Bring Back Recess

To the Editor:

My son has many happy memories of school recess — kickball, tag, raptor-fun times with his friends. Unfortunately, at the age of 10, these are only memories. At his new school, Reed Intermediate, there is no recess. During the 30 minutes allotted for lunch, he may choose to go outside to a small fenced-in blacktopped area (bearing a strong resemblance to a prison yard) for the last 15 minutes.

I was appalled that our children, in addition to the stress of adjusting to a routine designed to get them “ready” for middle school, no longer have an opportunity for a little fresh air, fun, and play. I expressed my concerns to Principal Denniston and was told that there is no room in the schedule or the budget for recess. Furthermore, the beautiful fields adjacent to the school are not yet a dedicated part of the building and, in any case, there is no way to adequately supervise children on the fields.

I was further appalled to read in the Danbury News Times that our gym teachers will be the beneficiaries of a grant to teach them to use handheld computers to assess fitness and examine whether there is a link between poor performance on fitness tests and poor performance on academic testing.

Where are our priorities? Do we really need to spend money to find out the obvious? There are already many studies linking lack of recess specifically (not structured physical education) to ADD and other learning disorders.

Common sense tells us that young children (yes they are still children) need some unstructured playtime outside (yes even in winter) during a six-hour school day. If we treat our children like young adults we will continue to watch them develop adult diseases and conditions (obesity, diabetes, anxiety, and stress disorders). Remember childhood? Remember having fun? Do we really want to take the opportunity for a little fun away from kids who are already being thrown into a replica of middle school where the remedy for stress is often drugs and alcohol?

Let our children be children! Help bring back recess!

Lynda Weber

Alberts Hill Road, Sandy Hook                            November 16, 2004