Our Little Prisoners Sit down. Face forward. Complete these papers. Score high on these tests. Oh, and the only break you will be getting is 22 minutes for lunch which you get after four hours of grueling busy seat work. Feel like a prisoner or like a student? Students are being required to sit through tortuous seven-hour school days while receiving only a short lunch break. According to award-winning journalist Denene Millner, "Studies suggest that as many as 40 percent of schools nationwide have cut recess" (120). Millner also exclaims that, "Prisoners get more time out on the yard than the fourth-graders at my kid 's school" (119). Recess seems to be an activity of the past as schools move toward a more work based curriculum for young
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Essentially recess helps promote cognitive development. Early childhood education department chair of Alma college, Dr. Peggy Thelen, agrees stating, "I am in favor of having recess and longer recesses in general because cognitive development is closely linked to physical development. If we do not allow children to exercise and play outside for sustained periods of time we are standing in the way of their learning." Dr. Peggy Thelen, an experienced expert in the early childhood field, demonstrates that children need recess for physical activity so that they can later on in the day focus and learn. The physical activity helps give the mind a break in order to be able to fully absorb new information later on. University of Minnesota 's Education psychologist, Anthony D. Pelligrini, agrees with Dr. Thelen in his book School Recess and Playground Behavior: Educational and Developmental Roles: "When children sit still for prolonged periods of time they accumulate surplus energy; therefore physical activity in recess is necessary to "blow off," or use up, this surplus energy so that the children can then concentrate on the more sedentary tasks of the classroom" (4). Children will be unable to learn if they are forced to sit through a six to seven-hour school day with only a short break for lunch. Pelligrini is describing how sitting in a classroom setting causes children to build up excess energy and they then need an outlet for that energy in order to refocus (4). It is no secret that as human beings our brains get overwhelmed at times. I can personally remember sitting in a classroom when I was in elementary school and experiencing this ordeal. Bad weather often led to no recess. I remember the struggle of getting through the days with no recess. By the end of the day I felt as
Essentially recess helps promote cognitive development. Early childhood education department chair of Alma college, Dr. Peggy Thelen, agrees stating, "I am in favor of having recess and longer recesses in general because cognitive development is closely linked to physical development. If we do not allow children to exercise and play outside for sustained periods of time we are standing in the way of their learning." Dr. Peggy Thelen, an experienced expert in the early childhood field, demonstrates that children need recess for physical activity so that they can later on in the day focus and learn. The physical activity helps give the mind a break in order to be able to fully absorb new information later on. University of Minnesota 's Education psychologist, Anthony D. Pelligrini, agrees with Dr. Thelen in his book School Recess and Playground Behavior: Educational and Developmental Roles: "When children sit still for prolonged periods of time they accumulate surplus energy; therefore physical activity in recess is necessary to "blow off," or use up, this surplus energy so that the children can then concentrate on the more sedentary tasks of the classroom" (4). Children will be unable to learn if they are forced to sit through a six to seven-hour school day with only a short break for lunch. Pelligrini is describing how sitting in a classroom setting causes children to build up excess energy and they then need an outlet for that energy in order to refocus (4). It is no secret that as human beings our brains get overwhelmed at times. I can personally remember sitting in a classroom when I was in elementary school and experiencing this ordeal. Bad weather often led to no recess. I remember the struggle of getting through the days with no recess. By the end of the day I felt as