least an hours worth of "recess" or "free period" a week. The average school day in Japan is eight hours but the time in the classroom is no different compared to the U.S.: time spent out of the classroom is what makes the day longer. A quarter of the day is spent in non-academic activities. A typical day contains the same amount of instructional time as children in the U.S. but a long enough lunch break to go home and eat with their family. This gives the students time to soak in their morning lesson and prepare for the afternoon session. Students who do not go home read for their pleasure or interact with other students. When the school day is over the majority of the students do not go home, but rather stay after school for clubs and other activities. The benefits of having a longer break and several non-academic clubs after school is that the students interact with one another and tend to have fewer physical symptoms related to stress, as well as better relationships with their classmates. Some schools in Beijing, China allow children to spend an hour or two to socialize or to step out of the classroom per day. Some schools do not have a dedicated recess period, instead allowing a ten-minute break per class session. For lunch, students either pack or buy from the school's lunch area. After lunch time there is a quiet period. During this period, children may read at their desks or play by themselves. Meanwhile, a few students are chosen to help clean up from lunch, which may be perceived as a coveted assignment. Schools implementing a no-recess policy may not even have a playground, while schools allowing recess may have multiple playgrounds or basketball courts. Finnish students rank near the top in terms of academic testing and knowledge, and their students receive over an hour of recess everyday, regardless of the weather. In Finland schools consider recess to be an essential part of the school day, and this element of their curriculum is attracting international attention. In Spain, all primary, middle and high schools allow a recess time for its students. In Wales, pupils are expected to do only one hour of PE per fourteen days. United States In the United States, recess policies are largely dependent on the school district, and vary from state to state and from