The Recess Question

The bell rang.

“Recess!” Beth shouted.

Chairs scooted back. Sneakers hurried across the floor. A moment later, Beth and her classmates spilled onto the playground.

The sun felt warm on Beth’s face. A light wind moved through the trees beside the fence. On the blacktop, basketballs went bounce, bounce, bounce. Near the swings, children called to one another.

“Push me higher!”

“Catch me!”

“Race you to the slide!”

Beth smiled. Recess was one of her favorite parts of the school day.

She ran toward the jump ropes where her friend Ava was waiting.

“Want to jump?” Ava asked.

“Of course!” Beth said.

Ava and Beth began turning the rope together.

“Ready?” Ava called.

Their friend Max jumped into the middle.

“One, two, three, four!”

Max jumped higher each time the rope came around.

Then Beth noticed someone sitting alone near the fence.

It was Lily. She had joined their class only a few days earlier.

Beth stopped turning the rope.

“What’s wrong?” Ava asked.

“I think Lily might need someone to play with,” Beth said.

Beth walked over to her.

“Do you want to jump rope with us?” Beth asked.

Lily looked surprised.

“Really?”

“Really,” Beth said.

Soon Lily was jumping while Beth and Ava turned the rope.

Lily missed the rope on her first try.

Then she missed again.

On the third try, she made it over.

Everyone cheered.

“I did it!” Lily yelled.

Beth laughed.

For a few minutes, the playground seemed full of nothing but running feet, swinging ropes, bouncing balls, and happy voices.

Then the whistle blew.

Recess was over.

“Awww!” several children groaned.

As the class lined up, Max said, “Recess always feels too short.”

“I think we should have a longer recess,” Ava said.

Beth nodded. “Me too.”

Their teacher, Mrs. Green, heard them.

“Why do you think recess should be longer?” she asked.

“Because we get to move,” Max said. “We sit a lot in class.”

“And we get to play with our friends,” Ava added.

Beth looked at Lily.

“Sometimes recess gives us time to get to know someone new,” she said.

Mrs. Green smiled.

“Those are thoughtful reasons,” she said. “Recess can give children time to move, play games, talk with friends, and take a break from classroom work.”

Max grinned.

“So can we have recess all afternoon?”

Mrs. Green laughed.

“Not quite.”

“Why not?” Max asked.

“Because a school community has many needs,” Mrs. Green explained. “We need time to read, write, learn mathematics, study science and social studies, and do many other important things.”

“So longer recess might mean less time for something else?” Beth asked.

“That could happen,” Mrs. Green said.

Beth thought about that as they walked back to the classroom.

She loved recess. She liked running outside and feeling the wind on her face. She liked laughing with Ava and Max. Most of all, she was glad she had asked Lily to join them.

But now there was more to think about.

When everyone was seated, Mrs. Green wrote a question on the board:

Should our recess be longer?

“People in a community do not always agree,” she explained. “Sometimes one person wants one thing while someone else wants something different. Good citizens listen to one another, consider the reasons, and make decisions respectfully.”

Mrs. Green drew three columns on the board.

Longer Recess

Keep Recess the Same

Another Solution

“We are not going to vote yet,” she said.

Max raised his hand. “Why not?”

“Because a good decision should not be based only on what we want,” Mrs. Green replied. “First, we need information. We should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each choice.”

The class began making a list.

Under Longer Recess, they wrote:

more time for physical activity

more time with friends

more opportunities to include someone new

a longer break from sitting and working

Under Keep Recess the Same, they wrote:

enough time for all school subjects

more classroom learning time

time for other activities during the school day

Then Lily raised her hand.

“What if we could have another short movement break instead of making recess a lot longer?”

Mrs. Green smiled. “That is exactly why we have a third column.”

Beth liked Lily’s idea.

Mrs. Green added it to Another Solution.

“People have been making group decisions for a very long time,” Mrs. Green continued. “Thousands of years ago, some citizens in Athens, a city in ancient Greece, gathered to discuss important questions and vote. Their ideas about citizens participating in decisions helped influence democratic governments that came much later.”

“So voting is really old?” Max asked.

“The idea certainly is,” Mrs. Green said. “Today, voting is still one way groups make decisions.”

Ava looked at the board.

“Can we vote now?”

“Almost,” Mrs. Green said. “First, everyone gets a chance to explain a point of view. You may disagree with someone, but you must listen respectfully.”

Beth listened as her classmates spoke.

Max still wanted longer recess.

Ava agreed with him.

One student thought recess should stay exactly the same.

Lily explained her idea for an extra movement break.

No one shouted. No one laughed at another person’s answer. They asked questions and listened.

Finally, Mrs. Green handed each student a small paper ballot.

“Now you have heard several perspectives,” she said. “Choose the solution you believe would work best for our class.”

Beth looked at the three choices.

At first, she had been certain that longer recess was the only good answer.

Now she was not so sure.

She thought about running and jumping.

She thought about Lily’s smile.

She thought about all the things they needed to learn during the school day.

Then Beth made her choice.

One by one, the students placed their ballots in a box.

Mrs. Green did not announce the result immediately.

“Whatever the class decides,” she said, “the most important thing is what we just practiced.”

“What was that?” Max asked.

“We looked at a problem. We gathered information. We considered different solutions. We listened to one another. Then we used voting to help make a group decision.”

Beth looked out the window at the empty playground.

The swings moved gently in the wind.

Recess had started as something simple.

Now it had become a question about choices, communities, and how people make decisions together.

Beth smiled.

She had a lot to think about.