4 - EASTERN OREGON PARENT - October 2017
Let’s look at the relevance of recess in our schools
By SUZANNE KENNEDY
Ask a room of adults a question
about recess and most will answer
that it was their favorite part of the
school day, not including lunch. A
1989 survey of state superinten-
dents conducted by the National
Association of Elementary School
Principals found that 96 percent of
districts had recess.
But in the late ‘90s, No Child Left
Behind resulted in in a significant
decrease in the number of districts
with recess and the overall amount
of recess time. According to official
figures, 20 percent of districts de-
creased recess time, averaging cuts
of 50 minutes per week. By 2006,
only 57 percent of districts required
a regularly scheduled recess. One
Atlanta Public School superinten-
dent said, “We are intent on im-
proving academic performance. You
don’t do that by having kids hang-
ing on the monkey bars.”
Of course, there aren’t many
studies that compare the same
children with and without recess,
and no longitudinal studies of
the effects of recess deprivation
over time. (Who would want their
children to participate in that
research?) So, we have to harvest
from various studies that look at
past history, socioeconomic break-
outs, grade levels, and school size
with regard to recess.
Pediatricians say recess offers
children cognitive, physical, emo-
tional, and social benefits. The
brain cannot maintain attention for
long periods of time and requires
some sort of change to regain fo-
cus. Downtime is needed to recycle
the chemicals crucial for long-term
memory formation. In fact, the
American Academy of Pediatrics
states that recess should not even
Education
be withheld as a punishment. It’s
that important.
What’s going on at recess time?
Aren’t the kids just messing around,
wasting time? Nope. They are
exercising. As the amount of recess
decreased, the frequency of child-
hood obesity increased. Kids who
have recess at school during the
day are more likely to play outside
at home and the opposite is true,
as well. Kids without recess don’t
make up for it at home.
They are learning social skills.
Non-teacher directed interac-
tion with other kids leads to con-
frontations, learning social cues,
negotiating, and cooperating.
They are learning problem-solving
techniques, creating and follow-
ing rules, and practicing leadership
skills. These are things that cannot
be taught, or at least not taught
well, in a classroom where the
teacher is in charge. They choose
and make decisions. These are the
attributes that future employers
are looking for, the characteristics
of highly successful people.
It’s during recess that children
physically process what they’ve
spent the day learning. That means
they take the information presented
to them and, by moving around,
put it into the correct areas of their
brains. They pretend and create, and
pass down cultural games and tradi-
tions from previous generations.
What can you do? Get involved.
Be knowledgeable. For every hour
of academics, there should be
about ten to fifteen minutes of
playtime. Check your student’s
schedule. Are they moving every
hour by going to PE, recess, or
some other non-academic focused
activity? If not, start by talking
to the teacher and the principal.
Check with the school district to
see if there is a policy in place.
According to shapeamerica.org,
Oregon requires at least 150 min-
utes per week of physical education
in K-5, and at least 225 minutes
in grades 6-8. It does not require
schools to provide daily recess or
physical activity classroom breaks.
Are you a teacher? (Thank you!)
Rather than taking recess away
as a punishment for misbehaving
students, consider having the stu-
dent walk with a teacher, or not be
allowed to play certain games (no
basketball or tetherball), but still al-
lowed to run and play. Understand
that kids need both PE and recess,
not one or the other.
I would personally love to see PE
as an everyday subject in elemen-
tary school because I believe it’s
every bit as important as reading
and math, but that’s a story for
another day.
________
Suzanne Kennedy is a former middle
school teacher who lives in Pend-
leton with her husband and three
children.
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