Ree-di-q-lus

I was watching the news tonight. They did a piece about recess, and the increasingly popular trend of either downsizing, or eliminating recess altogether.

According to the piece, and from data I've found on the internet, there are two primary reasons for wanting to eliminate recess. The first is that because US test scores have declined for quite a while, there's a school of thought that says we need to use recess time to teach the kids and that somehow this extra time will teach kids more, and thus make them smarter. The second reason is liability. School administrators are concerned that if something happens to the children while at recess, some legally minded parents might come after them, whether it's a broken leg playing kickball, or being shot by a stray bullet.

Regardless, you can't eliminate recess. That's silly and heavy-handed. Kids need to be kids. We can figure out some other way to raise test scores and improve our educational system.

If you'd like to read some more, go here.