Some Chicago children have less access to recess and other programs
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that only a third of all Chicago public elementary schools have regularly scheduled recess. Some kids figure lack of recess is just another message from adults that it's not safe to be outside. In the first two parts of a series entitled "Schooled in Fear," the Sun-Times reported how kids at public elementary schools in three areas of the city have been affected by violence. The same kids who say they can't play freely outside their homes due to violence don't get much relief during school. The kind of child-led "free play" kids enjoy on playgrounds "is one way they process trauma," said James Garbarino, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. Not one of the three schools the Sun-Times surveyed offers recess. Most kids in all three get gym only once a week. Only one school has an art teacher. All three offer optional after-school activities, but kids said they could use more. With pressure to produce specific math and reading scores in the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), arts have fallen by the wayside at some schools. Chicago elementary schools have the 12th-shortest instructional day among the hundreds of elementary school districts in Illinois, only 308 minutes, state data indicates. At Sexton Elementary, like many Chicago schools, most kids get gym, library and music once a week. Principal Ginger Bryant said she'd love to offer recess, but she would need extra money for the personnel—perhaps parents paid a stipend—to monitor it.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 8/7/08, By Rosalind Rossi
[Editor’s Note: Last week the NSBA Center for Public Education issued a report entitled “Time Out: Is Recess in Danger?” that indicates that while “reports of recess’s death seem to have been grossly exaggerated,” (1) “the pressure on schools to find more instructional time is real, and it seems to be leading many districts to shave minutes from the recess time they provide”; (2) slightly more districts with a school “in needs of improvement” under NCLB cut recess time compared to other districts, and in districts that chose to cut recess, those with a school “in need of improvement” cut more minutes; and (3) “children who attend high-minority, high-poverty, or urban schools are far more likely than other children to get no recess at all.” The report sets the record straight on these two widely cited and alarming statistics: "Nearly 40 percent of American elementary schools have either eliminated or are considering eliminating recess," and "Nearly one-third of elementary schools do not schedule recess on a regular basis." Think of the Center for Public Education as the Snopes.com of education policy.]
Center for Public Education report on recess