"Rrrrrrrrrrring!!!!!!!"
Ah, the recess bell. Upon hearing it, children leap out of their seats and flood into the schoolyard for impromptu games of tag, dodge ball and patty-cake or for just plain running around. For generations, the ritual has repeated itself two and even three times a day.
At least that is Deb Riley's memory of recess. But Riley, the mother of a student at Alexandria's Barrett Elementary School, said that when her daughter, Sarah, started kindergarten last year, she was shocked to discover what had happened to recess.
First-grader Sarah Riley frolics during the once-daily 15-minute recess period at Barrett Elementary in Alexandria.
(Len Spoden For The Washington Post)
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"I couldn't believe it," Riley said. "They had 15 minutes of recess -- all day." She said the other parents she talked to were similarly surprised, especially in light of recent news reports about the problem of increasing child obesity in the United States.
When Sarah started first grade this year, things got worse, Riley said. Sarah still had 15 minutes of recess, but now it was during the last hour of her six-hour school day. There was no downtime during the first five hours.
State rules mandate that elementary students be given at least 15 minutes of recess each day, though school systems can opt to give more. But in recent years, as schools have felt increasing pressure to meet state and federal achievement goals, many school officials say they cannot afford to schedule more than 15 minutes of recess.
"Given the confines of the standards of accreditation, 75 percent of the instructional day must be in core subjects," said Cathy David, Alexandria's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. In Alexandria, she said, that means most schools have 80 to 85 minutes to squeeze in school opening, school closing, art, music, physical education, breakfast, hall transitions and recess. Additional courses such as drug and character education have further cut into the school day. That leaves little time for patty-cake.
Arlington County elementary schools offer 15 to 30 minutes of recess a day, with most students getting at least 20 minutes. Maryland has no mandated minimum or standards on recess; each school sets it own. D.C. officials said the school system does not have a mandated minimum, although students typically get 25 to 30 minutes of recess a day.
Alexandria School Board member Sally Ann Baynard said that although some schools schedule recess in "a very unproductive way, at the end of the day," increasing curriculum demands have made it hard for schools to give recess better billing. "You can't keep injecting things and not have something give. Since recess was always a slippery number, you take it out where you can get it."
But many parents say that recess is, in its own way, as valuable as math and reading. Riley said that when she brought up the issue at a PTA meeting in October, it prompted a huge response from other parents.
"The entire room of mothers stood up and clapped," she said, adding that in comment after comment, mothers echoed her concern that their children were not getting enough exercise during the day. "It was a strong, vigorous, emotional statement."
The most obvious solution to the recess quandary would be to lengthen the school day. But adding just 30 minutes to each day would cost the school district $3.5 million a year in additional teachers' salaries. Lengthening it by 15 minutes would cost $1.75 million. The Alexandria public schools' budget is $158 million this year.
Fairfax School Superintendent Rebecca L. Perry will present her proposed budget in January. The budget could include money for more recess time or for a series of other options being discussed.
One option the school system has considered is rearranging the schedule to include more physical education classes, which would not cost any more because it would not add extra time to the day. But many parents say their concerns are not just about exercise. Recess affords unstructured playtime, they say, time during which children have traditionally cemented friendships and learned important lessons about social behavior.
