Recess was my favorite part of the day during elementary school. Sliding down the slide, trying to master the monkey bars, hanging out with my friends from other classes- recess gave me a much needed rest from the difficult task of having to sit quietly at my desk all day. Oh recess, what would I have done without you?
Unfortunately, thousands of children around America are having to find out what it’s like to not have recess as more and more schools are trading their play time in for more instructional time. According to a shocking article by The Seattle Times approximately “40 percent of U.S. school districts either have eliminated recess or are considering eliminating it”.
Today.com reports that as of January 2015, “twenty-three elementary schools in Orange County, Florida have been cutting back on recess, and even canceling it altogether to maximize class time”. This cut is mostly blamed on “Common Core exams”, which test students on literacy, math and language arts. Each school's exam scores “often dictates teachers’ pay and sometimes their jobs,” putting pressure on schools to focus on grades over students well-being to keep their funding.
Whatever your view on Common Core, how can you even imagine taking away a child's recess? There are so many different ways in which recess can benefit a child. In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an 84 page meta-review which included over 50 studies called “The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance”. Six of these studies “examined the relationship between recess, or increased physical activity during recess, and cognitive skills (attention or concentration) and academic behavior (on-task behavior)”. What the research found was that the “children were less fidgety, less listless, more focused, and more on task when they had recess compared with when they did not have recess”. Recess gives children a chance to get all their built up energy out so that way they can be ready to come back into the classroom and get right back to learning. Small children can’t be expected to sit quietly and still at a desk studying all day without a break. We don’t even expect grown adults to be able to do that! These hours of physical inactivity would be difficult for any child, but are even worse for children with medical issues such as ADD/ADHD, who typically have higher levels of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This makes it much harder for them than children unaffected by these issues to sit still and listen for extended periods of time. Taking away their recess is almost cruel in a way and could lead to them getting in trouble more often in the classroom when they don’t get a break to recharge and refocus.
Another major reason kids need recess is because childhood obesity is currently being described as an epidemic in America as numbers “have more than tripled since the 1970s”, meaning that about one in every five children aged 6-19 is obese (CDC). School should be a time where children are encouraged to play and be active, because teaching them about health and fitness from a young age can help to reduce the chance of obesity as they grow up (CDC). Considering that children should be getting at least an hour of physical activity a day, why is a half-hour of recess too much to ask for? An hour can almost seem like an unreasonable amount of time nowadays to expect children to be physically active for, as we see less kids playing outside and more elementary-aged students with iPhones and iPads. According to The New York Times kids “between the ages of 10 to 16 engage in vigorous activities for only 12.6 minutes per day”and spend “six or seven hours” everyday on their electronics. So building in a set time where they can get out into the sunshine and play with their friends reinforces the important idea that playing outside is expected of young children. Keeping them inside would do the opposite and enforce the idea it is okay and even expected for a young child to stay inside all day.
Recess is an important development tool for young children. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that, “recess helps young children to develop social skills that are otherwise not acquired in the more structured classroom environment”. They are taught games where they practice important life skills such as teamwork and how to follow rules while learning communication skills like, “negotiation, cooperation, sharing, and problem solving as well as coping skills, such as perseverance and self-control”(AAP). You can have all the knowledge in the world, but you need to learn certain social skills to be successful in most jobs and throughout everyday life. Recess provides a time for students to branch out and make friends from other classes which is especially crucial if they have little to no friends in their own class. Learning to use your imagination is also important so playing and making up games on the playground helps children to exercise their mind and body. Certain games also help children to test out different social roles such as a team captain in a soccer game or a teacher of a word game to a group of younger students. Trying out these roles helps in the child's development in their own sense of self.
So while yes, it is very important to learn in the classroom, it is also very important to learn outside the classroom, and one way of learning and development should not be substituted for another as they are both important to every child.
