You may remember last year when I tattooed my head to help Holly get elected student body president at her school (http://mattharward.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-competitive-am-i.html).
Well, Holly accomplished what all student-body presidents *want* to do… but few actually *get* to do… she managed to get recess extended by 10 minutes for grades 4 through 6.
Pretty cool, if you ask me.
Here’s the story…
In an effort to reduce the food waste at lunch time the school decided it would extend the lunch period by 10 minutes for each class. The extra time would only be applied to the cafeteria time of each class… not recess.
Holly didn’t like the new rule. So she drafted a petition and obtained the signatures of the entire 6th grade class at her school.
Here’s her petition…
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Dear Mr. Michels,
As a 6th grade, we think that we need extra time at recess. We don’t need extra time to eat. The current lunchroom time is sufficient for us. It doesn’t take us as long to eat as some of the younger students, so giving us 5-10 extra minutes to eat would be a waste. We think that the younger students in kindergarten to 3rd grade should get the extra time to eat, and 4th through 6th grade should get recess. The younger kids have a harder time focusing on eating their lunch, and they don’t understand the value of money enough to care that they throw away half their lunch. As 6th graders, we understand that and also can just eat faster. As it is, we are usually sitting at the table waiting to go outside when our lunch time is up – we don’t require more time to eat.
However, since we sit in the classroom all day, a longer recess period would be much more appreciated. The older you are, the more exercise it takes to stay healthy. We think increasing the amount of recess we have would help us get exercise. Since most people just sit at the lunch table, they tend to talk more because they have nothing else to do. If we get outside sooner, we won’t be as loud inside. We see the following as the pros of having a longer recess:
- We get more exercise and run off more energy, helping us to be calmer in class
- We’re allowed to talk to friends longer after being in the classroom all day
- The teachers will have more time to eat and to catch up on whatever they have to do.
Some of the cons of having a longer recess might be:
- People coming in with more problems at recess
- The younger students might complain if we are given an extended recess and they aren’t
Please consider our advice. We’ve attached a petition of the students who would like a longer recess. Thank you for your time and consideration.
The Quail Run 6th Grade
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As a marketer, I couldn’t be more proud. She got almost everything right (I would have reversed the pro/con order).
As a father, I’m impressed that she saw something she thought could be better and went and did something about it. Very cool.
I’m not sure when this whole thing goes into effect… but I do know that her petition was accepted and enacted. Grades 4-6 will get 10 minutes longer for recess.
Seriously… when was the last time a student body president actually delivered longer recess? Now if she could just do something about that infernal homework.
Go Holly!
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