ST PAUL, Minn. — Simon Hofer is a fourth grader now, but he recalls the times back in his younger days when teachers would take recess away from him as a form of classroom discipline.
He didn't like it.
"When I had to stay in for recess, it didn’t make me feel good. It just made me feel depressed and it didn’t make me behave the way my teachers wanted me to," Simon told members of the Minnesota House Education Policy Committee Friday afternoon.
He appeared via Zoom to testify in support of a bill by DFL Rep. Heather Edelson of Edina that would outright bar teachers from depriving recess from children as a form of punishment.
"I don’t remember what I did that made them tell me to stay in, but I am autistic, so there’s a pretty good chance it has something to do with my anxiety," Simon explained.
"I get anxious a lot in school and sometimes I say things I shouldn’t when I get stressed out. Sometimes I need to move my body when my teachers want me to sit still."
Current state law discourages the practice but doesn't bar it. Rep. Edelson said her own son, who has a disability, had recess taken away from him two years ago for failing to finish a math test.
"It is happening. And as a clinical social worker I can tell you recess is so critical for our young kids when they spent an entire day at school," Rep. Edelson told her colleagues.
"We want them outside. We want them moving. It’s good for their academics, their social-emotional health."
Dr. Gwen Rosha Anderson, the principal of Stride Academy Charter School in St. Cloud, also testified in favor of Edelson's bill.
"They need this unstructured time to create and play to develop stronger brain capacity. They need the connection time with their peers to build relationships and secure safer spaces for children with less bullying."
Jennifer Davis, who works as an Early Childhood and Family Education instructor in St. Paul, also endorsed the idea of ending the practice of withholding recess privileges to teach children a lesson.
"Please let children have recess. It’s not a good tool that teachers should be using in their toolbox. It’s not an effective educating tool. It’s doing exactly the opposite of what we think it’s doing."
The bill passed the Education Policy committee mainly along party line, with only one Republican joining all the Democrats in voting yes. The bill's next stop in the House Finance Committee where language may be added to pay for training.
One of those who spoke against the legislation was Rep. Sondra Erickson, a Princeton Republican who spent her career in teaching. She questioned what teachers are supposed to do if they're deprived of this power.
"I know my grandson has had to stay in and miss recess because he misbehaved. He got over it," Rep. Erickson remarked.
"What is your plan for helping a teacher deal with this? An autistic student is far different from another child who doesn’t have those kinds of issues."
Rep. Edelson countered that any child can lash out under the right circumstances.
"Do you know what dysregulation is? When a child becomes dysregulated the last thing to do is to keep them in a spot and think they’ll punitively learn something from that."
Dysregulation is the clinical term for when a person can suddenly panic and feel threatened. They can see their breathing, heart rate and behavior become erratic as they experience an unexpected adrenaline rush.