Balance is the key to adding recess to every elementary school

Although most involved agree that giving every child recess would be ideal, 23 elementary schools in Orange County, including five in West Orange, do not have recess built into their schedules.

The five West Orange schools on the list include Lake Whitney, MetroWest, Tildenville, Whispering Oak and Windy Ridge, although Lake Whitney Principal Elizabeth Prince said her grade levels have about 15 to 20 minutes of recess.

“Recess is a time for students to take a break from the curriculum to recharge the brain, exercise the physical being and allow students to interact with one another,” she said.

Reasons for a lack of recess vary, from teachers needing more time to meet their curricula to substitute programs that get kids moving.

Orange County Public Schools officials have posted “Five Facts about Recess in Orange County” on its site. Among the facts is this: “Fifty-seven percent of 1,940 OCPS teachers surveyed believe they do not have adequate time to teach the new Florida Standards during the current school day. During this challenging transition time to more demanding standards and testing, it would be difficult to mandate a reduction of instructional minutes.”

“Principals have discretion to offer recess or not based on the needs at their school,” said Kathy Marsh, senior manager of media relations for Orange County Public Schools. “Recess would never be a detriment. Most schools would welcome recess. The challenge is fitting all the state requirements for learning into a school day regarding time and incorporating recess along with the mandatory 30 minutes daily of physical education class.”

Florida Statute 1012.01(2) mandates 150 minutes of physical education per week for elementary students, excluding recess. This does not mean just gym class.

“There are other ways,” Orange County School Board District 4 member Pam Gould said. “Several of my schools have walking, times of the day where teachers have breaks but are allowed to be more flexible with that time. Instead of 9:50 recess for everyone in third grade, it’s perhaps after math module.”

Gym is typically three days per week, with maybe other physical education or unprescribed recess on the other two days, Gould said.

“Some schools perform better than others and have specialty programs,” she said. “The principals and teams there really work together to try to do what’s best for the kids.”

That includes effects on other classes, despite wanting more recess, Gould said.

“We might not fully understand the repercussions on the other side, taking from music, art, and other things that enhance skills and build creativity,” she said. “It’s really looking at the whole process. We have to get the state to stop mandating so much stuff.”

Among the state’s mandates for elementary schools are the following, Gould said: 90 minutes daily for reading; 30 minutes each day for reading enrichments; 60 minutes of math per day; 30 minutes of language arts each day; 120 minutes of science per week; 60 minutes per week for social studies; and about a half-hour for lunch each day. Adding the physical-education mandate put the total for these mandates at an average of more than five hours per day, leaving about an hour most days and nine minutes on short-day Wednesdays.

Add even 30 minutes per week for special classes such as art, music, computers and a foreign-language course. That would leave two hours and 45 minutes per week, an average of 33 minutes per day, excluding time between classes and gifted programs.

“In some schools, we have gifted or intervention programs, so we pull them out for that,” Gould said. “They may go to a separate classroom during that time.”

With teachers seeking more time to teach and parents demanding daily recess, school staffs struggle to divvy time.

“All of us need that break, and we do well when we can get our bodies moving and juices flowing,” Gould said. “Kids need to burn off energy, certainly. I don’t think anybody’s against recess. It’s the mandating of recess. If we, as a board, mandate recess and a program like Windy Ridge has enrichment, a walking club and already doing free movers with the teachers, then we mandate it and they get rid of that enrichment program.”

Until the school board can balance schedules, it must find more ways to restructure the day or work with what it has, Gould said.

“I don’t ever want to see art, music, performing arts, robotics, STEM classes eliminated because they have to have 30 minutes of PE every day,” she said. “I want to be able to figure out how to balance. It’s not as much a pro and con as how do we negotiate to the right balance.”

Gould is hopeful the Florida Legislature is listening to concerns of parents, students and staffs, which could lead to finding that balance, she said.

“They realize while we all want accountability, there’s been consequences with mandates of accountability,” she said. “I certainly think parents who have brought recess to the front are helping that conversation. We’ve had some really good discussions with some legislators about how we can tweak some of the measures that may have unintended consequences.”

And these problems do not end with elementary school.

“In high school, we have orchestras, bands, choirs, drama; they haven’t figured out how to examine a teacher at the end of that to show progress,” Gould said. “We don’t then have means to give (good) teachers of that a raise. That’s silly. It helps kids learn to be part of a team and get confidence on stage. That was not the intent of the accountability piece. We need to figure out how to make it work without our kids losing out on enrichment. It is very important for building career skills. We don’t want robots. We want problem-solvers.”

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].