I came across this article in one of the many Administrative blogs/newsletters that I follow and it got me thinking about when we make the decision here in Audubon about sending kids out for recess or not.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-01-18-winter-recess_N.htm
I've always wondered why we don't send our kids out for recess when it gets below 16 degrees? (not 16 below zero, just below 16 degrees) How (and who) came up with the magic number of 16? I know that people (read mothers) are always concerned with frost bite and pieces of their kids falling off...fingers, toes, noses....but in my 51 years (that's age, not administrative experience) I have never experienced one case of frost bite during school recess.
Believe me when I say that I have been lucky enough (or stupid enough according to my wife) to live in some of the coldest parts of the Midwest. I spent two years 20 miles south of the Canadian border and 14 years total in North Dakota...not exactly the tropics!! I grew up in Northeastern South Dakota and spent most of my youth ice fishing. (a sport I continue to enjoy to this day) So I know cold!! and believe me 16 degrees is not cold!!
In both Dakotas we sent students out for recess when the temp was well below zero...once in northern North Dakota we went 39 days without the temperature getting above zero, now that's COLD!!
They use to have a saying way up north; " 10 below or 30 below..it all feels the same as long as the winds not blowing." (they are some hearty souls up north!!) During those 39 days of below zero temps our students went out for recess...every day.....and no loss of extremities was ever reported.
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