Recess in Schools

[Deleted]

Moved this point from another thread because it didn't really belong there.

I think middle school (and perhaps high school) needs a recess option. Recess is important! People need to get out and run around once in a while. And I'll tell you why it's beneficial: there's no one telling you what kind of exercise you have to do like in P.E. Adults also enjoy tree/playground swings. I'm almost 17 and I have a tree swing that I love. Also, I find that running or moving around in general, for me, sparks creative thoughts and ideas. You know why you don't get that in PE? You're too busy trying to keep your heart rate up or run the whole mile. Not much time for sparks. And people need those sparks! They lead to great ideas, which often lead to making the world better, and as a result, making the person happier. If you must insist against a playground, let the older kids and teens at least run around outdoors and have fun that way. We will shake off stress and return to school full of wonderous thoughts.

Please, take into account everything that I have said about this, and please, try to address all my points.

[Dju]

(( As you can see, Dju is really good at staying logged off and away from the NTWF! ^-^ Sarcasm))

You mean recess like a break time? My school has both PE classes and break time, and honestly I think PE classes should remain the way they are because on break nobody goes out and play, people are lazy now days. And even on PE classes people simply sit and chat while some play games (I honestly prefer running because I always end up hurt on games with balls, so yeah. Me runs a lot. XD).

Exercise is great, but not everyone likes it. Each person has their own way of getting inspired, and even though I believe everyone should practice sports it's not up to me, we should all make decisions for our own bodies. ^-^


((If you excuse me now I must go on semi-semi-hiatus before this turns into a triple semi-hiatus XD))

[Tiger]

My middle school had recess. All we had was a big, boring field where the guys ran around like psychopaths. Most of the year, it was freezing cold and nobody really wanted to be outside anyway, so it was fifteen minutes of misery.

Not everyone enjoys running around. To be honest - I hate running. I'll walk for my health, but y'know, I'm not a huge fan of exercising. I don't get a creative spark from it. Not everyone does. Some people just get sweaty and tired, or too amped up to just return to class.

What my high school had were two fairly long lunch periods, and granted, we had a lot of space on campus. Some of my friends played baseball in the bus loop, and there were a number of walks.

But in the middle of a high school day, when everyone's tired from being up early and sitting through half a day's worth of classes, most high schoolers aren't interested in running around. Yes, exercise helps get you going, but most people don't realize that, and will spend more time groaning and complaining even if you try to make them.

Besides, as I believe Lupehunter mentioned on the other thread - in some high schools, you have to walk a pretty good distance if one class happens to be on the opposite side of the school from your previous one. That time gets built into the day, so you can easily have an hour total that's just passing time. Most people would rather go home at two or three or whatever time they get out than have an extra half hour or so thrown in for recess.

[Komori]

While I agree that every person can benefit from some free time to play (I even just finished watching a lecture about play on Hulu), I don't really think schools need to institute a set time for it. That just makes the school day longer! I'd rather have that play time outside of school to do what I want to do, rather than force outdoor time. Not to mention, Virginia gets maybe 20 good weather days a year, and every other day is too hot, too cold, or too rainy.

I had recess in elementary school, and none in middle school, and I was glad to be rid of it. During recess, the teachers practically required we spend it running/jumping/moving, while I much rather sit against the wall and read.


Recess is school-controlled "freedom." I'd rather just have regular old freedom, thanks. :B

[Luna]

I had recess until I was in 5th grade, and now that I'm in middle school, I honestly I don't want recess anymore. In middle school and high school you have options to play sports and run around if you want to, and not have to if you don't want to, besides P.E. I can walk down to my elementary school or go to a park and swing if I want to (I don't know if everyone has this option).

I also agree with Dju, not everyone likes exercise. And we have a 5 minute break between each class, so we have time to chat and things.

[Nimras]

I agree that people need to get outside and be more active in a freestyle like manner, but I'm not sure that school is the best way to do that much after elementary school. There are are couple of different reasons.

First of all, elementary school has a very ordered structure, while middle school/JR. high have very chaotic schedules, which means that scheduling classes so that they don't compete with scheduled free time in the available green-space would be nearly impossible. For example, at my university the gyms and pools are free for student use when there isn't a class in session, and the vast majority of the time I want to go for a swim, I either get kicked out after 5-10 minutes by a class, or when I show up there is a class already in session. The same goes for the track, though I am lucky in that there is another track closer to my house that is for public use all the time, so I'm not really losing anything there.

Secondly, for me having that free time would actually be detrimental to my learning, so I'm kind of unable to follow the "sparks" argument. It takes me too long to change gears -- even when I had recess I spent it all in the library because if I went and ran about, I'd be unable to stop and then focus quietly in class. I'm simply too wound up at that point. I personally do much better with an extended class time, with a 10 - 15 minute break. Any longer than that I my brain starts going off on to its own tangents, and getting it back into "learning mode" can take a good 20 - 30 minutes.

There's also safety. An elementary school is pretty much in lock-down, with the children being supervised by adults, in an enclosed area. My junior high and high school had a study-hall type period were students could wander about more, and many of them simply left for the day ("skipping") -- or went down behind the outbuildings where track equipment was stored and smoked. They caught the building on fire a couple times. The most activity you ever did see was people playing hacky-sack. No one went to the track or played on any of the gymnastic features. Incidents of people going to the nurses office did happen a lot more during this time, but that's because bullies would use the time to be physically violent and intimidate people (though that was 90% in junior high -- high school was more from burns from trying to sneak smokes).

Now what my junior high and high school had that I think was completely brilliant was athletic clubs. They were mandatory, but you got to pick which club you were in, and they met twice a week (there were also mandatory academic clubs that also met twice a week -- Fridays were no-club days). You could be in the long distance running club, the sprinting club, the hurdles club, the fencing club, the weight lifting club, ect. You could even create your own if you could find a staff member who would agree to be the honorary "teacher" for the club. The clubs were basically the first hour of the school day, and the club got to create their own schedule and pretty much do whatever they wanted, as long as it pertained to the purpose of the club in some way. For me, I think this is a much better practice than just a free-for-all free-time. It gave the students practice in planning, working in groups, and a chance to be both physical and really creative at the same time.

[Huntress]

...Storytime =D

I'm a teacher. (Something I'd rather forget mid-July, but heck.) Our school system has 45-minute classes, with 10-minute breaks inbetween. It also used to have two 20-minute lunch breaks but this last schoolyear, the schoolhouse got renovated and the entire school body was temporarily moved to two other buildings, with the teachers running between the buildings during those 10-minute breaks. Due to that, we had one period at around noon when the students went to the old schoolhouse to have lunch in the cafeteria. Which, seeing where we live (arctic circle, basically xD) meant daily trudging through blizzards for the better part of the schoolyear. We the teachers brought our own lunches and stayed in because argh blizzard.

But my actual point was, the schoolday started at 8:00 sharp, and on average middle school and high school students have seven to eight periods a day. Due to the long lunch hour, the last classes ended at 3:10 in the afternoon. With the buses and whatnot, many students got home at around 5, which means that during winter, they didn't even get to see sunlight when they got in and out of the house. I myself got home at 6 on average (and got up at 6 a.m. to get to work). The ten-minute breaks between classes were just an extra source of annoyance because it was literally enough time to run from one house to the other and bolt to the next classroom, but we buckled down and took it like men because longer breaks would've meant even longer schooldays. When the exam preparations came up, the senior classes sometimes got off at 9 p.m. I'm not even remotely kidding.

And that long lunch hour inbetween, that recess... you'd think that the students used the chance to run around outside and get some fresh air. We did think so, in fact. Result? Even if the weather was nice and non-blizzardy, the students all went out at the start of the lunch hour, got back not even twenty minutes later and then sat around in their classrooms listening to music or having a smoke outside if they were old enough for us not to tell them off for it. Basically, one third of each recess was spent on getting to and from the cafeteria, and the rest sitting in the classroom playing cards.

[Deleted]

Here's a point I thought might be related: the fact that people think teens on the playground are "creepy". I find that very, very insulting. Because I think of you NTWF teens who would never hurt a little kid. I want to be able to play, too!

Right now, I detest with a fiery vengeance every single person who has hurt a kid on a playground. You have ruined my life completely, and given an innocent girl a bad name. I hope Xandra drops islands on you creeps.

((NOTE: the above paragraph is just a vent of emotions and I certainly don't want islands falling on anyone. And, obviously, none of it is directed at anyone on this forum.))

((Also, changed the title so this would fit this debate))

[Komori]

Jul 18, 2011 14:35:58 GMT -5 @saeryena said:

Here's a point I thought might be related: the fact that people think teens on the playground are "creepy". I find that very, very insulting. Because I think of you NTWF teens who would never hurt a little kid. I want to be able to play, too!

(It seems Sae-constructed threads are all full of tangents, aren't they? )

Teens on playgrounds are pretty skeevy, because they're usually up to no good. And teens in groups in general tend to be a fairly destructive lot. Whenever a public playground gets vandalized, it's because a teenager did it.

That's not to say every teenager hanging out at a playground is going to destroy it. But playgrounds aren't really built for them (most equipment is usually built for tiny bodies), so there's no really good reason for them to be there. Let the little kids have the chance to play.

[Deleted]

Jul 18, 2011 14:41:11 GMT -5 Komori said:

Jul 18, 2011 14:35:58 GMT -5 @saeryena said:

Here's a point I thought might be related: the fact that people think teens on the playground are "creepy". I find that very, very insulting. Because I think of you NTWF teens who would never hurt a little kid. I want to be able to play, too!

(It seems Sae-constructed threads are all full of tangents, aren't they? )

Teens on playgrounds are pretty skeevy, because they're usually up to no good. And teens in groups in general tend to be a fairly destructive lot. Whenever a public playground gets vandalized, it's because a teenager did it.

That's not to say every teenager hanging out at a playground is going to destroy it. But playgrounds aren't really built for them (most equipment is usually built for tiny bodies), so there's no really good reason for them to be there. Let the little kids have the chance to play.

But where am I gonna go? The only hope for me to live my childhood fantasies are castles in Narnia, then.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Sae, as mentioned previously, while having a recess for high school students may seem like a good idea on paper, in reality, it's not. With the large amount of students in a single building, each student with a unique schedule, it will be near impossible to coordinate recess at the same time. As well, specific classes are located in a specific area, so a student might have to travel from one end of the school to the other (especially for larger high schools), making recess a moot point if the person has to take 10 minutes to get to class (it's the main reason why high schools have buffer times instead). As well, because a student's schedule is custom and not standard, one can, if they want to, create their own breaks.

As for the 'spark' argument, clubs or extracurricular activities should do the trick if a person's not into exercise. And not all people get sparks from moving around during a break, as a few people already mentioned.

[Dju]

(( I'm back! See what you did to me, NTWF? You got me addcited. SHAME ON YOU. I love all of you and our epic debates!))

Actually, teens and adults are always on playgrounds. But it's just disguised as an academy, a climbing wall or rollerskates. People lose interest on playgrounds as they grow up and move to more exciting and dangerous things because playing areas were designed to kids and can't keep up with our constant desire of adventure and risky experiences. *-* That's why teens love rollercoasters! <3

[Tiger]

Jul 18, 2011 14:43:56 GMT -5 @saeryena said:

Jul 18, 2011 14:41:11 GMT -5 Komori said:

(It seems Sae-constructed threads are all full of tangents, aren't they? )

Teens on playgrounds are pretty skeevy, because they're usually up to no good. And teens in groups in general tend to be a fairly destructive lot. Whenever a public playground gets vandalized, it's because a teenager did it.

That's not to say every teenager hanging out at a playground is going to destroy it. But playgrounds aren't really built for them (most equipment is usually built for tiny bodies), so there's no really good reason for them to be there. Let the little kids have the chance to play.

But where am I gonna go? The only hope for me to live my childhood fantasies are castles in Narnia, then.

*shrug* My friends and I are "too old" for playgrounds, but we just go to parks where there aren't kids around so we aren't being creepy. I mean, if you aren't doing anything wrong there, don't worry about what people are thinking. And - please do not take this the wrong way - but as a girl, Sae, people aren't going to be that suspicious of you doing harm to their kids. Setting a bad example, maybe, but probably no worse than that.

[Cow-winkle]

As has already been said here, not everyone loves running around as exercise. Some people like the monkey bard, but others prefer organized team sports, or going to a fitness centre, or solo-sports.

I went to a pretty small school, and there weren't sports clubs. There were teams for people who were really serious about specific sports, but that didn't include me at all. If I had tried to join one of those teams out of the blue, that would not have been a pleasant experience for me or anyone else on the team, since I'd start out having no idea what I was doing.

One thing I think my school did right was a) to allow "free blocks" in our schedule, provided that we still fulfilled all the academic requirements each semester, and b) a "Strength and Conditioning" class as an alternative to P.E. in grades 11 and 12. Rather than go out, attempting to play a sport I didn't understand and make an idiot of myself, we could to a local fitness centre on our own time outside of school, where we had a set workout to perform and where we could keep track of the number of hours we worked out, the requirement being 120 hours by the end of the school year for a passing grade.

I imagine if we'd had mandatory sports clubs to choose from, at least there would have been a couple other people in the same boat as me, with reference to my complete ineptitude at all physical activities ever.

[Nimras]

Oh yes, rockwalls are a perfect example of teen playtime! *luffs her rockwall climbing* Far too much of a liability for your average school to have, but so much fun.

Most of the teens I know IRL are constantly out doing things, it's just not during school hours unless they're competing in a school sport. My nephew Kris does stunt skateboarding. My niece Bailey is both on the school basketball team, and on a soccer team for girls that's not school related. My other nephew Kody goes mountain biking and clamming, crabbing, and ocean fishing (which are really physical), and his sister Kaitlynn plays volleyball. Most of these activities are after school and on weekends, and have nothing to do with school. But they're very, very active (and with the exception of Kaitlynn, are all on honor roll /bragging aunt).