THIS IS A STUDENT EDITORIAL AND DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINION OF THE LONGFELLOW ADMINISTRATION
Recess is a break that all elementary schools have once a day for 15-30 minutes. After years and years of not having recess at middle schools in FCPS, the Fairfax County School Board voted in April of 2022 to add recess into the daily schedule, requiring a 15-minute break during the school day.
This seems like a good idea, right? That’s what lots of students think. School is a very intense environment that can be overwhelming, overstimulating, and stressful. Students are constantly learning for around 7 hours a day with only a 30-minute break for lunch. Longfellow’s recess has been implemented about halfway through the day, to give students a nice break to talk and see friends, calm down, and if the weather permits, go outside. Recess definitely helps students de-stress and calm down.
However, this doesn’t happen every day. When we take assessments such as the Virginia Growth Assessment (VGA) and the Standards of Learning (SOL), recess usually gets lost in the mix, and usually for a few days in a row.
On testing days, regular class periods are shorter, going from an hour and 45 minutes to just one hour, making room for a 2-hour testing period. During these testing days, students do not get any breaks other than lunch. Many students think this is unfair because the assessments are overwhelming, draining, and tiring.
“It is important for students to be able to take a break, especially with how stressful the test is,” said student Carter J.
We believe that students should get recess on test days. An appropriate time to have a 15-minute break would be during the lunch periods (5th or 6th period). The lunch periods are 2 hours to accommodate all of the students, meaning an hour and a half of learning. Every other class gets cut into just an hour, so adding recess into the lunch periods would be the best option so you don’t lose any vital learning time.
These are all different reasons why students should be able to have recess on testing days such as VGA and SOL. We think it would overall help students’ mental health and motivation to learn. This could potentially lead to better testing scores.
