Hey, there! Log in / Register
Councilor: Bring back school recess
By adamg on Wed, 09/16/2015 - 12:37pm
City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) today called for a return of recess at schools that have dropped it due to the pressures of standardized testing.
Jackson said the decline in recess time has coincided with rising childhood obesity and poor behavior.
Jackson, chairman of the Council's education committee, said recess lets kids learn valuable lessons in learning to "negotiate with peers," blow off some steam from hours in class and just have a chance to be a kid.
The committee agreed with Jackson's request for a hearing on the issue.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
So, longer hours then?
Add 30 minutes to the day for recess and teachers can use the time for non-teaching stuff (grading, prep, training, etc...)
BPS is moving to a longer day, isn't it?
Hey, if it means the kids are
Hey, if it means the kids are a little less burned/hyper, I'll take it.
Bring back shop too (recently unemployed shop teacher here).
Schools not offering shop
Schools not offering shop anymore blows my mind. I (a girl) took shop for 3 years and it probably has been the most directly helpful high school class in my day to day life -- especially when my roommates have no idea how anything in the house works, have no basis for taking it apart to find out, or what tools would be good to fix it.
Testing has killed practical education....
I don't know if you were
I don't know if you were being facetious, but you realize that the kids need to be supervised during recess so you can't have all the teachers in a training or whatever at that time?
Rotation
If I remember from my elementary school years, recess was combined with two grades and the teachers would take turns supervising recess. During 3rd/4th grade, we had one teacher who had their classroom become an indoor play/art room. She could stay at her desk and keep an ear out for any problems (and if you were the sort that wanted to stay in and make yarn art or macaroni necklaces, you probably weren't too difficult to supervise.
When I took an intro to elementary school class in university, I was shocked that the kids only had 20 minutes for recess, twice a week. But they had two "snack times" every day, during which the students would pull out a second bag (that is, not their lunch box) which was inevitably full of chips, cookies and candy.
Full disclosure, I never was terribly enthusiastic about recess as a kid, especially when it was cold, but I'm sure I was the exception.
[deleted]
[duplicate]
Good.
It is unnatural for ANYONE, particularly little kids, to sit inside for 6 or 7 hours. I can't imagine elementary school without being able to blow off some steam, and I was a "well behaved" child!
Kids need recess
It's unconscionable for elementary school kids not to get the chance to get out of their seats and move around. Kids do better academically, as well as physically and socially, when they get recess.
Wait so
There are elementary schools that have zero recess?
That's ridiculous
Been that way for a while now.
The exigencies of teaching to standardized tests are often blamed for recess being cut, but, yeah, this has been a common thing for a few years now. Observers have blamed lack of recess for a rise in childhood obesity and also for a rise in childhood ADHD diagnoses, although I don't know to what extent those observations are supported by empirical evidence.
Not in my town...thank god.
They do 'teach for the test' for sure, but in my town they have not one but two recesses.
Gripes my butt that they only have gym two days a week. That's a load.
One of the reasons schools cut recess is because they don't want the kids playing fat-shaming games like...tag....nor do they want any kid getting hurt at anything. Because you know...lawsuits.
Insane.
And then we wonder why the kids are zoning out or acting up.
We had three breaks
Short ones in the morning and afternoon, with a longer one at lunch time -- more than enough time at lunch to eat and then burn up some energy. (This was at a Catholic school with pretty strict standards).
And still we are at the bottom
Collective MCAS scores remain mired near the bottom of the state - and are far worse once you remove the exam schools.
So we have among the worst performing schools in the state
An enormous budget
No recess
Limited athletics (because or enormous budget still has limited room for interscholastics)
Have to pay more to add a few minutes to the school day (even though it's during a time when the teachers are supposed to be working anyway)
And then there are the people who say we should dump charters and spend even more money on the schools - which I'm sure we will have to if we add recess to the schedule
How does that definition of insanity go again?
Recess is not optional
The developmental and cognitive benefits are very well established. Kids are simply not designed to sit all day, drill and fill, and still be able to learn. This is not how humans are made.
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/pdf/pape_executive_...
My kids had a teacher who added recess breaks and consistently produced the highest MCAS scores for 5th graders. Some complained that he got a "select" group of kids in his classes, but an analysis of ten years of students showed that it simply wasn't so.
He was doing other important things, but the rise in scores for some of the more disadvantaged and problematic students was clear, year after year.
Charter school data point
My kid is in a charter school and has recess. School also runs from 7:45 to 4pm each day so there's plenty of time.
Not arguing against it
amazed we don't have it and afraid of what it will cost us if we implement it. What I don't understand is we have this ENORMOUS budget and then you constantly hear that BPS doesn't even have enough money for books, pencils, computers, recess, sports and God only knows what else. How do we spend so much yet have so little and even less to show for it is the question.
One-word answer to your question
Unions.
That's how you spend the most, and get the worst performance.
{{Citation needed}}
{{Citation needed}}
I'll do you one better
Surely, Newton and Belmont don't have unions in their schools?
If only they would get rid of the unions, then we could have the quality of education they have in enlightened places like Louisiana and Mississippi.
The BPS has money challenges
The BPS has money challenges above and beyond anything to do with the BTU. Most people who aren't educators or policy wonks have little appreciation for the legal mandates of Special Education and English Language Learner laws. Our district has an incredibly high number of students in both categories - as do most urban districts - and this drives up the budget significantly. You can't simply ignore or underfund these areas, if you do you will get sued by the feds - this has happened many times and it's behind the current way of budgeting for these areas. Click on almost any school profile in the BPS and count the number of staff members who specialize in these domains, you'd be surprised. In fact the legal need for services is so great that many schools are going to a co-teaching model where you literally double the staff in each classroom.
Look at how much goes out of
Look at how much goes out of the classrooms to consultants, testing materials, prep for testing materials, tests and computers to take the tests on. Look at what the salaries at the Bolling Building total. That's where the $$ flows.
The primary base of expenses in education is service. Most of the expenses ought to go to salaries of those who have direct interactions everyday with kids - teachers, student support personnel, like OT and PT, school nurses, guidance counselors. At one point, several years back, there was one Court St (then) person for every 4 persons in a school. That is nuts!
So towns with some of the
So towns with some of the highest MCAS scores like Newton and Wellesley must have the secret formula right? They must have the best teachers and smartest principles. They must spend the exact right amount of money and their superintendents must make the best decisions. The length of their school day must be exactly right. RIGHT? I mean by your logic, if low test scores "mired near the bottom" are proof that everything is wrong with the BPS then high scores must mean that everything is right in those districts. Why don't they share with us the secret to success? If all these other districts can have high test scores will some one tell them to please let Boston in on the secret.
And then you bring up charters. Do districts with some of the highest test scores even have charters in their system? I bet most of them don't. I'm not saying that Boston schools don't need to improve, but please don't point to test scores as evidence that Boston should change it's budget or add more charters or have recess (which every school should) or really use it as evidence of anything at all. Thank you and good night.
Maybe having lots of poor children...
... and lots of children whose first language is not English, and who often need to switch from school to school as their families move, has something to do with the scores Boston kids get on MCAS. And maybe having to deal with these problems make the costs per child higher than in affluent, stable suburbs.
I think I see a solution
If BPS wants to improve its test scores, what it needs is ringers.
Test scores track household income very closely. Bring in more kids of middle-class or upper-class parents and the BPS test scores will magically improve.
Of course, you'd have to provide schools that someone with a choice would choose. That might be too hard.
Very hard
It would be very hard, because if this study is to be believed, "the beliefs that inform the choices of such parents are mediated by status ideologies that emphasize race and class." Even if you improve the quality of the schools a lot, many parents with money still won't choose to send their kids to them just based on the social status of the students.
Recess is a great tool at the
Recess is a great tool at the elementary school I work at. It's something the kids look forward to, they can get some of their energy out in a positive manner and also burn some calories from school breakfast and lunch.
It's great for disciplinary actions too. You act up as a class and minutes are taken off recess for that day or the next.
We noticed a big difference in negative behavior last winter when the students had to stay in all the time because of the snow.
Exactly
though I think the whole "because Kid X and Y misbehaved, the whole class misses recess" thing to be kind of nuts. It never seemed to lead to improvement in behavior from those couple of kids. But yes--kids in the bps have such a limited amount of fun associated with school. Not a lot of field trips, play time, music, art, theater, sports. Recess seems like the least they can do.
Counterproductive
Often the kids with the most nervous energy and impulse control issues are the ones that need recess the most to reset for the next session. It should never be used as a disciplinary tool - collectively or individually.
Recess is a great tool at the
Recess is a great tool at the elementary school I work at. It's something the kids look forward to, they can get some of their energy out in a positive manner and also burn some calories from school breakfast and lunch.
It's great for disciplinary actions too. You act up as a class and minutes are taken off recess for that day or the next.
We noticed a big difference in negative behavior last winter when the students had to stay in all the time because of the snow.
I'm a huge fan of recess
I take one every noon with a bike ride ;-)
Drop-dead gorgeous day today, got 33 miles in.
Kind of a long recess, no?
I mean...if your boss is cool with it, more power to you.
Get the job done
Yup, a little longer than usual, but only by about 20+ minutes. Gorgeous day, felt good, came to an intersection and went the longer way - because I could. Still end up working >8 hours and getting it done, boss has no issues at all. Long story short: When I interviewed many years ago, noon bike rides were a negotiated item.
Anyways, yes, I'm a firm believer in recess. Kids especially need a mental health break.
Agreed.
And these feel like the days where you have to take advantage and store up every bit of sun and fresh, crisp air. Sounds like a good negotiation to me.
Saul Tannenbaum How to evaluate a Councilor or Council candidate
By Saul Tannenbaum
How to evaluate a Councilor or a Council candidate
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cportneighbors/conversations/message...
Folks,
As some of you might know, I was invited to talk at tomorrow's CNA meeting about how Cambridge government works. Because there are so many Council candidates, that's been bumped to a future meeting. I thought, though, it would be worth stealing a little bit of my own thunder and talk about how I think voters should assess Council incumbents and candidates.
It comes down to one thing:
Ask incumbents how they've spent their time; ask candidate how they will spend their time.
Let's say your issue, the one you're passionate about is the need for ferret-friendly parks in the City. You ask a Councilor about it and they say "I passed a Council order about ferret-friendly parks. I'm the best friend your ferret could have."
That gives you no information.
They could have written an order that lauds the ferret-friendly parks of Portland and Vancouver, talks about the critical role recreational ferrets play, and asks the City Manager to consider ferret-friendly parks.
A couple of months later, the Manager replies with a report that says that the City has always been in the forefront of making animal-friendly open space, will continue those initiatives and make sure that they reflect the diversity of pets kept by Cambridge residents.
What's been accomplished is, well, nothing, except the Councilor's ability to rally the ferret interest groups. "Please give me your #1 vote, because your ferrets are #1 in my heart."
But, if the Councilor really wanted to effect change, they'd have held committee meetings, bringing in ferret owners and advocates, have the City discuss its animal-friendly park policies. They could have used those meetings to demonstrate how underserved the ferret community was, and how Cambridge's policies simply weren't in line with progress, animal-diverse values. You'd see City staff beginning to take ferrets seriously and the policy order would include specific, actionable steps to create ferret-friendly parks. Or, more strongly, the order could actually change Cambridge ordinances, establishing an open-space right for ferrets. By spending time on an issue, the Councilor signals to the City staff that they really care, that they're going to follow what the City does, and that staff will have to keep coming to ferret meetings until they're satisfied.
If you doubt this is how Cambridge works, I offer as an example municipal broadband.
The Council, over a period of a decade, passed 17 policy orders about broadband or wireless connectivity in the city. The only thing that actually made progress was a Digital Divide committee, into which Henrietta Davis invested a great deal of time. That committee, despite the lack of any official sponsorship, actually still exists and as late as last year, got volunteers to climb all over Newtowne Court during the winter to fix wireless. (If you want documentation of the 17 policy order claim, see this https://www.cctvcambridge.org/CambridgeMunicipalBroadband and scroll down to the bottom.)
So, when it comes time to meet and greet candidates, don't just ask them for their positions, ask them how they're budgeting their time. Policy orders can be easy, real change is hard.
Oh, and my apologies to any ferret lovers or haters offended by the mail. I, for one, am agnostic on ferrets.
- Saul
--
Saul Tannenbaum
saul at tannenbaum.org
blog:
http://saultannenbaum.org
Read http://CambridgeHappenings.org a daily Cambridge news summary,
curated from fresh, local sources.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cportneighbors/conversations/message...
Tito
I often consider him a bit of a blow-hard, but I like where he's going with this one.
Hmmm, which schools?
I would like to see a list of BPS elementary schools where there is no recess. This has not been my BPS family's experience in multiple schools over the years. Maybe, Tito is talking about high schools but obesity problems start long before that.
I'm all for recess but it does require supervision and that's sometimes a staffing problem. Teachers understand the link between healthy bodies and healthy minds. If recess has been eliminated at some schools, I doubt very much that it has much to do with standardized testing. Many schools contract with Playworks and hire a coach to run recess.
I look forward to the hearings to learn some facts.