Yoga is Not Recess

Althouse has an article based on a study by Cornell University Anthropologist Meredith F. Small about the lack of activity by children in public school:


When we were an agriculturally based nation, American children used to work just as hard and contribute in the same way. But now, Western children are trained intellectually, in school, where they are taught to think about things as the entree to adulthood... Everyone sits quietly at their desks, thinking and thinking, just when they’d rather be out tending cows or weeding the garden. And then we think and think about why there's so much obesity.

Small goes on to state that education has become childcare in the United States and Althouse writes:

If what's really going on is taxpayer-funded childcare, then not only are taxpayers tricked into accepting paying for something they would reject if they knew what it was, but also children are being run through hours and hours of confinement performing exercises that are not honestly premised on benefiting them.

There's also that new study that says sitting is as bad as smoking. Since we wouldn't force kids to smoke, why are we forcing them to sit? We're even giving a lot of the kids drugs to overcome their disinclination to sit. It's like forcing kids to smoke and giving them drugs to help them smoke.

But not to worry, Joe Taxpayer and Mom and Dad! To combat the sitting required by the public school structure, you would think recess would help release those endorphins necessary for learning. Unfortunately, many recess times have been taken away from school schedules to make time for more testing and teaching requirements.

So what is a school to do? To settle down those pesky hormones and growth spurts of young children, some schools are calming those children instead of allowing them to expend energy by practicing yoga. The Wall Street Journal reports:

A three-year-old doing a downward dog? A four-year-old doing a cobra—and then helping a stuffed animal stretch into the same pose? .....Now thousands of schools across the country—as well as yoga studios and hospitals—are adding programs that teach children to do the exercises. In January, Paul Ecke Central Elementary School in Southern California added yoga to its curriculum for 650 students at $20,000 a year. Principal Adriana Chavarin says she has seen how calm and centered students are after practicing the techniques. At a recent assembly, students were getting restless as they sat on the floor. Then a few sixth graders spontaneously led the rest in yoga poses and breathing exercises.

"Every kid in the audience quieted down," says David Miyashiro, the district superintendent. "It's a different language they all speak now."

"It's a different language they all speak now." What language do you think that might be? What happened to children learning how to play at recess, create their own games and learn how to handle unstructured time without adult input? This is an important type of "language" children need to learn in free time. Is the type of "different language" children speak now necessary because they are not allowed to appropriately develop through child-centered play?

What do you do with children who need real physical release to function during the day? Some educators are concerned about this move away from recess. Here's a statement from The National Association for Sport and Physical Education:

"Recess ... may facilitate improved attention and focus on learning in the academic program. Cognitive abilities may also be enhanced by recess. Studies have found that students who do not participate in recess may have difficulty concentrating on specific tasks in the classroom, are restless and may be easily distracted. Recess serves as a developmentally appropriate strategy for reducing stress."

Many districts around the country (such as the Rockwood School District in suburban St. Louis) have reduced recess minutes to commit that time for mandated curriculum minutes.

Are we trying to make children adapt to the adult mandates placed on their day vs nurturing a child's physical and emotional development? Why do children need yoga to relax? Could it be because as recess is diminished, the students "may have difficulty concentrating on specific tasks in the classroom, are restless and may be easily distracted?" Is this a red flag that the daily schedule for children is not beneficial and creating stress? Is practicing yoga truly an acceptable replacement for old fashioned recess?

Do Parents in the Rockwood School District need to form "Recess Defense Groups"?

A parent in the Rockwood School District is concerned about the school requiring students to run a lap before they can enjoy recess. The parent believes recess should be unstructured time and questioned why the school would require a lap being finished before a child can enjoy some free time.

According to the parent, a counselor at Kellison Elementary School in the Rockwood School (MO) District responded to her question regarding this requirement and this is the parent's version of the school's answer:

"They cut P.E. from 5 days to 4 days. . .so the Recess Committee @ the School Board decided to make up for loss in one day of P.E., they would have the kids run a lap around... the playground everyday. She also said, "Well, it's not a REQUIREMENT" (stress on word requirement-- which makes me believe they were manipulating the kids in this to give them the perception that it WAS a requirement). When asked if the children were told they did not have to run if they did not want to. . .no they were not. The way it was laid out to the kids was no run, no recess... no questions asked.

We have informed the school that we are telling our children they have a choice in the matter and do not have to run if they do not want to. Their response was a short "okay". I recommend that every parent do the same with their children. We can't let the school manipulate the minds of our children, and teach them (by not addressing the issue) that that sort of behavior is acceptable. I refuse to let the government do it to me, and I refuse to let the schools do it to my kids."

I called a few people who have connections to Missouri public education schools. They all confirmed it is a DESE requirement to have a certain number of minutes per week for physical education. However, the school can CHOOSE to adopt the requirement in the manner of incorporating it into recess to allow more minutes for other instructional time in other areas. You may count recess time as a physical education requirement IF there is physical activity that would satisfy specific mandates for the PE requirements. It would seem the school is/was attempting to force children to use his/her recess time to fulfill those requirements.

Students have scant free, unstructured time in schools today. Schools are data-driven industries and free time available for creative thinking and activity is scarce. Children need time for physical release without the confines of state mandates or adult driven goals. This is not a new concern; read this 2006 Washington Post article on the increasing demands on student time:

Pressure to raise test scores and adhere to state-mandated academic requirements is squeezing recess out of the school day. In many schools, it's just 10 or 15 minutes, if at all. In some cases, recess has become structured with organized games -- yes, recess is being taught.
"There's more pressure than ever on teachers and higher-stakes accountability," Marinoff said, showing off the complicated charts he uses to plan the day for 550 children. Fifth- and sixth-graders get just 15 minutes of recess, and sometimes there's just no time for recess, so the teacher has to edge in a break.

This scenario may be happening at Kellison Elementary School. The constant pressure to perform well on standardized testing (which is going to become even more intense with the implementation of common core standards) puts children on a hamster-like wheel of education. They can't ever stop and just be kids and...play. If an action can't be applied to a measurable goal and checked off to satisfy an administrator's spreadsheet, it is discounted and cut down to a minimum, or combined with a mandate. The emotional development of children seems to be on the bottom rung of many educators to the peril of the children these same professionals are supposed to be serving:

"This is the one time during the day that they have the freedom, or the power, to control what they will be doing in terms of decision-making, in terms of negotiation, in terms of conflict resolution with their peers," said Audrey Skrupskelis, associate professor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina in Aiken.

"We were researching this issue of childhood obesity. One of the things that came out is [many] schools were planning to eliminate or reduce recess or had already done so," said Jim Samples, Cartoon Network's executive vice president. "Can you imagine if adults had to go all day long without taking a break -- a coffee break? It seems like an absolutely basic thing to me that kids need a break during the day."

Olga Jarrett, an early childhood education professor at Georgia State University, said the decline of recess is causing some playground games to die out, including clapping games such as Miss Mary Mac and jump-rope rhymes. "Children do a lot of transmitting of folk culture," Jarrett said. "When kids don't have recess, there's not another place where that tends to occur."

Clapping games aren't part of the plan at some area schools. In the rush to fight obesity and get kids moving, some schools are adding mandatory activities and exercise time during recess, guided by teachers. They say kids aren't as spontaneous as they used to be, perhaps because they spend so much time in front of televisions, computers and video games. So some schools are asking teachers to lead the way three days a week.

"Before we organized guided play, recess was just a free-for-all, with kids never organizing anything much more in-depth than a game of tag," said Steve Geyer, principal of the elementary school in Berryville, Va.

"They wouldn't organize soccer or relay races or any more complicated games. There needs to be a little more leadership involved," Geyer said.

Child psychologists say these programs may come at a cost.

"If it's structured, it's not recess," said Ford, of George Mason University. "It's not producing the same developmental outcomes."

Cartoon Network started a program called "Rescue Recess" to raise awareness of the danger of the demise of recess. Here is a Facebook page for this same purpose. Rockwood parents may want to join this group and also call the school to register their opinions on this encroachment of creative play.

I believe individual thoughts and actions aren't valued much today in public education. Those behaviors are rather hard to check off on a form to satisfy the state. Kudos to this parent for understanding the importance of a child being able to just be a kid. It's too bad the educators have lost that vision for the students.