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Why Recess Is Necessary For Elementary Schools

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Highlights In the article Recess Makes Kids Smarter, it makes a case for why recess is necessary in elementary schools. It starts off talking about Nelly Torres, who is a parent at Chicago Public Schools, and how her first and fourth grader didn’t have recess until last year and even now it is only a 10 minute brake once a day. The cut back on recess was brought upon with the No Child Left Behind movement outing pressure in the school work and good scores. This made recess seem like a waste of time that could be used to improve scores. A few things are starting to support bringing recess back with the high childhood obesity rate and The First Lady talking so much about children’s exercise. The NASPE says that the children should get at least 20 minutes of recess per day. Some reasons why schools have also cut recess back is because of lack of proper supervision, the risk pf injury, and bad equipment. There are some solutions like getting a blacktop painted with cement games or having outside non-profit organizations come in and supervise. Having a time of day not structured by teachers gives the children a chance to socialize and solve conflict and problems on their own. It also allows for the children to let go of some stress so they can return to recess refocused and ready to learn. Another problem is that in schools with recess, 2/3 of principals say that they take away recess time to punish children for misbehaving. Studies have shown that the children most likely to
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