Kids need to move around to learn
If you want kids to maximize learning, develop social skills and impulse control, then they must be provided with multiple opportunities for movement. That would be physical education, recess (before lunch) and movement during class time. The pre-frontal cortex, the executive decision-making portion of our brain, is an evolutionary outgrowth of the motor cortex, our movement center. They are innately tied together.
Numerous studies support the fact that physical exercise and movement in general are absolute necessities if comprehensive learning is to take place. Schools (and teachers) struggle with disruptive, anxious, fidgety kids because opportunities for movement have been taken away.
How many adults look forward to sitting in one place for four hours a day before they can move around? We must get back to treating students as children and not as data points. Learning with movement as an integral construct is an absolute necessity.
If you want kids to develop a love for learning, get them up and moving, as often as possible. Make education meaningful and enjoyable for kids and teachers alike.
“You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato
Joseph Herzog, neurokinesiologist, Fresno
This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 7:31 AM with the headline "Kids need to move around to learn."