Let them run. No, really… that’s it.
While
most school districts across the country are cutting back on recess time and
ramping up the Ritalin, one Texas school has kindergartners and first graders
sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”
What’s
their secret? Their recess time has tripled.
Instead
of 20 minutes of recess per day, Eagle Mountain Elementary kindergartners and
first graders now get an hour, broken up into four 15-minute breaks, in
addition to lunchtime.
Their
teachers say it’s totally transformed them.
The
kids are less fidgety, less distracted, more engaged in learning and make more
eye contact.
Eagle
Mountain is one of dozens of schools in Texas, Oklahoma and California testing
out extra recess time as part of a three-year trial. The pilot program is
modeled after the Finnish school system, whose students get some of the best
scores in the world in reading, math and science.
