Long Island School District Doubles Recess Time For K-5, Should Other Districts Follow? [POLL]

Elementary school students in the Patchogue-Medford School District will be spending a bit more time on the playground this year as recess has been doubled from 20 to 40 minutes.

"The Patchogue-Medford School District officially launched a groundbreaking and revolutionary measure to improve on its approach to educating the whole child," the district wrote on its Facebook page last week.

Among the key points are a major shift in structured and unstructured play in kindergarten through second grade, the doubling of recess time to 40 minutes per day in kindergarten through fifth grade, collaborative project based learning, an increased amount of social workers and psychologists in all schools, as well as the implementation of yoga and meditation in kindergarten through eighth grade, among other initiatives.

“This is the year of the whole child in this great school district," said Patchogue-Medford Superintendent Michael Hynes, an outspoken critic of Common Core and standardized testing. "Some of the things we’re going to focus on are the social, emotional, physical and cognitive needs of all of our students. We’re going to start to look at, from a structural standpoint, aspects of play, yoga, meditation, and most notably project-based learning. Our school board and administration are completely aligned on these groundbreaking measures that will continue to define our school district as a beacon for progressive educational fundamentals and values.”

The move would likely draw support from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in a policy statement has said recess is a "necessary break in the day for optimizing a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.

"Even with ample evidence of a whole-child benefit from recess, significant external pressures, such as standardized cognitive testing mandated by educational reforms, have led some to view recess as time that would be better spent on academics," the AAP says. "Time previously dedicated to daily activity in school, such as physical education and recess, is being reallocated to make way for additional academic instruction.

"Ironically, minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement, as a growing body of evidence suggests that recess promotes not only physical health and social development but also cognitive performance."

While sure to be a hit with students, not everyone is a fan of increasing recess time.

"Recess should be 15 minutes, and school should be about learning, and it should be about discipline, and it should be about improving a child," Fred Gorman, a member of Long Islanders for Educational Reform, told ABC 7.

Stock image/morguefile