Background:

Parents for Inspiring Education (PIE) is dedicated to ensuring that every child in the ConVal School District has access to an inspiring, nurturing and creative education that starts in a community-driven classroom.

We believe recess plays a critical role in our children’s growth and development. We’re not alone: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the country’s leading group of pediatricians, states that “recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development,” citing a wide range of scientific research to back its position.1

If you agree, please show your support by adding your name to this community petition! We’ll be delivering it to school district leaders to show the level of community interest in supporting more recess time.

Petition text:

As parents, taxpayers and community members in the ConVal School District, we believe every child deserves an inspiring, nurturing and creative education that supports healthy growth and development.

We also believe adequate recess time is important to support that development. As the American Academy of Pediatrics puts it, “recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development.”

Recognizing the crucial value of recess time for children’s growth, we urge the ConVal School District to ensure that, starting in Fall 2015, all elementary schools in the district offer two recesses per day.

Footnotes:

1 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full. In its policy statement on recess, the American Academy of Pediatrics concludes: “Even with ample evidence of a whole-child benefit from recess, significant external pressures, such as standardized cognitive testing mandated by educational reforms, have led some to view recess as time that would be better spent on academics… Ironically, minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement, as a growing body of evidence suggests that recess promotes not only physical health and social development but also cognitive performance.”