Summary Of Give The Kids A Break By Steve Rushin

The article Overprotected Kids by Hanna Rosin was informative and eye opening on the fact that children nowadays are watched over much more than say when their parents were children. I completely agree, and not only did the article give many examples, it brought me back to my own experiences; when I was a young kid. It’s understandable why parents are protective over their kids when they obviously just watching out for them and their well being. But overshadowing your kids can affect them more than is realized. I believe this is not parents intention, but the fear of something happening to their child has caused them to become what is considered “overprotected”.

The disappearing of playtime is causing a mental health problem in children (Jacobson, 2008). As mentioned before, Winerman also believes that the lack of playtime in schools is causing health problems like anxiety and stress in these young children. Education is putting a lot of pressure in learning a lot of material and not giving them enough playtime. Keeping children healthy is a key while in school, if children are healthy they will not miss a day of class and will be on top of what is being introduced; To keep a child healthy, they have to exercise and play. If preschools and kindergarten are going to diminish playtime, they should at least have physical education.

The documentary “Poor Kids”, it shows the story of the lives of three families who struggle to make ends meet every day. These families lack the resources such as money to buy food and other every day necessities, pay for the rent, and the parents not having a job or not having an unstable employment. I felt heavy hearted after watching this documentary because I can imagine myself in their situation. I feel blessed that I did not have to go through what these families are going through. It is hard to imagine how it feels like to have no money or little money to buy food, clothes and other things, pay the utilities, not having a decent place to live, moving from one motel to another, and not having a stable to job to support the family.

During recess we need to make the children aware of the levels of play that are allowed (Recess: Necessity or Nicety?). That means that all the bullying starts during recess, as Jay Mathews says, recess inspires fights and students getting teased. If teachers let behaviors go unnoticed it could increase the likelihood of further bad behaviors. During recess kids usually do their bullying when there isn’t any teachers around or when there is very poor supervision over them. Unstructured recess can lead to bullying issues, Alice Drinkworth tells that unstructured breaks avoid attention fatigue, regardless of the child’s age. Some people might be concerned about the strangers’ access to the children on school ground during recess or while they’re outside. They might be having situations where the people who are outside of the school and don’t attend the school have tried to talk and play with the kids while the person or teacher isn’t paying any

Schools should get rid of sports. Although many people think that sports are relaxing and stress relieving; numerous studies say that for sport players in particular, the lack of time to do work and sleep is crushing them socially, physically, and academically. Therefore, districts should get rid of after school sports because the cost is extreme, this would aid students academically, and they are a

In Susan Maushart’s essay “When My Kids Unplugged” she talks about what it was like for her children when she wouldn’t let them keep using their electronics because they were so engrossed with them. Maushart talks about the change that each child went though. She talks about how her son Bill is able to go back to playing his saxophone, and how he really changed after the first week of his separation anxiety from his devices. Maushart says, “UP to that point, Bill had barley picked up his instrument in two years” (99). His sister Sussy, also ended up switching her friend groups since she wasn’t online talking to them anymore.

Gesell Institute states, “With playtime and recess being eliminated from schools in exchange for more test and desk work, children are being denied the ability to engage and expand their social skills and relationships, which not all educators realize” (Gesell Institute). Schools are rushing children’s development by making them do skills that they are not ready to do. A child will learn how to do simple tasks like draw a triangle, but forcing them to do it at a younger age and not letting them experience childhood by putting pressure on the child to learn faster is not inspiring them to learn and be creative (Gesell Institute).

There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

One major reason why people support structured recess is because, “Recently, policy makers and funding organizations have called for more opportunities for daily activity as a means to address childhood obesity.” (Text 1, Lines 4-6). Structured recess lets students be able to play the same activity. This means that there will be less conflict because students often don’t agree with playing the same activity. For example, one group of students would want to play basketball while another group would want to play football. This doesn’t work out too well, and structured recess would fix that issue. “More children can actively participate in regular activity, irrespective of skill level.” (Text 1, Line 22). Structured recess can also be “a time for the child to make a personal choice between sedentary, physical, creative, or social options.” (Text 1, Lines 14-15). By allowing a structured recess, “Older elementary children may benefit from game instruction and encouragement for total class inclusion.” (Text 1, Lines

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz tells the harrowing story of the Rivers family and their shocking experiences living in an underserved Chicago public housing project. The story focuses on Lafayette, a middle school aged boy discovering his identity, Pharoah, an elementary school aged boy with high ambition and goals, and their resilient mother LaJoe. Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization discuss how people can create rationalizations to justify delinquencies and crimes. Specifically applicable to There Are No Children Here is the theory of Denial of Responsibility which occurs when the perpetrator of an offense claims the situation was out of their control, they did not know the law, they were a victim of circumstance, or they were acted upon by outside forces rather than acting themselves. The second theory applicable to There Are No Children Here is Becker’s theory of Master Status. The theory of Master Status states that labels can take on a “master status” and can have an enormous influence and once you’ve been labeled, then define you. These theories aid in understanding how the pattern of violence and destruction is perpetuated in the projects of Chicago and the misfortune in the Rivers family.

In the article “Do Our Kids Get Off Too Easy?”, author Alfie Kohn argues that treating kids leniently does not impact their future negatively because it can give them unconditional self-esteem. He believes that when children “never … receive something desirable … unless they’ve done enough to merit it” (Kohn) it can create “a fragile, contingent sense of self” (Kohn). Kohn compares this with the arguments of the opposing side to reveal how they have no evidence on how scolding kids’ losses will help them in the future. He notices that when children only receive awards for when they behave well, “every human interaction… is regarded as a kind of transaction” (Kohn). Kohn challenges those that ridicule the competitions that give all the children

Did you Know, every year the U.S emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger for recess and playground injuries that happen in school. Recess has always been a dangerous place and a waste of time for school hours. Ever since it began back in 1834 in New England. When Amos Bronson Alcott was the one who thought he came up with a great idea.

These Statistics point out that playing outside for recess reduces the amount of stress because kids can forget about test scores and bad grades. Also when I get bad grade I start getting stressed and frustrated so if I had recess all of my stress and frustration would go away. My personal experience claims that kids should have recess in Middle School to take away from stress because when you're playing you forget about everything. I bet that the other kids that don’t have recess get stressed to and if they did have recess all of their stress would go away and be

The purpose of this research review is to look at how physical education, and recess can play a part in helping elementary students stay focused in class. Using reviews of five research studies that were written in academic, and peer reviewed journals that were found on the National University Virtual Library. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the process that was used to and to exam their findings.

In the text it says, “When kids get breaks, they are more able to learn.” ( McCarthy,1) Even though not having recess would give schools more time to teach their kids, the kids will not learn as much because they will not be focused on learning because their brains are tired. To add on , the article also says, “Though play at recess, kids learn communication skills such as negotiation, cooperation, sharing and problem solving” (McCarthy,1) By learning skills that you do on the playground, it helps you make better decisions in class which can also help you learn more. Finally, the text states, “Play also gives kids opportunities to practice coping ski, such as perseverance and self control.” (McCarthy, 1) If kids get to have recess, they will learn important skills that let them learn how to push themselves to do better which can help them learn and/or do good on