The good news is, someone on the White House Task Force for childhood obesity was listening. This week, Michelle Obama sent an email releasing their report, and among the many recommendations, was restoring recess!
Recommendation 5.4: State and local educational agencies should be encouraged to promote recess for elementary students and physical activity breaks for older students, and provide support to schools to implement recess in a healthy way that promotes physical activity and social skill development.
Definitely a step in the right direction, and encouraging news. You can visit the Let’s Move website to read the report and recommendations. The Task Force received over 2500 public comments – so a big thank you to everyone who wrote in about recess and more. On the heels of this success – here is another way to get involved and make change for children and play:
The standardized test movement is one of the many factors that is squeezing play out of children’s lives – especially their school lives. Starting in kindergarten, our children are being turned off – instead of turned on to learning. Many folks ask me, “But what can I do?” Here is one thing you can do…today I am spreading the word about an exciting campaign initiated by the folks at Time Out from Testing. Here are there words:
Dear Friends,
Parent and other assessment reform organizations and individuals from across the country are participating in a postcard campaign to First Lady Michelle Obama asking that she encourage the President to put an end to the use of High Stakes Testing. When she was on the campaign trail she had the following to say about the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Program:
“No Child Left Behind is strangling the life out of most schools.”
“If my future were determined by my performance on a standardized test I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee that.”
THOUSANDS OF US AGREE WITH HER CRITICISM. WE NEED HER HELP TO END THE RELIANCE ON HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS.
HERE IS WHAT WE NEED TO DO: On May 29th send a postcard to Michelle Obama with this message:
Dear Michelle Obama:
We want the same education for our children that you provide for Malia and Sasha.
Our child is not a test score.
Encourage the President to end the use of high stakes standardized tests!
Sincerely,
Name:
Address:
Signature
Mail to:
First Lady Michelle Obama
White House,
Washington DC
Some of you may want to tweak the wording a bit. All that we ask is that you don’t dilute the main message of ending high stakes testing. Remember that once she receives the first 50 postcards, she and her staff won’t be reading them but instead will be counting them.
One way to ensure the success of this campaign will be to go viral and use our listservs and Facebook. However, it requires that people go to the post office , buy a postcard and then write the message and address it. In this day and age we fear that will not happen in mass numbers. So we have designed some other ways to make sure we reach our goal of between 50,000-100,000 cards on May 29th.
FOR THIS WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF ALL OUR ORGANIZATIONS TO GO INTO THE COMMUNITY AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!
HERE ARE OUR SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS:
1. SET UP TABLES IN YOUR SCHOOLS WHEN PARENTS DROP OFF AND PICK UP THEIR KIDS AND GET THEM TO SIGN THE CARD. YOU WILL NEED TO BUY THEM AND PUT THE MESSAGE ON YOURSELF. ASK FOR A 25 CENT CONTRIBUTION. SOME WILL GIVE A DOLLAR AND SOME WON’T GIVE SO IT SHOULD BALANCE OUT.
2. ASK TEACHERS TO CIRCULATE THE CARDS AND GET THEM BACK TO YOU.
3. SET UP TABLES IN FRONT OF THE BUSIEST STORES ON A SATURDAY/SUNDAY AND COLLECT SIGNATURES ON THE CARD
4. SET UP CARD SIGNING AT YOUR LOCAL CHURCH
5. REMEMBER TO TAKE THEM TO THE OFFICE, FAMILY GATHERINGS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, SOCCER/BASEBALL GAMES
6. REMEMBER ANYONE CAN SIGN THE CARD—KIDS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, RELATIVES
The important thing is that you keep a record of how many got sent due to your outreach. We will need a count sent to us at info@timeoutfromtesting.org so that when we hold a press conference on that day, we will have an accurate count.
WE HAVE VERY LITTLE TIME TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN BUT WE KNOW THAT IF ALL OF US PULL TOGETHER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS IT WILL HAPPEN.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT,
TIME OUT FROM TESTING
COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS
THE FORUM FOR EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
ADVANCEMENT PROJECT
RETHINK LEARNING
FAIRTEST
