Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Chapter 20, page 283 - The Future
"School administrators from elementary grades straight through high school need to keep the physical needs of all kids, but particularly boys, in mind. Specifically, they need to ensure that our children get ample recess - not just time away from schoolbooks but free time, preferably outdoors, to run around, socialize without restrictions, engage in imaginary play (yes, even tag), play ball, and make plenty of noise. We also need to make sure that more movement is integrated into the school day. An hour of daily physical education would be a good starting place."
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Yes, I agree. Physical Exercise is important and vital. Yes, one hour a day would be great. But reading this in the book and again here on the blog, I'm annoyed because it is just not that simple. We are all so stressed for time and the kids are stressed. We are sharing our recess space with other schools. We have test prep, theatre, one hour of math, 3 hours of literacy is recommended, etc etc etc. It's just not that simple to give them one hour of recess.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Lenore - there's just not enough time in the day to do it all. But if this is truly a vital need that our students have and a priority for us, than perhaps we need to let something go in order to make room for this. Sharing the gym and recess yard with other schools does make this more challenging, but we need to think outside of the proverbial box. We have access to the Campos Plaza gym, there are lots of parks and playgrounds within walking distance, there's clubs... It's not simple but we need to figure out what our priorities are and act on them.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I think allowing for enough time to be physically active will serve as a release valve on some of the pressure you mentioned above. It's like the NYT article stated last week - gym and recess may actually help to improve the achievement of students in their academic work.