Recess - April 15, 1998

Richard Brian McCarty

When I was a child at Fork Shoals Elementary School, my favorite courses were reading, math, and recess. I like recess especially, despite the fact I broke my arm in the second grade after being tripped by Tom Trantham, Jr. while playing. ( Tom Sr. would later run unsuccessfully for Agriculture Commisioner in South Carolina We laughed together about the event years earlier when I met him on the campaign trail.)

Recess was hell the first two years I lived in Honea Path, SC. Outsider children were not all that welcomed by the others. I still liked it better than quiet time, though. Perhaps school officials in Atlanta, Georgia attended Honea Path's Gantt Elementary at some point in their life. Perhaps that is why they have banned recess for elementary students.

That is right. They have banned recess. Forget the fact that children need to interact. Forget the fact that study after study show getting outside for fresh air makes the mind work better. Forget recess is the nuclear weapon of a teacher's discipline arsenal. Atlanta has joined academic elites around the nation is condemning play.

No one should be surprised. For years now, education elites have patterned programs that fit their own egos, not the real world. While they cry out for the children, they take away the childhoods of our youth. They want sex education from kindergarten on. They want give out condoms from middle school on. Now, play is a waste of time.

It is time to stop the farce. Playing is a way a child relieves his energy and uses his creativity. With all the literature out today about how childhood pain causes adult problems, making children into little machines in schools ought to be stopped.

Of course, the banning of recess is to give more academic time. That increased academic time is to increase test scores. Educators' obsession with those test scores is irrational. Outside of academe, standardized tests are not really good judgments of what a child's destiny will be.

I did extremely well on standardized tests, from elementary to the LSAT. However, I have yet to meet anyone in the work world who cares. I have not faced a situation where those scores made a difference.

I do not mean to scorn those scores--they have their importance. However, in the work world, being able to get along with others and create with others is just as valuable if not more valuable than being able to fill in the correct bubble on a test.

Recess provides children with that. Even if some are ridiculed, they learn how to deal with others. Further, teachers ought to be active in the recess to show children how to get along. Instead, the new movement is to score well on the test, and leave working with one another to chance.

It is critical mistake made by people who have not seen much of the real world. Further, they must have forgotten what it is like to talk to school friends, play touch football, baseball, or nervously look at members of the opposite sex. Let children be children. Life is too short and too complicated to not have fun and base everything on standardized tests created by those who have spent little time in the real world.

Richard Brian McCarty holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and a BS degree from Lander University. An experienced writer, McCarty's columns are written from a distinctly Southern point of view. He is sometimes Southern, sometimes conservative, sometimes humorous, and sometimes all three. He has also worked on several political campaigns of conservatives.

Recess - April 15, 1998

Richard Brian McCarty

When I was a child at Fork Shoals Elementary School, my favorite courses were reading, math, and recess. I like recess especially, despite the fact I broke my arm in the second grade after being tripped by Tom Trantham, Jr. while playing. ( Tom Sr. would later run unsuccessfully for Agriculture Commisioner in South Carolina We laughed together about the event years earlier when I met him on the campaign trail.)

Recess was hell the first two years I lived in Honea Path, SC. Outsider children were not all that welcomed by the others. I still liked it better than quiet time, though. Perhaps school officials in Atlanta, Georgia attended Honea Path's Gantt Elementary at some point in their life. Perhaps that is why they have banned recess for elementary students.

That is right. They have banned recess. Forget the fact that children need to interact. Forget the fact that study after study show getting outside for fresh air makes the mind work better. Forget recess is the nuclear weapon of a teacher's discipline arsenal. Atlanta has joined academic elites around the nation is condemning play.

No one should be surprised. For years now, education elites have patterned programs that fit their own egos, not the real world. While they cry out for the children, they take away the childhoods of our youth. They want sex education from kindergarten on. They want give out condoms from middle school on. Now, play is a waste of time.

It is time to stop the farce. Playing is a way a child relieves his energy and uses his creativity. With all the literature out today about how childhood pain causes adult problems, making children into little machines in schools ought to be stopped.

Of course, the banning of recess is to give more academic time. That increased academic time is to increase test scores. Educators' obsession with those test scores is irrational. Outside of academe, standardized tests are not really good judgments of what a child's destiny will be.

I did extremely well on standardized tests, from elementary to the LSAT. However, I have yet to meet anyone in the work world who cares. I have not faced a situation where those scores made a difference.

I do not mean to scorn those scores--they have their importance. However, in the work world, being able to get along with others and create with others is just as valuable if not more valuable than being able to fill in the correct bubble on a test.

Recess provides children with that. Even if some are ridiculed, they learn how to deal with others. Further, teachers ought to be active in the recess to show children how to get along. Instead, the new movement is to score well on the test, and leave working with one another to chance.

It is critical mistake made by people who have not seen much of the real world. Further, they must have forgotten what it is like to talk to school friends, play touch football, baseball, or nervously look at members of the opposite sex. Let children be children. Life is too short and too complicated to not have fun and base everything on standardized tests created by those who have spent little time in the real world.

Richard Brian McCarty holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and a BS degree from Lander University. An experienced writer, McCarty's columns are written from a distinctly Southern point of view. He is sometimes Southern, sometimes conservative, sometimes humorous, and sometimes all three. He has also worked on several political campaigns of conservatives.

Recess - April 15, 1998

Richard Brian McCarty

When I was a child at Fork Shoals Elementary School, my favorite courses were reading, math, and recess. I like recess especially, despite the fact I broke my arm in the second grade after being tripped by Tom Trantham, Jr. while playing. ( Tom Sr. would later run unsuccessfully for Agriculture Commisioner in South Carolina We laughed together about the event years earlier when I met him on the campaign trail.)

Recess was hell the first two years I lived in Honea Path, SC. Outsider children were not all that welcomed by the others. I still liked it better than quiet time, though. Perhaps school officials in Atlanta, Georgia attended Honea Path's Gantt Elementary at some point in their life. Perhaps that is why they have banned recess for elementary students.

That is right. They have banned recess. Forget the fact that children need to interact. Forget the fact that study after study show getting outside for fresh air makes the mind work better. Forget recess is the nuclear weapon of a teacher's discipline arsenal. Atlanta has joined academic elites around the nation is condemning play.

No one should be surprised. For years now, education elites have patterned programs that fit their own egos, not the real world. While they cry out for the children, they take away the childhoods of our youth. They want sex education from kindergarten on. They want give out condoms from middle school on. Now, play is a waste of time.

It is time to stop the farce. Playing is a way a child relieves his energy and uses his creativity. With all the literature out today about how childhood pain causes adult problems, making children into little machines in schools ought to be stopped.

Of course, the banning of recess is to give more academic time. That increased academic time is to increase test scores. Educators' obsession with those test scores is irrational. Outside of academe, standardized tests are not really good judgments of what a child's destiny will be.

I did extremely well on standardized tests, from elementary to the LSAT. However, I have yet to meet anyone in the work world who cares. I have not faced a situation where those scores made a difference.

I do not mean to scorn those scores--they have their importance. However, in the work world, being able to get along with others and create with others is just as valuable if not more valuable than being able to fill in the correct bubble on a test.

Recess provides children with that. Even if some are ridiculed, they learn how to deal with others. Further, teachers ought to be active in the recess to show children how to get along. Instead, the new movement is to score well on the test, and leave working with one another to chance.

It is critical mistake made by people who have not seen much of the real world. Further, they must have forgotten what it is like to talk to school friends, play touch football, baseball, or nervously look at members of the opposite sex. Let children be children. Life is too short and too complicated to not have fun and base everything on standardized tests created by those who have spent little time in the real world.

Richard Brian McCarty holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and a BS degree from Lander University. An experienced writer, McCarty's columns are written from a distinctly Southern point of view. He is sometimes Southern, sometimes conservative, sometimes humorous, and sometimes all three. He has also worked on several political campaigns of conservatives.

Recess - April 15, 1998

Richard Brian McCarty

When I was a child at Fork Shoals Elementary School, my favorite courses were reading, math, and recess. I like recess especially, despite the fact I broke my arm in the second grade after being tripped by Tom Trantham, Jr. while playing. ( Tom Sr. would later run unsuccessfully for Agriculture Commisioner in South Carolina We laughed together about the event years earlier when I met him on the campaign trail.)

Recess was hell the first two years I lived in Honea Path, SC. Outsider children were not all that welcomed by the others. I still liked it better than quiet time, though. Perhaps school officials in Atlanta, Georgia attended Honea Path's Gantt Elementary at some point in their life. Perhaps that is why they have banned recess for elementary students.

That is right. They have banned recess. Forget the fact that children need to interact. Forget the fact that study after study show getting outside for fresh air makes the mind work better. Forget recess is the nuclear weapon of a teacher's discipline arsenal. Atlanta has joined academic elites around the nation is condemning play.

No one should be surprised. For years now, education elites have patterned programs that fit their own egos, not the real world. While they cry out for the children, they take away the childhoods of our youth. They want sex education from kindergarten on. They want give out condoms from middle school on. Now, play is a waste of time.

It is time to stop the farce. Playing is a way a child relieves his energy and uses his creativity. With all the literature out today about how childhood pain causes adult problems, making children into little machines in schools ought to be stopped.

Of course, the banning of recess is to give more academic time. That increased academic time is to increase test scores. Educators' obsession with those test scores is irrational. Outside of academe, standardized tests are not really good judgments of what a child's destiny will be.

I did extremely well on standardized tests, from elementary to the LSAT. However, I have yet to meet anyone in the work world who cares. I have not faced a situation where those scores made a difference.

I do not mean to scorn those scores--they have their importance. However, in the work world, being able to get along with others and create with others is just as valuable if not more valuable than being able to fill in the correct bubble on a test.

Recess provides children with that. Even if some are ridiculed, they learn how to deal with others. Further, teachers ought to be active in the recess to show children how to get along. Instead, the new movement is to score well on the test, and leave working with one another to chance.

It is critical mistake made by people who have not seen much of the real world. Further, they must have forgotten what it is like to talk to school friends, play touch football, baseball, or nervously look at members of the opposite sex. Let children be children. Life is too short and too complicated to not have fun and base everything on standardized tests created by those who have spent little time in the real world.

Richard Brian McCarty holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and a BS degree from Lander University. An experienced writer, McCarty's columns are written from a distinctly Southern point of view. He is sometimes Southern, sometimes conservative, sometimes humorous, and sometimes all three. He has also worked on several political campaigns of conservatives.