Children are spending more time watching kids' movies indoors, less time playing outside, at New York City schools, parents complain. Elementary schools are supposed to offer at least 20 minutes of recess, reports Amy Zimmer for Chalkbeat. But that could mean 20 minutes of screen time rather than play time.
At a public meeting, Vivian Lee, mother of a Brooklyn fifth grader, said her daughter increasingly comes home to describe the "Disney or Pixar movie she watched during indoor recess or lunch."
The animated characters get lots of exercise in “Ralph Wrecks the Internet,” “The Lion King, “Luca,” “Kung Fu Panda 4” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” But the students watching do not.
Chandler Patton Miranda, an education professor, pulled her son from his neighborhood elementary school in Brooklyn, writes Zimmer. "The last straw: The school kept its youngest kids indoors for recess as the older ones took the state English tests last spring."
Kindergarteners were told they were “too loud,” Miranda said. They sat inside and watched part of the Disney movie, “Wish.”
On Slate, Charlotte Pence writes about her losing fight for recess at her daughter's Alabama school. The principal said the school's focus on academics meant there was no time in the day for play.
"Recess is heavily linked with increased productivity, higher retention rates, and better mental health," Pence writes. While the school had daily PE, that's not enough, she argues. "Children need the unstructured time of recess in order to self-regulate, imagine new games, problem-solve, mitigate conflict, develop internal agency, and refine social skills. . . . kids need experience at being in charge of their own time."
"California and Washington are joining nine other states that require daily recess this year," she writes. But Alabama leaves it up to the school district.
Comments