Educators ponder ending recess

In Michigan, state-ordered increases in the number of instructional hours are chipping away at the number of recesses.

Instruction minimums were 900 hours as recently as the 1994-95 school year. This year the minimum is 1,041 hours. In the 1999-2000 school year, it will be 1,098 hours.

The shift has some educators concerned.

"Because you teach more doesn't mean children learn more," Debra Lang, assistant superintendent of elementary education for Bloomfield Hills Schools, told The Oakland Press of Pontiac for a story yesterday.

"What we know about student learning is, if we give them a break to move around, they learn more."

All of Oakland County's 28 school districts still have recess, said Shelley Yorke Rose, spokesperson for Oakland Schools.

The anti-recess movement got an attention-grabbing boost when public schools in Atlanta became the first major city to eliminate recess in favor of intensified academic pursuits.

"There's simply nothing I have read or that I have done that would encourage me to remove recess - in fact, quite the opposite," Lang said. "Some of the recent brain research seems to indicate that if we give students the chance to move around a little bit, they come back refreshed and better able to deal with the task at hand and learn more efficiently."

Students agreed.

"I've got to go out with my friends and be a crazy little kid," said fifth-grader Laura Rubens of Bloomfield Hills' Conant Elementary School. "I normally run around with my friend, play tricks on the boys."

Another fifth-grader, Shaina Kandel of West Bloomfield Township, said Saturday that recess is important.

"We need time to socialize and run around," the Ealy Elementary School student said. "Teachers would get mad because we would get hyper, and there would be no time to get the hyperness out.

"If we don't have time to socialize outside, we'll do it in the classroom, and the teachers will get mad because we're talking."

Sandra Faber, principal of University Hills Elementary School in Rochester Hills, says instructional requirements should not include the elimination of recess.

"I know that we're mandated to continue adding instructional time to our day and that it's legislated by the state, but I hope that recess is not the way that we do that because it's such a necessary part of child development," she said.

Another principal said she understands the thinking of the Atlanta school officials.

"I know what they're saying in terms of, we have a lot to teach," said Sharon Ivascu, principal of Oak Ridge Elementary School in Royal Oak.

"Overall, academics is first and foremost, but what does it take to get good learning and good teaching?" Ivascu continued.

"Sometimes it takes movement; sometimes it takes getting the chance to go outside and interact with their friends."

04-13-98