“The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right.” http://www.ipausa.org/who.htm
In other words, the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play is a group that tries to convince elementary schools to keep a recess period.
I learned about the group in this article from the Tacoma, Washington area where the assistant superintendent has reaffirmed a 1997 ban on recess, saying
“The interest that we have is in maximizing our instruction time,” Clarke said. “Our mission is in preparing young people to compete in a global society.”
Compete in a global society? What we’re preparing our kids for is stress:
“... young people who find themselves going from activity to activity without a break can find themselves experiencing grown-up problems, says Dr. Bryan Hiebert, associate dean of applied psychology at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Education.
‘‘The sad part is you have children with substantial, stress-related problems at nine to 12 years old,’’ he says. ‘‘And I’ve dealt with 13 and 14 year olds with tension headaches, sometimes causing them to miss school. We see kids in elementary school coming into school tuckered out before the day even begins.’’ Link >>
As homeschoolers, there are times we sit and look at the public school systems and just shake our heads. Our kids don’t need a “lesson in time management”, they just need fewer activities to manage and more free time to simply be kids.
Kids who play!
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