Some Roland Park Middle School Parents Support Recess

Some parents of middle school students at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School want their children to have recess, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Parents who believe recess is necessary for students in sixth through eighth grade are asking the school to chop off about five minutes from each of the school’s 70-minute periods to create 25 minutes for recess.

“If they have their bony little butts glued to a chair for 70 minutes in a row, that’s like punishment, it’s cruel,” Sandy Summers, a parent who supports recess, told the Sun. “We’re not sending our kids to college—they’re in middle school—they deserve rest, relaxation, time with their friends, exercise.”

Some educators support the idea.

According to Education World, a teaching resource website, middle school recess helps students learn to socialize, control their unstructured time and relate to administrators in informal settings.

But not everyone agrees on the necessity of recess.

In a 2008 education column, Jay Mathews argued in the Washington Post that recess is “poisonous” for urban schools. In his column, Mathews sites Brian Betts, a principal at Shaw Middle School in Washington, DC, who argued the school only has 6 1/2 hours to educate students. Shaw told Mathews students could get the benefit of recess in a more structured environment such as gym class or after-school sports.