Eliminating Recess In Schools

Alarms set up for seven a.m. Children yawing and hesitating to sleep a bit more. Parents giving them a final call to get ready. Some Recess is the beginning stage that helps foster social development in children. Throughout the day, during class hours, children are asked to remain silence, pay attention, and if any discussions are allowed they are to be teacher-directed. Children cannot develop the proper social skills in a classroom because everything is structured. Children need to have that unorganized play in which they are free to socialize and explore on their own because being social is one of the main components in a human’s life. As a child is set free from the classroom and steps foot onto a playground during recess time, one can

As reported by Anthony D. Pellegrini in his article The Recess Debate: A Disjuncture between Educational Policy and Scientific Research, he explains how recess is devalued and it is assumed to be a waste of time. Pellegrini further explains how schools main interest is having children focused in standardized testing. Pellegrini as well discusses how Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Benjamin Canada has made national news for proudly eliminating recess. Canada has claimed that by eliminating recess, the student’s academic performance has raised. As well Canada stated, “Recess is a waste of time, and kids do not learn by hanging on the monkey bars” (182). The main argument is that recess does not prepare children for testing and that recess time is better off given to teachers because teachers will use that time effectively to have children prepared for their yearly testing. The reason behind this is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed by former president George W. Bush in 2002. The NCLB forced schools to be accountable for the quality of education that they provided to their students. The NCLB act specifically made students take and pass standardized testing to prove that they have learned the basic English and math skills appropriate for their grade. This act had put school’s faculties and especially instructors under a lot of pressure because if students did not meet their expectations, the schools will not get funded. That is why schools started considering that recess should be left out of the school curriculum, so that teachers can have more time of the day to improve the student’s