We the undersigned parents, or legal guardians, of Pocomoke Middle School students and Pocomoke community members at large believe that daily recess (recess being defined as unstructured recreation and play with peers) is critical to the sound physical, mental and social development of our school-aged children, and thereby we believe that the current Pocomoke Middle School policy eliminating recess from the program in favor of additional classroom time (supposedly to improve standardized test scores) is short sighted, unfounded, and ultimately counterproductive to the goal of developing our children into well-rounded, healthy, intelligent, productive and creative citizens. The medical, sociological and psychological rationale for daily recess is well documented in volumes of research and is fundamentally a matter of common sense. Daily recess for the students of Pocomoke Middle School should be re-instituted immediately.