The 4th R

Schooling
Edward Hessler

Recess, of course!

Dr. Michael Hynes is the superintendent of the Patchoque-Medford schools on Long Island. He has been a long-time proponent of essentially making recess an official part of the school day.

Here is a short video for which I thank Diane Ravitch who posted about it today on her blog. Ravitch's aim is to have an ongoing discussion of better education for all students. Dr. Ravitch  also includes a letter from Superintendent Hynes to the NYS Superintendent of Schools and the NYS Board of Education to "strongly consider and discuss a mandate" for recess.

I let the tape run after I watched it while I attended to other things and noticed that it is followed by a TEDx talk by Dr. Hynes. Didn't pay much attention but caught a few words about his visit to his former school to see his transcript so I suspect it has something to do with recess and other ideas he has interest in, one of which is meditation, a practice that is being used in some schools with success for dealing with and understanding the tensions of daily life.