By Rina Thun Everywhere you go in the Bethel School District, you will see billboards advertising the district's accomplishments, but there's one thing you won't see mentioned: Recess. Bethel kids get the least in the area GÇô just 20 minutes a day. Imagine half your waking hours spent at work and having one 20-minute break GÇô when you're 8. It's no wonder the teachers have written 45 minutes of recess a day into their new contract proposal. After all, research shows that kids learn through play and learn better after playing. The American Academy of Pediatrics calls recess "a crucial and necessary component of a child's day.GÇ¥ Puyallup kids get up to an hour; Sumner has 45 minutes per day. Their test scores are the same or better. So what does make many parents wonder is the district's flat-out refusal to increase recess. Earlier this year, when a group of parents approached the School Board about the issue, a district representative said teachers were not on board. Not true. They said they couldn't increase recess because of state requirements on instructional time. Not true. (Puyallup is in the same state, after all.) They said that research only cites a minimum of 20 minutes per day. What many of us want to know is why do they feel our kids are only worth the minimum? Anyone with children knows they need time to reset their brains and bodies. Anyone who sees the news knows there is a teacher shortage. If the Bethel School District wishes to keep their excellent staff, they need to be competitive with surrounding districts GÇô and not just when it comes to energy efficiency.
Rina Thun is an organizer of Recess for Bethel. The organization can be reached on Facebook and at recessforbethel@yahoo.com.
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