A facebook friend recently posted an article about how some schools are looking at removing recess breaks from their school days and completely rethinking their schedules. Rather than provide a break (or breaks) mid-morning or mid-afternoon, they were going to provide their "recess" right at the start of the day. Lunch time was also reduced, making for a shorter day in the classroom.
At first glance, this seems completely nuts. Why on earth would anyone think it is a good idea to take breaks away from young children? Comments said things like "this is cruel" and "how can we expect young children to sit in their desks for hours on end" and other similar sentiments.
My first instinct was the same...this couldn't be a good idea. Could it?
Then I thought about my own classroom. I teach Kindergarten. My students do not get recess. Where I live and teach Kindergarten is usually a half-day program (except in designated high-needs areas, where it is full-day). Does the fact that my students do not have "recess" mean they are sitting still all morning? Absolutely not!!!
At this point in the school year (almost finished!) my students are definitely capable of sitting and attending to something for a longer period of time than in the fall. By "longer" I mean....like 12 minutes instead of 5....*if* I make sure I keep it engaging and interesting. All morning? All through a lesson? Nope. Not a chance.
Movement breaks are built in to my teaching times. Sometimes my actual lesson objectives are delivered or enhanced with movement activities. If the kids seem particularly wiggly I will throw in an extra movement break of some kind even if I didn't plan to. We stretch, we dance, we stand up and sing action songs, we do jumping jacks....
This is just good teaching practice...you can tell when your young learners are fading...their eyes start to glaze over, their little bodies start wiggling...and you know it is time to get up and move. The suggestion that kids are sitting for every minute they spend in the classroom seems absurd, at least to me. I suppose I can only speak for what I do in my own classroom.
So, now that we have established that the children in my room (and in most primary classrooms, I think) do, in fact get opportunities to move, there is another thing I started to think about.
I think about the many times when my students are engaged in a lesson or activity...concentrating, enjoying, learning, communicating...little light bulbs going on all over the room...it is awesome! It is exciting! All I want to do is keep it going. But then I glance at my watch and realize that we are going to be late for gym (or any other non-flexible scheduled activity). As great as gym or library or any other activity is, it is disheartening to have to stop the learning that is taking place. Once they have been taken out of that groove, it might not be so easy to just jump back in. With my Kindergarten schedule I do have a bit more flexibility than some of my colleagues, simply because we do not have recess. We have "centre time", which is play-based learning time. This is one less interruption for us. We can have more fluidity, more flow to our time.
My understanding of the reasoning behind removing "recess" is that they wouldn't be removing breaks. Rather, the teachers would be free to determine the best time for the breaks, to allow more flow and flexibility to keep something going if it is going really well, or cut something shorter if it is not going so great. This would be beneficial to learning in the classroom in many ways. It would also have some definite downsides.
The first thing that comes to mind is that this would be difficult on children who rely on routine. All children like routine to an extent, but for certain learners it is crucial. A change in routine can throw these children off completely. This year I have a student who has had full-scale meltdowns (kicking, screaming, crying, rolling around on the floor, etc.) because he didn't bring his communication folder to school. Part of the morning routine is to bring the folder in and place it in the bin to be checked by the teacher. The fact that he couldn't start his day the way he did every other day was incredibly distressing to him. He also had a meltdown at the end of those days when I couldn't hand his folder back to him. I imagine students like this trying to function in an environment where recess or a break could potentially be at a different time each day.
Another downside would be the increased likelihood that students are only interacting and building relationships with children from their own class, rather than having the opportunity to get to know many different students from other classes and other grades. Having the opportunity to make friends and build relationships with children from other classes is important to the development of the school community.
Finally, I got to thinking about unstructured play itself. I began to think back to my own childhood. When I think of truly "unstructured" play, I do not think of recess at school. Yes, children are playing, and yes they are usually able to play as they please. However, it is heavily supervised (as it needs to be) and likely often influenced by adults, either because the adult is stepping in to referee what is happening or because a child is seeking out assistance unnecessarily.
Truly unstructured play occurred in my life when I went outside, often for the majority of the day and roamed the neighbourhood freely. Sometimes I roamed alone. Other times I roamed with a pack. We would play at the playground, roll down the hill, ride our bikes, climb trees... or in the winter we were skating, tobogganing, building forts, and climbing the big snow hills left by ploughs.
And yes. I scraped my knees more times than I can count. Other kids were mean to me. I was mean to other kids. I got dirty. I cried. I argued with the neighbour kids. I lost toys. One summer I delighted myself in riding my bike around the boulevard (around the ring...we used to call it) and whispering swear-words. Once I poked a dead bat with a stick (hey...at least I didn't poke it with my finger!). I was not a perfect angel. Somehow I survived and managed to turn myself into a law-abiding, productive member of society. Imagine that.
Our world has changed. These days are long gone. Children do not have this kind of freedom anymore. Sometimes I think they still should. Other times I think it is better that they do not. Regardless of what we believe, things are different. We live in a world where some children barely see the light of day anymore. It is daycare - school- daycare - organized sports/clubs/lessons - bed. Wake up tomorrow and do it all over again. Or, they spend most of their down time in front of a screen of some kind.
Is it really all up to schools to ensure that children are getting enough unstructured play time? I don't think it is. Families need to make sure their children (and adults) have time to breathe and play and imagine. We may not be able to turn kids loose in the neighbourhood the way it was when I was a kid, growing up in the 80s in Saskatoon. But my goodness....could we let kids run around with a little freedom, without stepping in and controlling every aspect of their play? Maybe the shy kid who just let the pushy kid strong-arm their way down the slide prematurely just needs to be frustrated enough to learn to speak up. But...here comes Mommy or Teacher or Playground Supervisor to rescue him/her....again. Sometimes we just need to let kids be. There are definitely moments when someone needs to step in. Absolutely. But how many times could the children sort it out on their own if we would just let them?
I don't agree or disagree with the idea of removing recess from schools. I see the positives and negatives for both sides of the discussion. I do think that it is worth taking a deeper look.
No comments:
Post a Comment