Rolling Back One of the Worst Trends Ever

How stupid and counter-intuitive can a education "policy" get? Zero Tolerance is certainly among the worst. But to my mind, it must be how recess got pushed out of the school day. I doubt anyone actually positions themselves as "anti-recess", but when you pack a school day with mandates and testing that is going to be the result.
Finally, a little empirical support for something that most of us knew:

Recess is crucial for learning.

In the Pediatrics study, 30 percent were found to have little or no daily recess. Another report, from a children’s advocacy group, found that 40 percent of schools surveyed had cut back at least one daily recess period.

Also, teachers often punish children by taking away recess privileges. That strikes Dr. Barros as illogical. “Recess should be part of the curriculum,” she said. “You don’t punish a kid by having them miss math class, so kids shouldn’t be punished by not getting recess.”

Last month, Harvard researchers reported in The Journal of School Health that the more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests. The study, of 1,800 middle school students, suggests that children can benefit academically from physical activity during gym class and recess.

A small study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder last year found that walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration. Notably, children who took walks in natural settings did better than those who walked in urban areas, according to the report, published online in August in The Journal of Attention Disorders. The researchers found that a dose of nature worked as well as a dose of medication to improve concentration, or even better.

Here's the article. Hopefully we can turn the page on this nonsense and start making policy based on how children learn and not on what we want them to learn.