind of education in order to even the cognitive scales. In Greenfield’s view, this means reading copious amounts of old-fashioned literature—just what young people are not doing (according to research) on their own time…. schools could also strive to provide more of the face-to-face contact, the in-person social interaction, that has been largely displaced by young people’s use of Facebook, Twitter, and texting in their off-hours.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/08/technology_in_the_classr
I’m obviously a believer in play and recess, and you must be as well if read my blogs. This is some powerful information that I hope you can share with your parents, administrators, and legislators!
Note! Yes, I definitely support physical education, but children also need and deserve unstructured RECESS!
