Crime and Punishment - 4th Grade

My friend, Jessica wrote this piece a few days ago and it struck a nerve in me.

My son's teacher has been punishing their "rowdy" behavior by withholding their recess time. Seems to me this is counter-productive on so many levels, but the main one would have to be the energy levels of kids. They NEED time to run around and have some unstructured time in their day.

He is already bringing home an hour or two of homework just about every night. So when he comes home from school, he goes straight to work. Then he goes to Taekwondo or Baseball. He has lots of energy and is extremely active.

Let's just remember that we are talking about 10-year-olds. I see little value in the work he brings home to do. Lots of busy work and "Independent Study" projects that, from what I have experienced, require lots of parental supervision.

At the elementary school level, our children need to be introduced to the love of learning. Not the rigorous study time associated with secondary education. They need to be fascinated with the world around them, not spending every waking moment practicing for a stupid standardized test.

And they most certainly do NOT need to be justifying their need for a recess by writing an essay about why they think they "deserve" to have one. In perfect cursive.