It doesn’t get the partisan attention and accompanying headlines that charter schools and prayer get, but recess in traditional K-5 public schools has also caught the attention of the legislature. As a result (of parental lobbying), the coming school year will include a mandate: 20 consecutive minutes of daily, free-play recess.
Individual school districts will be entrusted to work out details, which have some parents skeptical. But, still, the mandate is for unstructured play. The bottom line is this: Too much of our children’s kid years are now spent with structured activities, helicoptering parents and technological devices.
Anyone who has ever raised a kid, or been one–and that’s all of us–knows the score. Kids need time to just be kids.