Growing Number Of Teachers Denounce Recently Passed Bill Guaranteeing 30 Minutes Of Recess A Day
Benefits of recess clash with schools needing flexible recess times
By Evan Symon, October 26, 2023 2:30 am
A growing number of teachers across the state have continued to denounce a bill signed into law earlier this month that guarantees at least 30 minutes of recess a day, with many saying that schools need to be flexible on the amount of recess time given due to multiple factors based on the individual school.
Senate Bill 291, authored by Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), specifically requires that, commencing with the 2024–25 school year, recess provided by a public or charter school for grades K-8 is to be at least 30 minutes on regular instructional days and at least 15 minutes on early release days. The bill would prohibit school staff members from restricting a pupil’s recess unless there is an immediate threat to the physical safety of the pupil or the physical safety of one or more of the pupil’s peers.
Senator Newman authored SB 291 because of studies showing the importance of recess. Specifically, Newman cited a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics that found that recess “serves as a critical outlet and break for students to reset their minds and bodies during otherwise structured school days filled with academic demands.” He also noted the social, emotional, and physical needs of recess during a school day.
“As California finally emerges from the pandemic and its impacts, we are seeing some of the lingering effects on children’s social-emotional development play out in the form of behavioral disruptions which have become increasingly prevalent in classrooms,” said Senator Newman in a statement earlier this year. “As schools and students seek to recover from COVID-related educational disruptions, the benefits of the unstructured play and peer-to-peer social interactions offered by recess are more important now than ever.”
SB 291 enjoyed a large amount of support throughout the year, with many academics, lawmakers, and some educators praising the bill for preserving recess.
“Recess is the only unstructured time in the school day where students have the opportunity to stretch their social, emotional, and physical development through play, socialization with peers, and interactions with adult,” said Rebecca London, an Associate Professor and recess researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It is essential that all California students have the right to this downtime every day, and that it is not withheld for punishment. Recess is an important opportunity for building a positive school climate and for helping all students to go back to their classrooms after recess feeling restored and ready to learn. I applaud Senator Newman for prioritizing Recess for All and fully support these efforts.”
The bill passed both the Assembly and the Senate in a landslide last month, with the Senate vote coming in at 39-0 and the Assembly vote tallying 79-0. Earlier this month on the 13th, Newsom then signed the bill into law.
However, praise for the new law has been quickly fading away in the past few weeks, with teachers at the school level now questioning if SB 291 is really needed at all. While teachers agree that recess is needed for the reasons given by Newman, they also said giving students 30 minutes a day with few exceptions doesn’t leave teachers with any leeway or flexibility during times when that would be needed.
“SB 291 is good in several ways,” Linda, a Vice Principal of a school in Southern California, told the Globe. “We all agree that recess is needed. But it is also restrictive. Punishing students by having them not go to recess is needed by many schools to instill discipline, and SB 291 takes that away. And if schools need more time in the day for an added class or assembly? Recess can’t be touched, even if we need a critical 15 minutes more in class time.”
Mallory, a long-time teacher at a school in the Stockton area, added, “On days that have gym, which largely have the same activities as recess, students suddenly get a lot more free time than usual and come back to the classes even more rambunctious. Kids will be kids of course, but they come back still buzzed with energy from that extra time. We can’t remove some recess time to bring back some of that calmness?”
“Talk to any teacher. They love that downtime, because we need that break too. But we also care about our students. And this new law makes it harder for us to get them in line and ready to learn. Flexibility on recess time is needed, not guaranteed recess no matter what.”
Linda also pointed out that “Most students don’t run around and play as much as you’d think, especially the older ones. A lot of them just mill around and talk. So if this law is really concerned about the social well-being of students, it should have stipulated recess times. A lot of schools may be looking at a new system where 15 minutes of recess just gets pushed to the end of the day, so that students can have that free time while on the way out while still being held under the school day. There are ways to make this happen. SB 291 is just making our jobs harder now.”
SB 291 is to come into effect in the 2024-2025 school year.
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30 minute recess is really trivial when you take into account that California, Governor Newsom and the teacher’s unions mandated about 500 days of recess for California students during the fauxdemic.
But potential employers shouldn’t worry. There are millions of students from India who can actually speak English and do math better than California students. The Indians will be great employees.
Such good points, Fed Up.
Also this is a great example of the state stupidly sticking their nose into something where they pretend to help but only end up making the situation worse. Not sure what the ulterior motive was here (although you can be sure with puppet Sen Newman’s name on it there was one) but if the public schools (and its teachers and staff) were functioning properly in the first place most everything (like recess) would simply be subject to a teacher’s judgment and discretion around the general guideline of recess.
Everything is so SCREWED UP now, however, with nonsensical rules and regulations and non-support from administration, that a teacher’s once-upon-a-time rather enviable personal fiefdom, which used to attract many good teachers to the profession, is now GONE, as I understand it.
Showandtell, In the past there were enough teachers who believed their primary mission was to help students learn critical thinking skills. It was not all the teachers, but there were plenty of them. I attended high school, college and graduate school in a (as the Clintons referred to it) flyover state. The pursuit of critical thinking skills was encouraged,
At the very least, teachers in California today are nothing more than pawns of their compulsory unions. At the worst, they are the cheerleaders for puberty blockers, castration and breast amputation. It really is bad.
When I was in grade school we always had regular recess. I never once heard a teacher sniveling about it. Then again I never saw kids being hyper in the classroom.
Now they keep kids in the classroom and deny them much needed exercise. The formula is bottle up the energy, decry “hyperactivity” and then drug the kids. Pure evil.
Did you ever see students being disrespectful? Seeing students throwing chairs, ripping art off of the walls, doing graffiti in the restrooms, and /or vandalizing restrooms? And now we can’t take away their recess time to promote reflection or make up for lost instructional time or clean up the messes they make? Definitely not evil. Definitely at a loss and frustrated.
When my baby was in public schools in Los Angeles, they were prohibited from running on the playground.
I repeat, prohibited from running on the playground at recess and lunch.
They were frog marched to the cafeteria and instructed in the art of stuffing their faces with whatever they were given to eat lest they have less time to play.
A dysfunctional, totalitarian, overly feminized education system in desperate need of a tempering male spirit. I hate this uniparty b.s. but this bill in particular? Yeah, let the kids raise some hell and run around you demons.
What about students who use that unstructured time to vandalize or graffiti the bathrooms? Can that time be taken away then? Or what about students who are disrespectful or wasting instructional minutes? How should they be held accountable?
good