ohferchristssake!

[yer ardy]

what's next? banning recess?
------------------------------------------
School district bans Halloween festivities
Friday, October 22, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- A Washington state school district has banned Halloween parties during the school day because it says children dressed up as goblins and witches take time away from learning, officials said Thursday.

"Our number one priority is protecting the instructional day," said Puyallup School District Superintendent Tony Apostle after the district canceled observance of the October 31 celebration.

Apostle said the 20,000-student district, located about 30 miles south of Seattle, doesn't have enough time in the day as it is to teach students everything they need to know.

District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said most Puyallup schools haven't had Halloween celebrations or observations for years.

Schools that want to have Halloween parties are welcome to have them, she said, but only after the school day ends.

Other U.S. schools have banned Halloween festivities because some families don't celebrate it for religious reasons and other cannot afford costumes.

[Buannan]

what's next? banning recess?
------------------------------------------
School district bans Halloween festivities
Friday, October 22, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- A Washington state school district has banned Halloween parties during the school day because it says children dressed up as goblins and witches take time away from learning, officials said Thursday.

"Our number one priority is protecting the instructional day," said Puyallup School District Superintendent Tony Apostle after the district canceled observance of the October 31 celebration.

Apostle said the 20,000-student district, located about 30 miles south of Seattle, doesn't have enough time in the day as it is to teach students everything they need to know.

District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said most Puyallup schools haven't had Halloween celebrations or observations for years.

Schools that want to have Halloween parties are welcome to have them, she said, but only after the school day ends.

Other U.S. schools have banned Halloween festivities because some families don't celebrate it for religious reasons and other cannot afford costumes.
umm...there's a school district in the tacoma area that has banned recess

and people wonder why I don't like living here

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/191407_recess18.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=38

Tacoma elementaries enforce ban on recess
Goal is 'maximizing instruction time'

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

TACOMA -- The recess bell will ring no more in Tacoma public schools. It's been stilled by the pressures of the world marketplace.

That's the word from assistant superintendent Karyn Clarke, who sent a memo to elementary-school principals last week reaffirming a 1997 ban on regularly scheduled recesses. Instead, Clarke said yesterday, teachers can decide on their own when to take a break to let kids stretch their legs, go to the bathroom, maybe even get a little fresh air.

"The interest that we have is in maximizing our instruction time," Clarke said. "Our mission is in preparing young people to compete in a global society."

The issue came up late last school year, Clarke said, when some principals reported that several schools had reverted to the old ways of planned playtime.

One of those backsliding schools was Whittier Elementary, where the bell rang for a 15-minute break every afternoon -- until last week. Whittier parents and students reacted with dismay yesterday to the possibility that recess is going the way of the authentic slate blackboard.

"I think it stinks," said Tianna Kelly, 7, a second-grader.

"You can learn from recess," she said. "You can get exercise and learn how to do stuff out there, like do the monkey bars and stuff."

Third-grader Stephanie Preston, 8, said she likes socializing with her friends on the playground -- not to mention, well, playing.

"I would hate it if we had to stay in all day without recess," she said. "I would feel a little bored, and tired."

Stephanie's grandmother, Carol Richard, shares Stephanie's distaste for the change at Whittier.

"I think it's a bunch of crap," she said. "It's elementary school, for crying out loud.

"Frankly, this is one of those 'get real' things."

Becky Wiggins hopes her son, Brett, 6, gets the chance to take some time out from his first-grade class.

"He definitely needs recess," she said. "He's an active boy, and it's hard for him to concentrate. I think he's better able to sit and do his work if he has a break."

Third-grade teacher Janis Pearson said she'll try to provide her class with free time, but she thinks the old system was better for the students, who looked forward to their scheduled recess.

"They need a guarantee," she said. "Kids depend on routine."

The unhappy parents and children at Whittier have an ally in Olga Jarrett, an associate professor of early childhood education at Georgia State University who also is secretary of The American Association for the Child's Right to Play, a pro-recess advocacy group, and president of the Association for the Study of Play, an academic organization.

"My research indicates that if children don't get recess, they are more fidgety and less on task," Jarrett said. "It's counterintuitive to think that you can improve learning by not allowing some sort of break."

Besides, Jarrett said, recess contributes to fitness. And there are important social benefits as well, she said.

"Recess used to be a time when kids would organize their own games, and they would have to learn how to be a leader, how to be a follower -- who was 'it,' how to decide what games to play, how to be a loser as well as a winner," Jarrett said. "And it doesn't happen in structured activities: There, kids are told what to do and the teacher helps resolve the conflicts.

"When kids are playing together, they have to work out the conflicts -- or they get left out."

Nonetheless, school districts across the country have joined the no-recess wave, with surveys indicating that as many as four in 10 districts have either dropped recess, scaled it back or thought about doing so. No systematic information from Washington state is available; in Seattle, the state's largest district, recess rules are up to principals of individual schools, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

Administrators may be feeling the heat from high-stakes testing regimes fostered by state reforms or the federal No Child Left Behind law, which holds federally aided schools accountable for hitting performance targets -- and punishes those that fall short.

But that's not what drove the 1997 rule making, Clarke said, which she notes occurred five years before President Bush signed the federal legislation.

The no-recess phenomenon has produced a backlash, with some states passing laws mandating recess. What happens next in Tacoma is up to the School Board.

Clarke said she hopes the board will leave the 1997 procedure in place.

For one thing, she said, classrooms are much less regimented than they used to be, and kids get much more of a chance to move around during their lessons. And it's not that she doesn't recognize the value of recess, she said; it's just that there's only so much time in the school day, and there's a lot to be done.

"I'm a Libra," she said. "I believe in balance."

[Buannan]

what's next? banning recess?
------------------------------------------
School district bans Halloween festivities
Friday, October 22, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- A Washington state school district has banned Halloween parties during the school day because it says children dressed up as goblins and witches take time away from learning, officials said Thursday.

"Our number one priority is protecting the instructional day," said Puyallup School District Superintendent Tony Apostle after the district canceled observance of the October 31 celebration.

Apostle said the 20,000-student district, located about 30 miles south of Seattle, doesn't have enough time in the day as it is to teach students everything they need to know.

District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said most Puyallup schools haven't had Halloween celebrations or observations for years.

Schools that want to have Halloween parties are welcome to have them, she said, but only after the school day ends.

Other U.S. schools have banned Halloween festivities because some families don't celebrate it for religious reasons and other cannot afford costumes.
oh, and this article doesn't mention one of the other reasons they banned halloween...they didn't want to offend the real witches, the people that practice wicca

I practiced wicca for years...halloween never offended me..in fact, I've always loved halloween

[yer ardy]

well these students had better be the
most highly educated kids on the planet
with all this necessary "instructional time"....

we don't need no education
we don’t need no thought control
no dark sarcasm in the classroom
teachers leave them kids alone

[MonkeyBrains]

Seems a bit over the top..

[rockrighter]

Child's Right to Play, a pro-recess advocacy group

The fact this has to exist is lame and sad. I hope they are able to overturn it. I thought everybody was about excercise for the kids since they eat McDick's all the time. :P

[reallygroovN]

anyone who would pass a law banning recess obviously has not spent enough time teaching elementary school.

it is a shame that they don't have recess in middle school.

adults get lunch breaks, coffee breaks, cigarette breaks, etc.

kids need breaks, too.

christ, they spend about 6 hours learning in school, most of this time sitting and listening to a teacher, and at LEAST another hour (more like three) of homework every night ..... when, exactly, are kids supposed to be creative and just....play.

no child left behind.....

[Not_Trapped]

what's next? banning recess?
------------------------------------------
School district bans Halloween festivities
Friday, October 22, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- A Washington state school district has banned Halloween parties during the school day because it says children dressed up as goblins and witches take time away from learning, officials said Thursday.

"Our number one priority is protecting the instructional day," said Puyallup School District Superintendent Tony Apostle after the district canceled observance of the October 31 celebration.

Apostle said the 20,000-student district, located about 30 miles south of Seattle, doesn't have enough time in the day as it is to teach students everything they need to know.

District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said most Puyallup schools haven't had Halloween celebrations or observations for years.

Schools that want to have Halloween parties are welcome to have them, she said, but only after the school day ends.

Other U.S. schools have banned Halloween festivities because some families don't celebrate it for religious reasons and other cannot afford costumes.
i think they should ban halloween stuff - if they aren't going to learn that day then they might as well not even be at school. good on them. and banning recess isn't a half bad idea. keep them in the seats and let them learn...that's what they're there for anyway.

[reallygroovN]

i think they should ban halloween stuff - if they aren't going to learn that day then they might as well not even be at school. good on them. and banning recess isn't a half bad idea. keep them in the seats and let them learn...that's what they're there for anyway.
like i said, "anyone who would pass a law banning recess obviously has not spent enough time teaching elementary school."

i dare you to try it for one day and THEN argue about why kids (and teachers) need recess :P

[ProfessorFrink]

i think they should ban halloween stuff - if they aren't going to learn that day then they might as well not even be at school. good on them. and banning recess isn't a half bad idea. keep them in the seats and let them learn...that's what they're there for anyway.

right on! and I'm sick of people getting breaks at work. what the hell is that all about? make 'em work straight through the day... that's what they're there for anyway.

[_sysiphus_]

right on! and I'm sick of people getting breaks at work. what the hell is that all about? make 'em work straight through the day... that's what they're there for anyway.

Haha.


Seriously, banning a Halloween party, fine, but recess? What is the attention span for a kid? I know mine's like a picosecond long, so if I can't stop wandering at work then how are these kids supposed to sit still and absorb info? A bunch of restless kids with pent up energy is a recipe for disaster, not to mention how cranky those teachers must be.

[ProfessorFrink]

A bunch of restless kids with pent up energy is a recipe for disaster, not to mention how cranky those teachers must be.

and think about those poor kids in groovN's class... I mean, it's only right that they should get a few breaks throughout the day.

[reallygroovN]

and think about those poor kids in groovN's class... I mean, it's only right that they should get a few breaks throughout the day.
:ogre:

[rockrighter]

and think about those poor kids in groovN's class... I mean, it's only right that they should get a few breaks throughout the day.
maybe some therapy breaks, too.

[yer ardy]

and think about those poor kids in groovN's class... I mean, it's only right that they should get a few breaks throughout the day.


yeah, breaks away from listening to pearl jam and bruuuuuuce
during class, cuz you know she brings her boombox with her.....