Recess

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/09/exercise.for.kids/index.html

Imagine all employers banning coffee breaks, chats with colleagues and occasional off task surfing. Imagine employees being mandated to stay seated at their desks for over six hours completing high pressured tasks with minimal talking. Imagine the only daily break being a thirty minute lunch of sub-quality food and assigned seating. Imagine going home with a further three to five hours of work due for the next day. This imagined scenario is a return to England before the Factory Act of 1844.

This is not an imagined situation or a look back in time; this is the reality of an increasing number of school children in this country. How have the priorities of education become so fundamentally wrong? How can we honestly think a child with 30 minutes of semi-free time is going to concentrate, let alone interact, analyze and synthesize the lessons of the day? Why do we expect that child to behave? How can we expect that child to learn? The brain needs breaks. How can we deprive our children of this?