2nd August 2006

Increase retention and creativity with recess

posted in creativity, literacy, politics |

I am a big advocate for recess, both at school and outside of school. According to Gabrielle deGroot Redford:

As we age, our short-term memory of details in the immediate past—what we ate for breakfast, where we put our glasses—decreases. A recent study, however, found that mice who exercised regularly not only learned a new task more quickly but also retained what they learned better and actually developed new brain cells in the memory section of the brain. The most exciting part of the study, though, was that the mice were about the equivalent of 70 in human years, and they developed increased memory skills after exercising for only one month.

So the recess you hopefully enjoyed in your youth (if you’re a digital immigrant) was not just good for your heart and limbs– it was also good for your mind! Active bodies tend to have active minds. And this is what we should want inside and outside schools! So why are so many leaders mixed up when it comes to promoting literacy and learning?!

For more thoughts on the benefits of recess, check out “Let’s fight for recess” and the thoughts of a six year old sage in “Podcast60: The Best Things About Kindergarten.”

On this day..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 9:02 am and is filed under creativity, literacy, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. 1 On September 7th, 2006, Moving at the Speed of Creativity » Blog Archive » Improve reading skills with basic solutions said:

    [...] Let’s stop blaming teachers and stop pretending that standardized tests, the standards movement, and curriculum pacing guides can save us from the formidable educational challenges we face in our varied contexts. Let’s put recess back into schools, let’s give kids more time to read AT SCHOOL and provide them with rich choices for available texts, and let’s pursue 1:1 laptop initiatives as the price-point continues to make these projects more fiscally achievable for all schools. [...]