February 27, 2009 1:55 am

Get Children Out Of Classroom

I’ve been saying this for years, and now the NYT opens an article on education with–“The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.”

Wait till they write about dodgeball!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The article goes on to say:

A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the association between better behavior and recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private school and class size.

The lead researcher, Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said the findings were important because many schools did not view recess as essential to education.

“Sometimes you need data published for people at the educational level to start believing it has an impact,” she said. “We should understand that kids need that break because the brain needs that break.”

Actually, its the parents who have been clamoring for all this performance testing and stuff. The thing is, while my 8 year old years are long behind me, I can rember the overwhelming stiffling oppression of classrooms back in the day when educational systems actually tried to make education fun. Filmstrips anyone?

Last month, Harvard researchers reported in The Journal of School Health that the more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests. The study, of 1,800 middle school students, suggests that children can benefit academically from physical activity during gym class and recess.

Just wait till they do these studies on cube farms.

Old Timer

Even with seniors there is a clear connection between physical activity and mental ability. Back when I was in grade school, it was understood that kids needed to burn off energy a couple of times a day. It was never clear if it was the kids or the teachers who needed recess the most.
Chicken Fat

What? Did Kennedy’s physical fitness program stop?
Publius

Finally some common sense is coming back. Anyone with kids knows they need to burn off energy.
anon

It’s not that easy. Let them outside to do what? Many variables are at stake here. It depends whether a decent playground is available with activity centers available for the kids. Second, for some kids, outdoor play creates an anxious situation where some fear how others might size up their ability to toss a ball or jumprope. Third, there are kids who always will gravitate toward “just hanging out with friends” and do not necessarily get the exercise the study makes reference to. As a result, unstructured outdoor play can encourage the subtle bullying that takes place in unmonitored situations (clique exclusion, exchange of words, etc.). Please, let’s use common sense here. Open the window a crack in the winter and let the fresh air into the classroom. Do some “energizer” activities inbetween those times when students have been attending for reasonable periods of time. Develop a non-threatening classroom where kids can exist without tension and laugh a little each day. Teachers no longer require children to sit in chairs all day the way we did when we were in school. Generally, there is reasonable, responsible movement in the classroom. I think a proper balance should occur between the different modalities of instruction and downtime. It’s not as easy as going outside. It’s more like conducting a beautiful symphony.
Old Timer

Recess was not unsupervised, a teacher was always outside with us, but a lot of the games were organised by kids and the teacher only got involved if there was bullying. There was a small group that did not participate in any games and just hung out, and they didn’t bother anybody. Most of them didn’t participate much in class, either, and were generally older than others in the same grades. The school was the old St Mary’s, a long time ago. Most of the teachers were Sisters of Mercy and wore the traditional habit (uniform).
Anon

#4, you’ve read too many books or have forgotten what it’s like to be 8. Opening a window a crack isn’t the same as running free. Kids don’t want a symphony, they want glee and bullying and anxiety can happen just as easily indoors as out. Recess is a form of learning for young children.
Anonymous

Children have actual Gym class, they also have Art & Music, which get them out of the class seats. They go to the Library. During class, they move around a lot, they don’t just sit and get spoken at the way we did in the old days. And – they have outdoor recess at lunch time EVERY DAY (unless the weather prohibits, in which case they have indoor recess in the Gym).
anonymous

Anonymous 7, you are correct. And on top of this, the children receive an EXTRA ten minutes of recess that is mandated from the district. The issue really is about instructional time. It’s time to take extras like “STRINGS” and the Academically Talented, and Artistically Talented programs into an after school venue so those children are not removed from what little there is of valuable instruction. And number 6 – glee is for after school and Saturdays, not during Math time.
nwlknative

Opening a window a crack and breathing in fresh air does not do it for me. Children need to get out in the sun and stretch, run, jump and just let loose for a little while. My grandmother used to say 10 minutes of sun a day will keep you healthy. She lived to 94, and was pretty healthy up until the very end, so I tend to believe her. I also noticed that the children who get to go outside and play are easier to handle when they are back in the classroom or home doing their homework and seem to be a lot healthier.
anonymous

yes, but are we talking during instruction time? That’s the point. We lose much time as it is.
anon

Oh, please. It’s not just about exercise that makes them perform better academically. It’s about healthy eating and whether kids are “available for learning.” Hopefully kids get a good night’s sleep and stay off the video games. Hopefully someone didn’t yell at them in the morning to set them off. Hopefully, they are feeling loved and supported in their personal lives. Hopefully we won’t be so apt to jump everytime someone does a study with questionable data.
Stupified

Honestly, you know what’s missing? Letting kids go outside to pursue good old-fashioned neighborhood games. Remember playing outside all day in the summer with kids of all ages? Out you’d go until someone called you in for dinner. They’d ring one of those hand bells or just yell your name and you’d hear it houses away. Remember those great games you’d play like Spud, Arrows, and Red light, Green Light? We’d even play in the street with no fear of cars. Come to think of it, there wouldn’t be that many cars. I remember everyone getting along and no one was ever bored. Now THAT’s what is missing today. Kids created games, solved problems, and got all the exercise they could handle. The school system can’t supply this.This is not the school’s responsibility. Get those kids off the Nintendo and into the backyard!
Anonymous

What’s missing, in all too many cases, is a responsible, supportive, caring family environment – and a neighborhood safe enough to play in outdoors AFTER school. And the job of fixing THAT mess is probably insurmountable.
Anonymous

This is unrelated to this thread, but I don’t know how to start a new one or get back to the other one. What happened to the nostaligic one about all the great old – and now gone – places to eat around here and things to do from the old days? It started with the SONO Diner and the new Walgreens, but it was just fun. And yesterday, out of the blue, came a memory and, being 62, I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the place – does anyone remember down in SONO, when it was just plain old South Norwalk but back when it was safe in the really old days, there was a candy store, on Washington Street, approximinately where the dining room end of Black Bear is, and you could go in and order up your own personalized box of chocolates. Of course my father and I always went to the hard caramel coated with the chocolate and then the nuts. But what was the name of the place???
anonnymiss

Don’t remember that, but I remember John’s Bargin Store and a place where you could get lemon ice in those little pleated white paper cup.
Secondhand Rose

My kid went to All Saints and they have recess every day, every grade, regardless of the weather unless it’s pouring rain – in which case recess is held in the gym. But they’re out there every single day of school.

As for any “bullying” that might occur, if the school itself didn’t foster a hierarchy of tattle-taling between students and room moms, there probably wouldn’t be any problems between the kids themselves. As it now stands, however, the room moms favor their own kids and their own kids’ friends and turn them all into little Nazis to tell on everyone else.

I personally feel that room moms are mothers who are too psychologically attached to their kids and can’t even consider the fact that their kids deserve their own lives outside of the home without a constant 24/7 supervision from one or the other of their parents. Whoever invented the concept of “room moms’ needs a psychiatric evaluation of their own.
Sono Girl

#14, I think you may be remembering Braachs candy store….?
Anonymous

17 – could be, I’m not sure I’d even remember the name if I heard it, but what a great memory! I’ve been looking for that hard caramel with the chocolate & nuts all weekend and if it’s anywhere, it’s buried in boxes of other stuff! Damn. With my investments in the toilet, shouldn’t I be able to have a little chocolate to relieve the stress?
Joanne

#16-When room moms first started their function was to oversee special occasions, holiday parties, field trips etc. Not sit in the room with their kids all day. There are teachers aids for that reason and if a mom wants to volunteer at school I think it should not be in their own child’s classroom. This many times causes problems for not only other students but their child as well. Volunteer in the library or pre-school but leave the teaching to those who are equipped to do so. If you want to be a room mom, do room mom things, but do it outside your childs classroom except on special occasions when there is a function that requires your attention. I was a room mom, I baked cookies, went on field trips, helped with christmas plays etc. I didn’t sit in the classroom all day. My daughter would have been mortified.
nwlknative

#14 – Wasn’t that Fanny Farmers? For some reason, that name comes to mind.
Anonymous

YES, thanks, it WAS Fanny Farmers! That isn’t helping me find that hard caramel stuff, but at least it’s stopped that annoying sensation I get when I can’t remember stuff these days.
Secondhand Rose

Joanne, room moms might have started out as a good idea but just like lots of other things, along the way the “good idea” became a twisted idea and pretty soon the kids were being used as little spies and tattletales on the other students.

I like your thoughts that the room moms should work in rooms that their own kids are not in, though. Maybe that would eliminate some of the problem, but it won’t eliminate it all. Some room moms get off on the power trip of playing favorites with certain kids. I’ve seen it plenty of times at All Saints, believe me. (And you’d think these professed Christian women would be above that sort of thing, now wouldn’t you?)
Joanne

Secondhand Rose, that goes on all over. My grandkids went to All Saints as well but that was one school that I was never privy to it workings. I went there for plays etc. but never in the classrooms. I have served on PTO’s for my daughter and my oldest grandson and there will always be click’s and power trips. I still think that room mothers have a purpose and that should be for social activities unless they are certified to teach and then they should be assigned to a classroom that is not their child. But then that is only my opinion and I’m certain others will disagree. I do have to say though that I commend parents involvement in the schools and I recommend it to those who have the time. I always loved doing things for the kids.
Anon

Joanne, I love you. You always make so much sense. You are a totally connected, grounded person. And wait! What’s this we see? You’re running again? For mayor, we hope!
Joanne

#24-thanks for the compliments. I’m hoping to run for Council…Mayor? I think thats a bit far fetched and out of my league. I’d have to give up my fundraising and other projects and besides, I doubt people want to see me running around city hall on a daily basis! ;0) Speaking of fundraising, Norwalk Bank and Trust on West avenue has been so kind as to set up a drop off for food for Manna House. I am so proud of Norwalk and how so many people have stepped up to help those who have lost their jobs and who have to choose between buying groceries and paying rent and utilities. Its not easy to tell your kids there’s mo money for 3 square meals a day. With the way things are going it looks like it will be some time before the economy picks up enough for people to find decent paying jobs to support their families.
A Norwalker

Go JoANNE Run for council. I know Doug & Rick miss you.
Sono Girl

#14, anonymous: You’re thinking about “Loft’s” candy store. i was on another site writing the same thing. So now you have that item of info.

As far as getting kids out and getting fresh air. I’m practically having convulsions here reading the entries from some people. Bunch of cookoos…………………….You want to stop crime?! Let all the criminals look at you. Here’s the solution: Have whole neighborhoods go outside and play outside together. How many of you remember when we had a blackout in the whole northeast in 2003. I do. My friend thought that Osama Bin Laden was back, but it was some electrical failure in Canada that affected this area. ANYWAY, what happened? Gee, what a novel idea, people started coming out and sitting outside, talking to their neighbors. By the time the electricity came back, around 10 p.m., people were still outside – in South Norwalk. Of course, I wonder if the same thing happened in those other areas, but the kids got out, and it was nice.

My point: Get the kids out, and go out WITH THEM!!!!!!!! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!