As an advocate, it saddens me every time I get another call or email from a parent who is distressed that their child has been "kept back" from recess again. Usually, if the parent finds out at all, the reason given is that "the child chose not to finish his/her work" or that the child "chose to misbehave."
I believe that children in general do want to please adults, and do want to finish their work in class. If s/he didn't finish, are we looking at whether the child understood the directions? Understood the concepts? Maybe s/he has an undiagnosed or underserved learning disability and needs extra time to finish. Maybe they stayed up too late the night before and are having a hard time focusing this morning. In any event, keeping children in from recess seems more like a punishment than a Positive Behavioral Intervention or an effective instructional strategy. You can be sure, though, that the kids just see it as a punishment.
And why are Recess and Physical Education so important? The increase in childhood obesity is so alarming that our schools should be doing all we can to promote health and fitness. We've reduced PE time in our elementary schools, so that sometimes the only time during the day a child gets an opportunity to run around outdoors is during recess. For some kids with disabilities, recess may be their only opportunity to interact with typically developing children. PE and Recess are valuable time periods to start kids down the road towards long-term healthful habits.
pssst: Dr. Weast: there's a study out that finds that recess even contributes to academic achievement! Read it HERE.
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