UTW Blog

    When Superintendent Brooks answered Randy Schofield’s questions about the lack of recess in our elementary schools, he gave what appeared to be honest and common sense answers.  Winston felt that every kid should have at least 15 minutes of recess a day, over and above lunch.  UTW thanked him for that public stance.  Then, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Schools Greg Rasmussen sent an e-mail to principals reinforcing the Superintendent’s position.

    All large bureaucracies are very good about defending themselves.  It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about the Federal Government, City Hall, or a 50,000 student school district.  Following the Superintendent’s public recess position, the internal wheels of the district’s bureaucracy got busy.  Edicts had already been in place restricting recess and other non-productive behaviors.  Their rationale seems to go something like this: If test scores are to go up, it will only happen by having a multi-pronged approach.  We need to improve our teaching skills through vast amounts of Professional Development, ratchet down the flexibility in the curriculum so teachers teach only what is tested in the way the district wants it taught, and jettison all off-task-unwanted behaviors like recess.

    As the first rumblings of random acts of recess began to be heard, the Bureaucratic Defense Mechanisms (BDM) were activated.  BDMs are very effective and they worked like a charm in this case.  Soon after recess had reappeared in the life of kids and teachers, the BDMs were used to reinforce the earlier edicts about unwanted and unproductive behaviors like recess.  “Recess can and should be taken,” the BDMs would say.  “However, you cannot interrupt the two hour reading block, nor the 30 minutes of writing immediately following it, nor can you interrupt the 90 minute Math block followed by the Math Interventions, etc....”

    When teachers were confronted by the BDM response they would ask, “When can I take the kids to recess?”  The BDM response would make any veteran politician proud, “Anytime you want, dear.  Follow the restrictions and it will be just fine.” 

    What would happen if the Superintendent tried to make sense of the BDM response?  Would the BDMs effectively negate the Superintendent’s rather public pronouncement in favor of recess?  Or would the Superintendent be able to squelch the BDMs, alter the overly restrictive edicts and get the students of this district the occasional recess they so desperately need?  That would be an interesting struggle.  Hope it happens soon.