Recess is a critical opportunity for students to gain physical activity during the school day. We’ve all known teachers, or been the teacher!, who threatens a student with missing this break if behavior does not improve. This is the “you take my time; I’ll take yours” theory. Yet eliminating recess may actually increase behavior problems. The Inspired Treehouse recently published a post called “Positive Discipline: 10 Ways to Stop Taking Recess Away” that offers alternatives to withholding recess. Some of the suggestions use physical activity as a punishment, which is not appropriate, but there are several beneficial ideas as well as links to other resources.
Physical activity is neither a punishment nor a reward!
