
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 22, 2008
/ 21 Menachem-Av 5768
Let's hear it for recess
By
Lori Borgman
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When I get around to starting my perfect school system, I'll be bringing back recess
three times a day.
"What's your favorite part of school?" When I went to school, every kid had the same
goofball answer: "Lunch and recess." Kids who didn't answer "lunch and recess" were
shunned and had the air let out of their bicycle tires.
Today, there are kids who don't even know what recess is. Talk about deprived and
in one of the world's richest countries.
Since 1989, a growing number of school districts have banished recess. For the past
10 years in Atlanta, every new elementary school built has been built without a
playground. A moment of silence, please.
It's hard to imagine a childhood where children do not experience the terror of the
biggest boy in the class barreling through your locked hands during Red Rover (and
bouncing off), the thrill of crossing home plate in kickball or showing off by
jumping rope, doing double red hot peppers with your best friend.
To put it simply, taking away recess isn't fair and kids are all about fair.
How are you going to tell a second-grade child that recess has been cut to 15
minutes when the kid knows for a fact that the Supreme Court is only in session from
10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and gets a one-hour lunch and recess every day.
Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years-old. If a guy that old still needs an hourlong
recess, surely kids age 8 need recess, too.
Ever seen a justice snooze on the bench? Exactly. It's because they only get recess
once a day. If they had a short morning recess with a little dodgeball in the back
parking lot, that nodding-off business would never happen.
Matter of fact, the entire work force and our nation's GNP could benefit from recess
hopscotch and jump ropes in the break rooms and a pull-up bar at every water
cooler.
How can you even begin to list the benefits of recess? You get to move around, hang
out with your friends, play games, have a little freedom and give your brain time to
refresh (the mind cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure).
With 35 percent of all school kids overweight, recess can't be a bad thing.
Without recess, we would not have one of the great movie scenes of all time in
"The Christmas Story" where Ralphie's friend, Flick, gets his tongue stuck to a
frozen metal flag pole.
Recess is hip. We know this because Congress gets one a recess that lasts five
weeks. Of course, Congress is also an example of people who should be deprived of
recess for behaving badly. Unfortunately, there's no one who seems able to make them
stay in their seats.
Among the schools that still have recess, many have toned it way down. Balls have
become contraband kickball, dodgeball, anything with a slight component of risk.
Even tag is becoming off-limits. Those games are being replaced by a kinder, gentler
recess featuring hula hoops, Frisbee toss, playing chess or picking up trash.
The former superintendent of Atlanta schools, Benjamin O. Canada, is famous for once
telling the New York Times they eliminated recess to concentrate on improving
academic performance. "You don't do that by having kids hang on the monkey bars."
That's true, but you don't build people skills, release energy or burn fat glued to
a chair.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of , most recently, "Pass the Faith, Please" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) and I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.
ARCHIVES
© 2008, Lori Borgman
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|