As everyone knows by now, there are districts that are eliminating recess and physical education because they want that time to devote to test preparation.
The test scores determine who will get a bonus, who will be fired, and whether the school lives or dies.
This is awful for children. They are active, growing, and in need of a break from study.
Now comes more evidence that physical activity is good for mental activity.
Actually, physical activity, play, unsupervised play is good in and of itself.
Whether it is walking, running, jumping, playing games, or just messing around, children and adults need time to engage in unsupervised activity.
This is the time when imagination runs free and children can be creative. They don’t choose a bubble; they aren’t stressed. They dream and imagine and live in other worlds than the one we have constructed for them.
Last year, I attended the Aspen Ideas Festival and I was invited to a private event where Secretary Arne Duncan spoke. The event celebrated the publication of a book by a friend of his who runs an organization called Kaboom. Kaboom enlists volunteers to build playgrounds; it has built over 2,000 of them. Secretary Duncan’s wife is affiliated with Kaboom (she was identified that way in the video introducing Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention).
At that Aspen party, Secretary Duncan spoke in a heartfelt way about the value of unsupervised play, the need that children have to “tinker” and make things without someone telling them what to do.
I was very impressed, but for the fact that only days earlier, the U.S. Department of Education had issued guidelines about testing children in kindergarten, first and second grades.
Please help me. How can one value unsupervised play time while judging children by test scores?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They bloviate and contradict themelves all the time. I don’t even think they listen to what they say.
How about following a pacing guide and giving the same tests on the same days and staying in lockstep with other teams, but hey don’t forget to INDIVIDUALIZE and DIFFERENTIATE!
Yes, I am schizophrenic and so am I.
These people couldn’t even pull off what they expect us to do every day.
No one can pull off what they expect us to do.
It’s simply a case of “if you can’t dazzle ’em with your brilliance, baffle
’em with your b.s.” The snake oil sales pitch. Politicians’ poison.
However, judging from the discourse in this blog, we cannot be fooled. Be not disheartened–the jig will be up soon.
Diane, it’s very easy. They say what sounds good to the audience to whom they are speaking. But it’s not really what they believe. They believe what is most expedient for the moment. They have no true core values of their own; just the ones that people buy and pay for them.
Don’t worry, they’ll figure out how to Taylorize play.
Here in Connecticut, another Alice in Wonderland of “education reform,” the legislative initiatives that added multiple levels of new testing and assessments while tying teacher evaluations to standardized test scores also mandated that elementary school students have at least 20 minutes of recess.
No legislator had the courage to stand up say that since we can’t do both of these things, let’s have two votes so parents can see where their elected officials actually stand. Instead they combined the vote and legislators can say I’m for tough standards AND physical activity and play.
In one nearby school, the “solution” has been to reduce the number of “specials”. (Art, Music) and those teachers are now on recess duty.
The “education reform” movement is not just about moving as much public money to private corporations and consultants, what is at stake are some of the most important elements that made this nation the land of imagination and creativity.
This is nothing new. I caught a radio interview about a book called “SPARK” by Dr. John Ratey, the co-author of “Driven to Distraction”, the landmark book on adult ADHD. It inspired me to buy the book and it was shocking to read about the real medical evidence of the contribution of exercise to all aspects of the human body, especially the brain in terms of educational and emotional growth.
A local elementary school did a test program, bringing in college students to add a school-wide physical education program, based on “SPARK”. The school day started with all the students participating in exercise and movement. Surprise, surprise, test scores went up and behavioral problems went down. And, it didn’t even cost anything.
Thank you again, Diane, for another great post.
Your title, “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body” is at the heart of student achievement issues.
With the U.S. childhood relative poverty rate at 23.1% according to UNICEF, tackling this issue is long overdue. See the following website which charts the U.S. childhood poverty rate relative to 35 other economically developed countries. It’s interesting that Finland is at the top of this chart and the U.S. is at the bottom. This is the data that the “reformers” should be focused on.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/30-6
Here is an article which discusses specific childhood health problems and how these impact student academic achievement.
http://www.epi.org/publication/a_look_at_the_healthrelated_causes_of_low_student_achievement/
This link should work.
http://www.epi.org/publication/a_look_at_the_health-related_causes_of_low_student_achievement/
Because Mr. Duncan doesn’t have a clue about what children need and what schools need. I really do not understand why President Obama selected him as Secretary of Education.
The New York Times did a story over the summer (dated July 10, 2012) of how in NYC they have many, many schools, especially elementary schools that have no gyms, licensed PE teachers, and they are getting cut back more and more.That all of the places that the auditors visited at the elementary school levels had NO PE That 20% of HS students do not take any PE classes at all during the week. Now admittedly they do have a one semester of heath requirement, so they are supposed to get it daily for three and a half years of the “four”. But they are even starting to cut it back more. Going 3-2 instead of five days a week. Fits guidelines, but the Mayor who wants to stop selling big sodas because they are a health hazard, runs a city that has not filed a PE action plan with the state since 1982…they are supposed to be in every seven years. In one of the city council meetings the mayors rep was asked why if we are so worried about obesity are we cutting PE, and the response basically was, soda bans are cheaper.
And we all know that the President, Messrs. Duncan, Emmanuel & Bloomberg would NEVER allow their kids schools to cut PE programs and recess. Or allow them to be taught in those classes by school aides and art teachers.
FIRE DUNCAN! Hire Ravitch!
It’s okay. The draconian ban on large soft drinks will make up for the dearth of phys. ed. classes.
It’s pretty sad when my second-graders enter my classroom and automatically ask, “Are we having another test today?”