Teachers often cancel recess as a punishment. A growing number of states want to change that.

[Jilly_in_VA]

In Florida, kids in a second grade class were told to walk laps during recess after no one confessed to taking money from a classmate. In Kentucky, a first grader who hadn’t been paying attention in class had to sit on a bench next to his teacher and watch his friends play. In Texas, after a few students misbehaved, an entire first grade class had to sit inside silently for recess.

Amid long, structured school days filled with academic demands, recess serves as a critical outlet and break for kids, according to pediatricians and child development experts.

But, on any given day, an untold number of children in elementary schools nationwide have all or part of their recess revoked for infractions such as failing to finish their work, talking out of turn or not following directions. The long-standing and common punishment in schools occurs even though the practice flies in the face of considerable research supporting the importance of free play for young children.

Recently, there has been growing momentum to pass laws to protect recess time. Lawmakers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Minnesota introduced bills over the past year to prohibit schools from withholding recess as a punishment.

If successful, these states would go further than nearly anywhere else in the U.S. in banning the practice. Eleven other states and Washington, D.C. — as well as districts including the Austin Independent School District in Texas and the New York City Department of Education — have laws or policies that limit how teachers can use the punishment, but few have outright bans.

Most states still allow the practice, and in places that restrict it, enforcement can be rare. Even in states that mandate physical activity or recess time, some parents report their children still sometimes lose entire recess periods. Overwhelmed educators have pushed back against losing disciplinary options or have continued withholding recess, with few consequences.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teachers-cancel-recess-punishment-state-laws-rcna27531
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Note that the proposed laws/policies are all in blue states/areas. And just as bad is the policy of "silent lunch". Ask your child.

[rainy]

1. Not allowed in Virginia Beach public schools

[Phoenix61]

2. For all those who want to get rid of sitting out recess and

silent lunch what would you like to institute instead?

[Amishman]

5. My thoughts as well. There need to be punishment options

Some kids don't respond well with positive reinforcement, others don't respond to negative. Need to have a range of options available to fit the full circumstances.

[vanlassie]

7. Are you implying that the punishment changes behavior?

Because I guess it would only be needed a couple of times if that is true….

[Buckeyeblue]

8. It's an old outdated idea which is why the same kids are always in detention

And it's lazy discipline really. Provide incentives for good behavior. Work on individual goals. I know that our current education system is not set up for this. But it's what we should be doing.

[Phoenix61]

9. Punishment doesn't work. Behavior modification on the other

hand is highly effective. Good classroom management techniques employ clear consequences, positive and negative, for student behaviors. Earn all your points for the week and you get to pick from the treasure box. Interrupt class effectively stealing learning time from your classmates and you pay that back with your recess time. Personally, I think they need more breaks during the day to run. When I was in school we had 3 recesses, Morning, after lunch, and afternoon. They weren’t long but they sure were fun. They also gave the teacher 3 carrots a day to keep the class on track.

[Peregrine Took]

3. The nun used to lock kids in the classroom over lunch in the dark if they were bad. n/t

[Ilsa]

11. I suspect that was not the case in middle school.

Even early teenagers shouldn't be put together in the dark for any length of time.

[Igel]

4. Districts around here treat it as response-to-intervention time.

You are absent and don't make up work, you don't turn in work or you fail a test, you stay behind to do the work you should have already done. (In a sense it's worse because the rest of the class has recess.)

In some schools with a large continent of students who fail the standardized tests, that's remediation time a few days a week as well.

Kids may view it as punishment, but admin and most teachers see it otherwise--if they don't keep the kids in to play catch up, they'll just fall further and further behind.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. So in other words

just never let the kids run around to let off steam so they can come in energized to focus better. Or talk at lunch time so they can settle down. This "modern approach" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But I went to elementary school in the 1950s when the teachers would literally tell us to "go out and run around and get some of those cobwebs out of your brain" or "get rid of some of that excess energy so you can stop wiggling". How can kids focus if all they are allowed to do is sit still and do some kind of paperwork? No wonder so many of them hate school.

[Phoenix61]

10. I went to school in the 60's and we had 3 recesses in k-4.

Morning, after lunch, and afternoon. I can’t sit still for 6 hours as an adult. I don’t know when they decided
kids were able to. I agree with you, if they had more breaks during the day they would be better able to focus.

[Jilly_in_VA]

12. Agreed

We had recess twice a day all the way up through 6th grade, plus an hour and a half for lunch so we could go home and come back. The few kids whose moms worked ate lunch at school and then played on the playground, or in the gym if the weather was bad. In jr. high we still had an hour for lunch but most of the time I brought my lunch and we just hung out, outside if the weather was nice, or different places inside if it wasn't (the library was popular, or the gym). In high school the school was overcrowded so we only got 25 minutes for lunch and that was it.