South Carolina children are over-stressed, with no outlet
The government is supposed to protect our children’s health – not stress them out.
The government protected our children’s health until about 1995 when South Carolina deregulated the schools and allowed administrations to do as they pleased, as long as they allowed 12 minutes of recess. Thus school administrators decreased recess to 10 to 15 minutes a day, eliminated kindergarten naps, lengthened the school day, eliminated play stations in kindergarten, and put in curricula that was not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.
Now many of our children are on ADD drugs – more than ever before.
It is an epidemic.
The school is trying to change the child to fit the curricula instead of changing the curricula to fit the child. Our elementary children are treated as adults with schedules that adults could not handle.
Parents need to write to S.C. Sen. John Courson, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and demand that our children be treated as children, that their curricula be age- and developmentally-appropriate.
A child should miss no more than five words per page in his textbooks, if he still has any.
Our children need 15 minutes of recess around 10 am and 45 minutes after lunch. Demand that our children have free time to relieve the stress. Our children’s health is at a crises level with ADD drugs and absentees due to stress.
Patricia G. Milley, Conway
This story was originally published June 4, 2016 at 3:43 PM with the headline "South Carolina children are over-stressed, with no outlet."