Schools That Withhold Recess as Punishment

My kids go to a school where the kids lose recess if they get into trouble. I am not talking about HUGE trouble here; it's not like these kids are acting like delinquents and losing recess.

For instance, if my 3rd grade son forgets to have me sign his assignment book (or I forget to do it which has happened...more than once), he loses recess time. How is that "his" fault if I didn't sign it? He's 7!! It's not like he's a bad student and it is going to affect his grade badly (it won't at all) if I forget one night to sign that book. He does all his homework every night. My son gets upset if he gets a "B" on his report card, that's how good of a student he is!

If my 5th grade daughter messes up something on her homework (if she didn't know how to do it and mom and dad who haven't been in school in a long time don't remember how either so aren't much help), she gets a "work pass" - that means she goes to detention at recess time! By the way, she is also a quiet, honor roll student; not a problem student at all.

Even my 1st grader has lost recess time for small issues. She'll come home and tell me how she was "put on the wall" (not allowed to play at recess). She is a great student as well.

What is really wacky, is my ADHD stepson used to lose his recess time if he was behaving hyperactively in class. OK, let's take away an energy outlet for a child who has impulse control and hyperactivity issues to begin with. Yup, makes sense to me.

It's not just their current school either. The last school they attended used to put the kids on a painted circle on the playground as punishment so they lost recess but had to watch their classmates and friends playing.

I don't agree with removing recess time from kids. They need that time to burn off some energy. They can't expect kids to sit for seven hours in a class environment without some blowing off steam time! I think there are other ways they could handle minor issues without having to take away recess time.