In Florida, there are laws governing how many minutes must be devoted to reading but there is no law requiring recess.
Some elementary schools have eliminated recess altogether. Some make it available only once a week.
The state does require 150 minutes of physical education each week. But that is not the same as recess, where children can play without adult direction.
Folks, we are talking about little children. They need time to stretch and run and play. They need time to exercise their bodies. Why are state officials allowing schools (or, compelling schools) to eliminate activity that is necessary for good health?
Fortunately, parents have begun to organize to demand that their children have recess every day.
Time for recess has been squeezed out in recent years, but now social media is helping parents, such as Lakeland mother Amanda Lipham, organize recess supporters.
Lipham says she organized the push for recess in Polk when she saw changes in her five year old son.
“He was losing his enthusiasm for school,” Lipham says. “His attitude was changing. I could see his spirit being broken.”
First, Lipham handed out flyers in the car line at her son’s elementary school, and she spoke out at a school board meeting. Then, she formed an online petition that garnered thousands of signatures.
Now parents are creating similar online petitions around the state. More than 2200 people have signed a petition to make recess mandatory in Pinellas County, This fall, Parents in Osceola County also started a petition demanding recess. And a similar effort in Orange County last year led to a school board resolution recommending that schools provide the breaks.
And that’s the way change might happen, says Judy Stockman, who teaches at Sykes Elementary school in Lakeland — when parents get involved.
You may be sick of hearing about Finland, but consider this: Elementary school students get a 15-minute recess after every class. They go outside and run around and play. Then they return to their classes refreshed and ready to learn. Sounds good to me.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m not sick of hearing about Finland. For instance, the fact that children in Finland don’t start school until they are age seven, that parents support the schools and teachers, and most parents start teaching their children a love of reading as early as age two, or that in Finland less than 5% of the children live in poverty.
LikeLike
Parents in New Jersey are trying to get a law passed to guarantee recess for elementary school children.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/11/30/new-jersey-lawmakers-debate-bill-that-would-require-recess-in-schools/
LikeLike
Wow! *Prisoners* get an hour a day!
LikeLike
That’s because five-year-olds need to develop “grit” and “determination” in order to endure all the rheephorm hazing rituals they have to undergo in order to qualify for the school-to-prison pipeline so when they are adults—
They can have an hour of recess in prison!
Sheesh! And don’t complain about the rheephormsters sending THEIR OWN CHILDREN to schools that have all the downtime and uptime and in-between time they deny to OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
Next thing you know, you’ll declare yourself in favor of a better education for all.
Doesn’t anybody value $tudent $ucce$$ any more?
😏
LikeLike
Our young are being held hostage and being treated like criminals. We have a most decrepid and broken government filled with corruption.
LikeLike
This is in part a by product of the “accountability” system. Florida instituted a hard stop for students who don’t read well enough in 3rd grade. Before that it was the 4th grade test which put pressure on 3rd grade teachers to deliver proficient readers. Then the 3rd grade teachers put pressure on the 2nd grade teachers, and now it has trickled down to kindergarten. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
Could you imagine how awesome schools would be if the educators were given the latitude and resources to ALWAYS do what is best for the students? Yes there should be checks and balances within the institutions and communities, but then we would have true accountability.
Ignorant politicians and educrats in Tallahassee actually believe they are capable of control from above. Those are the benevolent fools, and they are joined by their nefarious colleagues who fully understand and enjoy the harm and havoc they create.
LikeLike
Unfortunately, none of the “reformers” (and the politicians who have bought into their propaganda) who have been pushing more and more testing and test-prep, at younger and younger ages, have any idea about normal child development.
Play, including lots of “free play” (not “organized” play) is a vital part of child development. Children learn by play, they learn socialization skills through play with friends.
LikeLike
I am all for recess, but the push needs to be to get rid of the mandated time and burdensome testing requirements we have in education, which would allow the time for recess. Scheduling to try to meet all the mandates for every grade is a huge challenge. We cannot interrupt the 90 minute reading block, and then must work in IEP required classes, mandated PE time, etc. Making unstructured recess a PART of the 150 minutes of PE would help, and allowing schools to break up that 90 minutes of reading would help. We cannot just keep adding more requirements, but we can adjust what we already require to make it work for our kids.
LikeLike
This makes me happy! I hope that the parents win and the kids get the recess that they need way more than the developmentally inappropriate curriculum that we are required to teach these days.
LikeLike
I taught 5th grade for five years. I always “stretched” recess whenever I could. And I gave them free time in class too. My students test scores were at or above everyone else’s.
Give these kids a break. Are we so afraid that someone is going to apply for an engineering job at NASA and be uncovered as an illiterate?
Everybody has to be a rocket scientist. Sheesh!
LikeLike
This is truly sad. I do not recognize my profession anymore. Children are children, and children need unorganized play as a part of their development. These evil deformers, I’m sure, remember how fun it was to play a game of tag on a snowy December recess day or organize a quick fun 20 minute game of flag football. My husband and I are relieved that our youngest child is in high school and almost out of all this craziness. How do we get everything back to what is best for our kids? I never thought I would witness such complete idiocy in my career. I’m relieved that next year is “it” for me. I will never get used to my “new normal.”
LikeLike
In school districts where children are not allowed to have recess, the teachers need to complete a form indicating the children in the classroom are being abused (and cite who is doing the abusing… whomever signed on the dotted line disallowing recess)! Teachers after all are MANDATED REPORTERS… 🙂
LikeLike
I was fortunate to be a ‘rural’ [upstate-NY, college-town] kid in the ’50’s. At both my one-room schoolhouse [grades 1-3] and my 3-rm schoolhouse [grades 4-6], we had 15-min recesses am & pm plus 1-hr recess after lunch. We moved on to jr hi where despite downtown [no outside grounds] location, we had a full hr after lunch to choose among gym/ dancing/ movies– plus after-school ‘clubs’ run by our dedicated teachers.
40 yrs later in NJ, in the ’90’s, my 3 boys had only an hour free play after lunch, in elementary. In middle school, they had no recess at all, & their 3x-wkly phys Ed consisted in good weather of walking or running the limited grounds. In hi sch it was 3xwkly phys ed, all teacher-directed.
Meanwhile we classify the free-play-deprived [oxygen-depriived] kids as ADHD…
LikeLike
Unstructured play plays a much more critical role in child development than stretching their bodies or refreshing them to learn. Foregoing unstructured play for academics could be a contributor to the increase in narcissism in our society.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201401/why-is-narcissism-increasing-among-young-americans
LikeLike
One of the St Louis magnet schools used to take the few minutes of recess away if the student didn’t have the massive homework load completed. The students had a total of 30 minutes for lunch and recess. Don’t know current practice. Drill, and drill.
LikeLike
Oh please -RECESS-give me a break! That wont make our little robots college and career ready as the establishment wont be happy until ALL workers eat lunch at their desk. (Glad FL is standing up)
LikeLike
There is lots of research regarding the benefits of recess for kids! As a school principal ( many moons ago), I advocated for the same! I’m glad some of the parents are working with school officials to to put it back in school….It is definitely a vital part of a child’s learning and growing experience!
LikeLike