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Ask any young child what time of the school day he loved and you will probably hear that it is a break. Often a break is the only time children can play on busy school days, and it is short: the average length of a break is 25 minutes a day. This time can benefit children and their teachers, research shows: more children attentiveproductive and better recognizable after a break. Primary school principals reported this rest has a positive effect on students ’ability to focus. The American Academy of Pediatrics even took a stand on recreation in 2013, calling it “an important and necessary component child development ”and stating that this should not be abandoned.
However, even a short break is far from guaranteed in schools across the country, as I reported in a post posted last week on practice of holding a break. On any given day, young children are taken a break for study or behavior and they should stay inside, walk in circles or sit on the sidewalk and watch their friends play. This is a long-standing and common punishment in schools. Yes 86 percent of teachers refused or reduced rest time as punishment for conduct. While in the short term this may work to force some students to comply quickly, experts say such practices can be harmful in the long run and possibly worsen behavior.
“When we take that away, we’re not working in our own interests,” said William Messi, an associate professor at Oregon State University and a researcher who focuses on play, physical activity and child development. “If your goal is to have more regulated and engaged, productive children in the classroom, removing opportunities for them to move – that’s the worst way you can do it.”
Part of the problem with curbing such practices is that teachers may not have the support to deploy some of them. alternative methods Game enthusiasts and child development experts say they should be used instead of a break. Many schools lack social workers, counselors, and other resources that could help teachers understand the root cause of difficult behavior. And at the state level laws and policies Break solutions vary widely and often have loopholes that still allow children to miss:
- A handful of states there are laws that set a minimum number of minutes for a break each day or week, but those laws may not mention a break. Parents in one state with a mandate told me that the break is still taken after the children reach that minimum time.
- About one-third of states generally require a minimum amount of exercise time every day or week for elementary students, but may not mention a break. This time of physical activity can be met through breaks, but also through physical education or other forms of movement that do not give the benefits that children get in unstructured free games.
- Some government agencies or committees offer schools best practice advice on break policies, but do not set requirements, effectively leaving it to district or even individual school elections.
- Nine states do not decide to break through any official laws, guidelines or policies, according to a review of data collected by Hechinger King County Play Equity Coalition.
States are also very different when it comes to using a break as a punishment:
- A a handful states generally require that physical activity should not be contained as a punishment, which may include breaks and physical education.
- Several states decide the break, some stronger than others. So far Illinois the law states that all public schools must prohibit delays in playing time as disciplinary or punitive (unless student involvement poses an immediate threat to someone’s safety), Rhode Island the law says teachers must make a “conscientious effort” so as not to delay breaks. New Jersey the law states that schools may not delay breaks more than twice a week and only for violating the district’s code of conduct.
Due to the lack of public policy, some counties have committed to establishing their own rules for recreation, although interviews with parents in three such counties – Minneapolis, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas – performance may be weak. In some areas there is still room for procrastination. In Wichita, for example, in district policy argues that physical activity should not be “regularly” used or denied as a result, leaving teachers and principals to decide what is considered “routine”.
There are also school districts that make break breaks part of their official discipline by identifying it break in custody as a possible or mandatory consequence for different behaviors. These counties often make these effects public handbooks for students. If this is the policy, then parents are not eligible for protection unless the school or county adopts a new policy or a state law is passed. (Studies show that lawsrather than district politicians, have the biggest role in protecting vacations.)
Jessica, a Kentucky-based father who said her last name would be ordered because she feared school officials would retaliate against her and her child, last year tried to organize fellow parents to support a law that makes removal illegal in this state. break for punitive reasons. She has little progress. The district in which Jessica’s son attends lists “detention at school (lunch / break)” as an intervention that will be used for a variety of behaviors, including “talking in response”, regular lateness or failure to comply with a “reasonable request” from a teacher or school official.
Jessica’s son, who has a sensory impairment, said that in kindergarten and first grade he was often detained on vacation for things like falling out of a seat, fuss or playing with pencils. Instead of playing, he had to sit on a bench next to the teacher and watch his classmates.
Jessica said the punishment affected her son, who is now 8 years old, and his self-image. “He came home quite often very upset,” Jessica said. “He told me,‘ I’m not allowed to play on breaks because I’m bad. I’m a bad kid. ” Eventually she hired a lawyer who helped enforce official special education documents to give her son more opportunities to move to school.
But nothing prevented Jessica’s son’s teachers from resorting to punishment. Kentucky has no law protecting vacations. And 2015 state legislative report found that teachers in two-thirds of Kentucky schools “usually refuse a break” for behavior or skipping work. In 2016, in response to this report, the Kentucky Department of Education released leadership allowing schools to credit breaks as study time under certain conditions. If this is considered so, the break cannot be revoked as a punishment. Otherwise, it may be withheld “at the discretion of the district or school”.
Although the state allows you to hold breaks, Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass said in a statement to Hechinger’s report that he did not recommend using the break to punish students, noting that it “could be counterproductive, leading to more the number of problems in student behavior ”.
Despite attempts to curb this practice, this spring Jessica learned that her son, now a third-grader, is again occasionally losing part of his vacation. She understands the need for teachers to follow the rules through consequences, but she disagrees that a break is a punishment.
Teachers need more “modern options,” she said. “It is completely unwise to punish a child who cannot stay in place by taking away the time he has to move to make him linger. It’s just ridiculous. “
This story about the break recommendations prepared Hechinger’s report, a non-profit independent information organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Subscribe to Hechinger Bulletin.
