Back to School. Two Different Recess Philosophies.

Children head to the park in the final days of summer in Toulouse.

Children playing in the mist waterpark in Bordeaux over the summer.

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, children will reluctantly pack away rollerblades and bikes and replace toys with newly sharpened pencils and unblemished erasers. It’s back to the classroom.

Recess time in the US has been on the decline in recent years, so students won’t get much of a break to ease their way back into times tables and ABC’s. The Sacramento Bee reported on Monday that recess in the US declined by 20 percent between 2001 and 2007.

Recess breaks in the Sacramento region will now be as short as 10 minutes in some districts. Granted, students will also have a lunch break later in the day. But this 10 minute “recess” seems ready made for a worker bee, not an eight year old hoping to build a sand castle!

Speed recess is not designed to squeeze the fun out of education. It’s the result of school districts reaching over backwards for ways to help students perform better. The theory goes, the more we can teach at these kids, the more they will take in. But these are children and not drones. Do children really learn more when they work more?

The recent response in France has been no, not necessarily. Children in France start a new school year today and they will be welcomed with the “école nouvelle generation." Changes to the old system will include fewer school hours and more individual attention in elementary schools.

Here’s the shocker, most elementary schoolchildren will now go to school four days a week! France is reducing the elementary school week from 26 hours a week to 24, and giving students all Wednesday off to play.

The idea of a Wednesday play day has long been a staple of French education. Traditionally, French primary students stayed in session Wednesday morning, while Wednesday afternoon was reserved for outside of school activities. This Wednesday play luxury meant that children also had to hit the books Saturday morning, in the classroom!

Saturday morning classes have slowly fallen out of fashion in France. Xavier Darcos, the French Minister of Education, made this tendency official beginning this fall. There will be no more six-day weeks for children. They need to play.

An exception will be made however for students identified as needing extra help. Low performing elementary school children will be required to stay two extra hours a week for personalized attention. The timing of such courses will be determined by individual school districts, and might cut into children’s free Wednesdays. This focus on personal help, and not a longer school day, might be the appropriate response to low-scoring students.