by Nicky "$wagbirth" Service
“Can we have a break?” is a phrase you’ll commonly hear spoken in a typical Harwood classroom. However, this is not without reason, as multiple studies have listed that taking breaks during a school day can improve productivity, reduce stress, and help students develop social skills. And yet, some schools don’t even offer recess, relying purely on PE for activity throughout the day.
Luckily for us, that’s not the case, and we are offered breaks throughout the day, but in my eyes, the amount of breaks that we do get is not enough. As previously stated, breaks have multiple positive impacts on students’ mental health, though a lack of breaks can have a seriously negative impact on students’ mental, and physical health.
A decreased amount of physical activity in a child’s life can lead to diabetes, asthma, and other unwanted things. A decreased amount of free time can lead to depression, stress, and anxiety. With so much pressure put on students to do well in school nowadays, it only adds to that pressure when you don’t get a break from that pressure! And with all that pressure building up you start to get worse grades, which only leads to more stress, which leads to worse grades, and then it becomes a vicious cycle. Are you seeing how important breaks are? School is difficult, and you need to take breaks from difficult things.
I’m not saying our school sucks, the addition of breaks to our school has been a big leap in the right direction, but what I am saying is that we need more of those breaks. At the very least, one break per class and longer recess and lunchtime.
But I hear you, teachers, saying, “What about time for teaching? All these breaks don’t leave enough time for academics.” And to that, I direct you toward the Finland education system. There, the high school graduation percentage is around 93% compared to the US's 75%, and have #1 test scores in the entire world. What’s the secret? Well, as you have probably already guessed, breaks! Multiple breaks that are offered to students throughout the day as well as 75-minute long recess, make Finland’s education system much more relaxed and dramatically reduce stress and pressure put on students. So, in conclusion, more breaks!
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