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"in the spring of 2023, only 56 out of every 100 fourth-graders were doing math at the level they should be. In 2019, before the pandemic, it was 69 out

of 100. That's just one example from the report." This is important information because students were doing noticeably worse after the long break given from the pandemic. If we tried to fix this we would have to get more learning time. To do this we could lessen recess time.

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"Principals and teachers should plan how to use these new hours to make their program better so that students can: Learn important subjects well Practice new skills Get help that is just for them Learn about many different things Enjoy art, music, drama, and sports." With more time to learn kids can learn more skills and learn more things. This will make the students smarter. Another way we can get more learning time is by cutting recess.

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"Teachers can also work with students who have different skill levels at the same time. Longer classes let teachers divide the class into groups and give individual help. This keeps more students interested and stops them from getting bored and getting into trouble." This shows that if we get more learning time we could help people with special needs. We could also get individual help for struggling kids. This will be helpful since after the pandemic scores have gone down a lot.

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"in the long run, has been shown to foster cognitive development while boosting physical development together with emotional and social development." (Recess Guardians.org, 2022) These developmental skills can help kids later on in life. With unstructured recess kids can learn these skills.

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teaches kids how to deal with the unexpected and unpredictable, and is considered to be a critically important skill in today's uncertain world. (Recess Guardians.org, 2022) Unstructured recess promotes creativity which can help kids later on in life. Unstructured recess does this because sometimes it forces kids to problem solve.

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"Physical activity helps children maintain a healthy weight and combats the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a common condition prevalent in North American children."(Recess Guardians.org, 2022) In North America there has been a rise in obesity in children since we are not as active we used to. This has caused panic but by playing at recess we can slow down this problem since it promotes physical activity while also being fun.

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"Studies have proved that the social skills acquired through unstructured play help children become better students academically." (Recess Guardians.org, 2022) This type of play is a reason why kids are learning more which makes them smarter. This can majorly help them on later on in life.

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"not having enough play can mess up how kids grow and learn." (Melinda Wenner Moyer 2016) Some studies show that if you don't have play it can mess up how your brain develops. This can cause problems when you grow up into an adult.

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"games have rules that are set up ahead of time. Free play doesn't have rules, so it lets kids be more creative. If the kids are creative it will help kids brains develop." (Melinda Wenner Moyer 2016) Unstructured recess allows this unlike structured recess since unstructured recess is fully made up by the kids.

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"Play can help kids deal with stress and learn how to get along with others. But it can also make them smarter!" (Melinda Wenner Moyer 2016) Unstructured play can make kids smarter because a study showed that kids that play this way can learn more than other kids who were being told and showed what to do.

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"The problems are worse for kids from low-

income families, kids with disabilities, and kids who are learning English. These kids already had problems in school before the pandemic, and now it's even worse." Even before the pandemic these kids had a hard time in school. Since the pandemic academic scores have tanked which will affect them more since they don't have many resources.

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"some schools added about two hours to their school day. After only one year,these schools improved a lot. They did better than other schools in the state. The number of kids who did well on the state test went up by: 44 percent in math 19 percent in science 39 percent in English" This shows that more learning time will make you learn more. If you learn more then you will become smarter and improve your test scores.

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"In 2023, 65 out of 100 third-graders were reading at the level they should be. In 2019, it was 72 out of 100. It's also taking longer for kids to catch up in reading." After the pandemic scores have gone down. This will be almost impossible to reverse for multiple reasons like kids dwindling attention span. We can try to make an effort by getting more class time by getting rid of recess.

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"Their report said that in 2023-24, the

difference between test scores before and after Covid got bigger by 36 percent in reading and 18 percent in math." Scores have gone down in not just reading but math too. This will also be hard to reverse but no or less recess will help.

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“free play promotes intellectual and cognitive growth, emotional intelligence, and benefits social interactions.” (ChrisKirsch.medium.com, 2018) This means you can become smarter and boost your cognitive growth which is brain growth by coming up with strategies and problem solving. You can also learn emotional intelligence which is learning how to handle your emotions. Social intelligence which is how good you can speak and talk. you can learn both of these from interactions and experiences outside at recess.

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"As obesity for children is on the rise, adults feel that recess should be structured to contain physical activity to help prevent conditions like obesity from developing." (ChrisKirsch.medium.com, 2018) This citation is important because structured recess forces kids to be active which will promote physical activity. It also does this with rules so it is safe for the kids.

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"It’s really about the school environment and how you create a healthy school environment for the children...if children are healthy and happy, they learn better (ChrisKirsch.medium.com, 2018) This citation is important because if the school is safer the student will feel safer and be in a better mood. If they are in a better mood they will learn more and they will most likely get smarter.

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I think the problem is mostly our fault but also a little bit of our parents fault. I think this is because we weren't forced to be lazy or not to be able to focus. Our parents should've made sure that we were doing our work and studying. Even though this might have helped it's still mostly our fault.