Public school is not without its issues. Budget cuts, underpaid staff, the removal of some vital extra circular activities — I mean we could go on all day about issues with public schools.
Back in my day, it didn’t seem so bad. but that was practically a lifetime ago. Times have changed, haven’t they? Things seemed much more equal in my time and we didn’t have a bunch of kids all hyped up, drugged up, with their parents claiming ADHD!! We had a few but those kids really didn’t have ADHD I believe.
Now… every other public school parent seems to think that not only is their kid extra special, deserves special attention, but that their kid is, also, suffering from ADHD.
I’m reminded of this scene from the show South Park: where the creators introduced a “radical” treatment for kids suffering from the ailment.
https://youtu.be/aBkSIFMTMoE
Of course, we can’t do that without someone screaming to high heaven these days.
But one school in Texas has found an amazing outlet for kids and ADHD. It’s called RECESS!
Radical, right? Well… not really. It makes sense. Let them get all that pent up energy out of their system plus its great exercise. Their solution, however, is not JUST recess but lots of it!
As reported by Return to Now:
While most school districts across the country are cutting back on recess time and ramping up the Ritalin, one Texas school has kindergartners and first graders sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”
What’s their secret? Their recess time has tripled.
Instead of 20 minutes of recess per day, Eagle Mountain Elementary kindergartners and first graders now get an hour, broken up into four 15-minute breaks, in addition to lunchtime.
Their teachers say it’s totally transformed them.
The kids are less fidgety, less distracted, more engaged in learning and make more eye contact.
[…]
The LiiNK website says benefits of frequent recess include:
- Increased attentional focus
- Improved academics
- Improved attendance
- Decreased behavioral diagnoses (anxiety, ADHD, anger)
- Improved creativity and social skill development
Some of the teachers at Eagle Mountain say they were nervous about how they would keep the kids on track academically with all the lost classroom time. But halfway through the first year of the program first-grade teacher Cathy Wells told NPR her kids “were way ahead of schedule.”