Breaks are beneficial to students

By Jessica Syratt

Copy Editor

Have you ever been sitting in class, wishing to be anywhere else but there? Just wanting to stand up and take a break?

I feel the same way, and so do a lot of other students.

You have to sit down for an hour and pay attention. It’s hard to stay still for that long: this is why I think that teachers should give students short breaks during class.

Why does it help?

First of all, sitting still for long periods of time can cause students to become restless.

They want to move, stretch, just do anything that would give them a break.

Sitting still makes you more susceptible to burnout and distractions, meaning they won’t do as well on their assignments.

However, if they took a short break every so often, it would help them reset and feel more awake.

Next, sitting down a lot can cause health problems.

According to Brain effect, a British doctor named Jeremy Morris performed a survey and noticed something strange among London's public transport workers.

Men who spent most of their day sitting had a much higher rate of heart disease than their colleagues who constantly climbed and descended stairs.

Sitting down for long periods of time can also cause things like heart disease and even cancer in serious cases. However, taking breaks can get the blood flowing and reduce health issues.

Lastly, taking those breaks would help students feel less stressed.

Sitting down and focusing not only causes burnout like I previously mentioned, but also makes people feel stressed out and want to leave, but standing up every so often would help this problem. It would help break up class and help reduce mental strain that can cause anxiety.

Some people think that taking breaks during class would just distract students, but this is not true.

Students become distracted because they get bored and want to go talk to their friends. Taking just a five-minute break allows them to reset and get out the urge to talk, making the rest of class more productive, so taking just those 5 minutes makes a lot of positive difference.

How can we make it happen?

Talk to your teachers about making these breaks happen!

Teachers are always looking for ways to make a classroom more productive, so this is a great opportunity! If you're a teacher, talk to your students about it; a lot of people would appreciate it.