What do you think about teachers taking away recess from students as a punishment or consequence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If I were your friend, and my child were still having recess withheld, I would definitely take steps to get my child recess every day, even though it is late in the year. She may need to advocate at the principal's level or even higher if this is school policy. She may need to communicate daily with the teacher, see what the infractions were that day that caused her child to miss recess, and see what strategies the teacher is trying to help the child show better self-control. Parents need to let principals know that they value recess for their cihldren and that they will help the teacher come up with alternate rewards/punishments if they hear that their children are not behaving as expected. In addition, parents can see what is going on in the classroom and ask the teachers and principal to justify that their expectations for behavior are in fact age appropriate.

What alternative punshiments did your gropu suggest?

Our group didn't suggest any alternative punishments. We just focused on making sure that kids who weren't misbehaving would not be punished.

If it is YOUR child who is missing recess -- I would suggest speaking to the teacher and reinforcing expectations at school with consequences that are meaningful at home. This could be negative: removal of TV or computer time for a bad report from school; or positive -- "Stay on green all week and we can go (roller skating, camping, to the movies). Only you know what will motivate your child.

If the problem is that the behavior expected of the child is not age appropriate or if it is age appropriate but the chiuld is having a lot of difficulty anyhow -- you need individual checklists and interventions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor's son goes to K at our local public school and she said he has recess taken away from him as a punishment a few days per week. He is made to sit out the whole recess on the bench outside. When I asked her what he does to have this as a punishment, she says it is usually talking in line while lining up in the classroom or in the halls (he does love to talk) or for not paying attention sometimes. My son isn't in school yet but this makes me wonder if this is a typical consequence for rule breaking at other schools too? My neighbor says they only get 20 mins of recess per day and he often isn't allowed to participate.

As a teacher, I can say that it is totally counterproductive especially with young children. Kids need to run and play, and sometimes the reason why kids are talking or fidgeting or acting out is because they need to move and they need to go outside!!!

Teachers typically should find other ways to get kids to listen. Sometimes teachers take away some of recess (have them sit for 5 or 10 minutes). The only time recess is fully taken away is for more severe instances (i.e. fighting or hurting friends)

Unfortunately many teachers do take away recess as a punishment though.

[Anonymous]

In first grade, I literally only had recess once or twice (if we were lucky) a month.

In high school I had more recess than first grade!

My school did have PE everyday. So, sometimes, punishment was missing out on PE.

I remember that whenever we did have recess, I would normally have to sit out, because I had 'work to do'.

I was a slow worker, so my teacher thought that I should finish my work during recess and PE. (This was stuff like morning work and classwork too, NOT homework.)

I think it is an awful thing. It is one thing for a child to miss 5 minutes of recess, but make sure it isn't all taken away.

I am more of a proponent for a silent lunch than I am of losing recess.