Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: TechMan on March 16, 2010, 12:12:45 PM
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/education/15recess.html?emc=eta1
Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has a New Boss
Richard Perry/The New York Times
Children at the Broadway Elementary School in Newark played one of Coach Brandi Parker’s games during recess.
By WINNIE HU
Published: March 14, 2010
NEWARK — At Broadway Elementary School here, there is no more sitting around after lunch. No more goofing off with friends. No more doing nothing.
Instead there is Brandi Parker, a $14-an-hour recess coach with a whistle around her neck, corralling children behind bright orange cones to play organized games. There she was the other day, breaking up a renegade game of hopscotch and overruling stragglers’ lame excuses.
They were bored. They had tired feet. They were no good at running.
“I don’t like to play,” protested Esmeilyn Almendarez, 11.
“Why do I have to go through this every day with you?” replied Ms. Parker, waving her back in line. “There’s no choice.”
Broadway Elementary brought in Ms. Parker in January out of exasperation with students who, left to their own devices, used to run into one another, squabble over balls and jump-ropes or monopolize the blacktop while exiling their classmates to the sidelines. Since she started, disciplinary referrals at recess have dropped by three-quarters, to an average of three a week. And injuries are no longer a daily occurrence.
“Before, I was seeing nosebleeds, busted lips, and students being a danger to themselves and others,” said Alejandro Echevarria, the principal. “Now, Coach Brandi does miracles with 20 cones and three handballs.”
The school is one of a growing number across the country that are reining in recess to curb bullying and behavior problems, foster social skills and address concerns over obesity. They also hope to show children that there is good old-fashioned fun to be had without iPods and video games.
Playworks, a California-based nonprofit organization that hired Ms. Parker to run the recess program at Broadway Elementary, began a major expansion in 2008 with an $18 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It has placed recess coaches in 170 schools in low-income areas of nine cities, including Boston, Washington and Los Angeles, and of Silicon Valley.
Playworks schools are not the only ones with organized recess games. In Florida, Broward County’s 140 elementary schools swapped recess for 30 minutes of teacher-supervised physical activities in 2007. Last year in Kearney, Neb., the district had a university professor and five students teach recess games and draw in students who tended to stand against the fence.
Although many school officials and parents like the organized activity, its critics say it takes away the only time that children have to unwind.
In Wyckoff, N.J., an upper-middle-class township in Bergen County with a population of 17,000, hundreds of people signed a petition in protest after the district replaced recess in 2007 with a “midday fitness” program.
“I just can’t imagine going through the entire day without a break, whether you’re an adult or a child,” said Maria Costa, a Wyckoff mother of three who said that every day her daughter came home feeling stress after rushing through lunch to run laps. “It’s just not natural.”
Recess has since been restored in Wyckoff’s middle school, and on alternating days in elementary schools.
Dr. Romina M. Barros, an assistant clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx who was an author of a widely cited study on the benefits of recess, published last year in the journal Pediatrics, says that children still benefit most from recess when they are let alone to daydream, solve problems, use their imagination to invent their own games and “be free to do what they choose to do.”
Structured recess, Dr. Barros said, simply transplants the rules of the classroom to the playground.
“You still have to pay attention,” she said. “You still have to follow rules. You don’t have that time for your brain to relax.”
Adeola Whitney, executive director for Playworks in the Newark area, said that the recess coaches used a playbook with hundreds of games and gave students a say in what they do.
“It’s not rigid in any way, and it certainly allows for their creativity,” Ms. Whitney said. “In some cases, we’re teaching children how to play if they can’t go to the park because it’s drug-infested, or their parents can’t afford to send them to activities.”
Each school pays Playworks $23,500 a year to run a recess program — Broadway Elementary is using a grant from Covanta Energy, which owns a waste-to-energy plant in Newark — and the rest of the expenses for training, equipment, after-school activities and field trips are covered through the nonprofit’s grants and donations.
It is not just about fun and games. At University Heights Charter School in Newark, another of New Jersey’s eight Playworks programs, students have learned to settle petty disputes, like who had the ball first or who pushed whom, not with fists but with the tried and true rock-paper-scissors.
“Recess used to end with bad feelings that would continue to play out in the first 20 minutes of class,” said Misha Simmonds, the charter school’s executive director. “Instead of recess being a refreshing time, it took away from readiness to learn.”
Ms. Parker, 28, the coach at Broadway Elementary, had worked as a counselor for troubled teenagers in a group home in Burlington, N.C. Besides her work at recess, she visits each class once a week to play games that teach lessons about cooperation, sportsmanship and respect.
“These are the things that matter in life: who you are as a human being at the core,” she said.
Broadway Elementary, with 367 students in kindergarten to fourth grade, rises above a rough-hewn industrial neighborhood in the North Ward. Nearly all the students are black or Hispanic, and poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
There are three 15-minute recesses, with more than 100 children at a time packed into a fenced-in basketball court equipped with nothing more than a pair of netless hoops.
On a chilly morning, Ms. Parker shoveled snow off the blacktop so that the students could go outside after being cooped up in the cafeteria during recess in the previous week. She drew squares in blue and green chalk for a game called switch, a fast-paced version of musical chairs — without the chairs. (She goes through a box of chalk a week.)
Ms. Parker, who greets students with hugs and a cheerful “hello-hello,” keeps the rules simple so that they can focus on playing rather than on following directions. “We’re trying to get them to exert energy, to get it all out,” she said. “They can be as loud as they want. I never tell them to be quiet unless I’m telling them something.”
Jose Salcedo, a fourth grader, volunteers as a junior coach, though he said that he and his friends sometimes missed the old recess, because “nobody would tell us what to do.”
Others, like Khizeeq Murphy, 10, say they look forward to playing different games every day. Before, Khizeeq said, he used to just run and dribble a basketball.
Kazmir Payne, a second grader, wishes he could have his free time back, but his mother, Kizzy, appreciates the more regimented recess.
“It’s better this way because that’s how other kids get hurt, when you’re horse-playing,” she said. “I think the more supervision, the better.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 15, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.
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Okay, let's look up the definition of recess ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recess ) 4 : a suspension of business or procedure often for rest or relaxation <children playing at recess>
How can a you have organized activities and compulsory participation in the above definition? Has this society lost it? (rhetorical question)
:facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:
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Organized lockstep free time. :facepalm:
I do not like Jose Salcedo and would rather play with Khizeeq Murphy. If you try to force me to play with Jose and not with Khizeeq there is going to be trouble. Just ask "Dr. Romina M. Barros, an assistant clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx who was an author of a widely cited study on the benefits of recess, published last year in the journal Pediatrics, [who] says that children still benefit most from recess when they are let alone to daydream, solve problems, use their imagination to invent their own games and “be free to do what they choose to do.”
Apparently academia did not destroy her ability to think. Shame all the others either lost that ability or never had it. "Structured recess, Dr. Barros said, simply transplants the rules of the classroom to the playground." Right there you have the whole thing explained -- extend the long arm of control over every aspect of the kids' lives, so that they become used to being told what to do and complying in lockstep. No, it is not paranoid [tinfoil] conspiracy thinking. It's just the sad truth.
stay safe.
skidmark
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The school is one of a growing number across the country that are reining in recess to curb bullying and behavior problems, foster social skills and address concerns over obesity.
I think this is more likely to retard social skill development. If you don't learn how to deal with bullies and other types of people in school, at recess, it's going to be harder to deal with them post-graduation in the "real world." Kids who behave poorly at regular recess will behave poorly in this mandatory P.E. period. Fat kids who sit around during recess are not going to be trying hard enough in mandated physical activity to get much benefit, nor will forcing them to do something they don't want to turn them to a life of healthy exercise habits.
The only social skills this policy develops is obeying authority, and being conditioned to less freedom.
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what happened to getting bruises and skinned knees? what happened to playing and talking and arguing with other kids? what happened to pretending the playset was a rocketship or racecar?
i'm glad i'm already grown up and done with k-12 schooling, but i hate to think how this is going to effect these younger generations...
tmm
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Do they not also have a separate PE or recess time other than lunch? We had recess after lunch and a PE class in the afternoon when I was in school. Are they cutting this stuff?
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Growing up in southern Virginia we had free rein during recess to do as we pleased in elementary school. Swing on the swings, climb, play ball, etc. Rain or shine with whoever we wanted to play with. Bell rings - time to go in - usually winded and well exercised.
We even discovered dinosaur bones and ancient civilizations!
Granted, this was the early 60's and we didn't have some of the distractions available today but I remember going back in ready to work. Most of us turned out pretty normal too, except for some occasional short term memory issues we developed a little later.
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Do they not also have a separate PE or recess time other than lunch? We had recess after lunch and a PE class in the afternoon when I was in school. Are they cutting this stuff?
MechAg94,
IIRC they have been cutting PE class in favor of more academic time to meet NCLB requirements or budget cuts.
-Andy
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In early grade school, we had recess . . . boys played softball, girls . . . well, did whatever they did for recess in those days. (Jumped rope or something.) Winter sucked, because we couldn't play softball in the snow and anything worthwhile (like snowball fights) was prohibited.
Somewhere around 5th or 6th grade, daily recess ended and was replaced by a once-weekly "gym" class. Boys played softball and girls . . . did whatever.
On those few times faculty tried to "structure" playtime it just didn't work out well . . . even as kids, we just didn't give a d@mn about "games" that we didn't want to play.
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Same here. If I wanted to go digging one day and play soccer the next, that was completely fine. Some days would be so windy that we used to convert our jackets into impromptu sails and have competitions to see how far we'd be propelled before hitting the ground again. :P
I actually miss the games of soccer played with 20 people per side on a 40-acre field. =)
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We don't need no education.
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In my time recess was a time for the boys to go clean the fish or the small game they had caught/shot on the way to school that morning and had cooling in the janitor's fridge. Oops - I mean Custodial Engineer. I spent the time currying my in-town horse since the pasture was next to the school. Except for the one time when I spent recess getting her out of the neighboring church. At least she didn't leave an offering.
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We even discovered dinosaur bones and ancient civilizations!
You too?!
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You too?!
Oh yeah. Frozen mammoths in the winter, T-Rex in the spring & fall.
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This is absolute stupidity. A school's job is to teach reading, writing, math and science. We're falling way behind in world scholarship because we don't hold schools and teachers accountable for the results they (don't) produce.
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adgljhaliudfkdafvbiahdvfkaldkdabkfldavhfadvlkfvdakhfgalikaf commies akhdlglkdglhavbfhadvfdalkhvhfvadlvfavhflavdlhfvalhfvhaldvhdalfvdahfvhdalgfdaiylfglkhabflkagdahhfadvlfv :mad: well that's about all i can say here. :angel:
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Paddy2010 - no, no, no. A school's job is to babysit children during the day so parents can work to provide all the extra-curricula stuff the kids go to and thus are babysat after school hours. Schools are there to keep Johnny from hitting Billy and learn conflict mediation instead of real world conflict deal-with-it. Schools are there to incorporate multiculturalism and race/gender tolerism in reading, writing, math and science. Schools are there to guide children in those awkward topics such as sex education, appropriate behaviors, and "tolerance". Schools are there to form a child's mind so thatc he/she fits best with society. Schools are there to save parents from parenting, from having to be responsible. And parents have made the public schools that way. And politicians listen to those whiny parents. Thus we have an overabundance of recess coaches and social workers and all the other staff and our property taxes reflect this.
Sorry to rant. After almost twenty years in working in the public schools I have a very sucky view of today's parents and schools.
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d
I think this is more likely to retard social skill development. If you don't learn how to deal with bullies and other types of people in school, at recess, it's going to be harder to deal with them post-graduation in the "real world."
We like our modern school bullies to be sitting behind the teacher's desk.
And While they can't hit you with a ruler, they can have you tazed, left behind a year and maybe institutionalized.
Step out of bounds and they can have you shipped to a de-facto prison that has a lot of non consensual sexual acts.
I know I've given up all hope for the school system and general and set my sights to my local district and my own eventual children.
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We only had recess in kindergarten. We had PE from 1st grade on up and we played tag and dodgeball.
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I had recess at least until 6th grade. I don't recall having PE before 7th, but I could be wrong. It's been a while...
Recess was free time, PE was structured.
Chris
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I had gym class and recess every day in elementary school in the 80s, then in junior high we had only 1 recess per day and gym class. In high school we had gym for freshmen and sophomores only.
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Do they not also have a separate PE or recess time other than lunch? We had recess after lunch and a PE class in the afternoon when I was in school. Are they cutting this stuff?
There are many districts that have gotten rid of recess (even in grade school!) in order to up the number of instructional hours. What's ironic is that flies in the face of actual peer reviewed research that indicates that children NEED something like recess to be able to make the most of instruction.
And PE classes have been cut substantially in most school districts. The only state that requires daily PE is IL.
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When I was in school (1991-2004), we had recess up until junior high (which was sixth-eighth grades). In Junior High and High School, we had 10 minute breaks between classes instead.
I'm pretty sure we had PE from at least third grade up until 10th grade. As a Junior or Senior you could take weightlifting classes, but they were voluntary. Might have had PE in first grade too (I skipped second grade, so I don't know if they had it then), but I can't remember; it's been too long. I do seem to remember some structured physical activities, but I don't remember if it was a regular thing or if it was just once in a while. Same thing with kindergarden and pre-k.
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High school and junior high had no required PE. Breaks between classes was 10min.
Elementary school had (IIRC) had two recesses and an hour-long "library time" every Friday. Really neat, since the K-5 school had 125 students total, was located out in the middle of nowhere, and the library was MASSIVE (multiple copies of every single Calvin and Hobbes book to date) with a 45-terminal computer lab. The playground had two basketball courts, 40 acres that we used for soccer, swing sets, jungle gyms, a slide or three... granted, all grades went to recess at the same time, barring unforeseen events, but we all got along for the most part. The recess "supervisor" was more like a mediator of sorts, being the sole official to determine if a ball was "out-of-bounds" or not, or if someone was hogging a jump rope or something.
Pre-K recess literally consisted of milking cows, gathering eggs, giving the livestock buckets of corn, and so forth. Something like a cross between a day-care and a work farm, but was loads of fun. Learned a heck of a lot about... a lot, really. =)
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The only social skills this policy develops is obeying authority, and being conditioned to less freedom.
QFT.....taking tests and moulding serfs seem to be the only purpose for public schools nowadays.... :mad:
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QFT.....taking tests and moulding serfs seem to be the only purpose for public schools nowadays.... :mad:
Is that a typo ^^?
I agree with your thought in the original and if it were a typo.
stay safe.
skidmark
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offtopic misspeled genraly worng pun by dumblant. :facepalm: speelin' intenchnal! =D
mold in schools (http://www.imakenews.com/pureaircontrols/e_article000108945.cfm), and i'm pretty sure there was at least one school in VA shutdown for the same reason. :angel:
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Is that a typo ^^?
I agree with your thought in the original and if it were a typo.
stay safe.
skidmark
I stand by both definitions.....