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Subscribe to RSSDaily recess, it seems, is going the way of the dinosaurs – but it shouldn’t, the nation’s pediatricians say.
As more and more grade schools drop this time-honored break from their schedules, members of the American Academy of Pediatrics are speaking out in hopes of reversing the trend, pointing to recess’s benefits to both learning and health.
In a position statement released Monday in the journal Pediatrics, the AAP laid out the scientific evidence showing that kids need daily recess to keep them mentally sharp and physically healthy.
“Every school needs to find a way for recess to happen for every child,” says the paper’s co-author Catherine Ramstetter, a health educator at The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati. “And it shouldn’t be something that is taken away because a kid forgot to bring his homework.”
Yet 77 percent of nearly 2,000 principals surveyed in a 2009 Gallup poll on recess, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reported withholding recess from children as punishment. The Gallup report, called "The State of Play," also noted that one in four elementary schools no longer provides recess to all grades.
Unfortunately, Ramstetter says, recess has been an easy target for school administrators who are afraid of lawsuits over playground accidents and who feel pressured to improve academic performance by adding more instruction time. That approach is just wrong-headed, she says.
“We hope to encourage parents to make the case that recess helps with education,” Ramstetter says. “Research shows that children who take a break are more ready to be learning.”
In fact, studies have shown that kids are more attentive and productive when they get a break from academics, Ramstetter notes. And while some educators would like to believe that moving from math class to reading constitutes a break, Ramstetter says, “shifting from numbers to words isn’t enough. That’s just a shift in the kind of demands.”
The downtime recess provides gives kids’ brains a rest and also a chance to think more creatively, Ramstetter says. And for antsy kids, recess can be a time to blow off steam, allowing them to focus better when classes resume.
And then there’s the issue of the growing childhood obesity epidemic.
Ramstetter and her colleagues note that many kids benefit from exercise during recess. “Even minor movement during recess counterbalances sedentary time at school and at home and helps the child achieve the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day ... which can help lower the risk of obesity.”
That makes a lot of sense to Arthur Weltman, a professor and director of the exercise physiology program at the University of Virginia.
Kids these days are frighteningly sedentary, Weltman says. And that’s going to haunt us some 20 years from now in terms of health care costs.
Further, Weltman says, “there’s a lot of data indicating that increased physical activity in children not only improves health, but also increases learning. There is data showing that kids who get recess do better on standardized tests and that teachers perceive them as paying better attention.”
If you look at countries known for excellent academics, you won’t see them cutting out recess, Weltman says. The Japanese, for example, give their kids a 15 minute break every hour.
Child development expert, Alan Kazdin, says the Pediatrics report’s only flaw is that it didn’t go far enough. Cutting back on recess is “misguided,” says Kazdin, the John M. Musser professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry at Yale University. “There are such enormous benefits from exercise, at the cellular level and for diverse facets of mental health.”
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All school, no play? Kids' learning suffers without recess
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So nice these guys who study things in their little rooms in universities. They stated early on in the article the key reason....the evil lawyers that these same universities are churning out. Maybe they need to go across campus and have some study meeting with professors at the law school on how the real world works.
So much school policy is now dictated by fear of being sued rather than what is in the best interest of the child.
This is a fine kettle of fish. We had recess everyday from k-5 at my elementary school and it gave everyone, teachers and students alike, a break from each other and the monotony of the school day. We walked to and from school in groups on nice days, rode our bikes anytime our parents would let us and used the car on snowy cold days. All us hyper kids in the class would run around like mad during recess, playing ball, 4 square, bombardment, tether ball, tag and just about any other game you could think of. After recess we would file back into class, exhausted, full of fresh air and sunshine( VitaminD), with clear minds ready for learning. There was very little disruption in class but on days when weather was inclement and we had to stay in, disruptions in the afternoon would reach epic proportions. Anyone causing disruption during the morning would not be allowed out at noon and believe me, no one ever sat inside more than once. Stuck inside, looking at all the other kids enjoying themselves outside, ensured this.
I pity the children of this generation. They are obese, lazy and obsessed with the very technology that will be their demise..The thing to take away from children is not recess, but the iphone, ipad or any other "I" centered piece of distracting, brain numbing, techie crap.
It's not the technology's fault. Technology is in fact a very useful teaching mechanism, when used as such. But more often its used as a babysitter when parents hand over their iphone for their talkative toddler to play a "mind-numbing" game. Parents should encourage their children to be active. Regardless of the things a child has, the parents - not the possessions - dictate the child's lifestyle. I've seen too many parents use technology to keep their kids quiet, and kids learn their parents WANT them to quietly play video games, instead of running around playing physical games. That's an issue with parenting decisions, not with "techie crap."
Don't take away recess....Add 2 hours to the school day.
Schools today are pumping out dumber and dumber kids. We are falling behind the rest of the world.
The DOE is a failure since the 70's. Jack up the expectations and quit dumbing down the material to make sure little Johnny's feelings don't get hurt. If he doesn't learn the material, then fail him.
The world needs workers at Burger King as well, but don't hold down the next American genius trying to protect the dumb ones from hurt feelings.
This is why America is failing.
Except, Paws, the states are largely the issue here. DOE sets the general required curriculum to be taught(such as the amount of science, english, social studies, math, so on so forth), number of hours per year kids are supposed to be taught and funding. Nothing else, its all dictated by the states. That is why there is such disparity between states and education level. That is why states like Texas and Tennesse could vote to put theological topics in biology textbooks. States dictate the specifics, not the DOE.
Add 2 hours to the school day? Why, so that more kids will drop out or go postal over the added boxed in confinement and push to study what they can't or don't want to learn?
Instead, bring back the vocational classes for students who absolutely do not thrive in the academic classes and have the skills to do things with their minds and hands that are necessary to keep our society on its feet.
One of my grandsons has an IQ that had educators double promoting him, his parents pushing him, his other grandparents planning his college career. His love lay in car mechanics, fiddling with engines. He was disruptive in class, skipped school, didn't do homework... the teacher of the vocational class would allow him to slip in and spend the day and it was the only time he was content.
He dropped out of school at 17, went to work at a garage. He's now a partner in it, and while not wealthy, is quite comfortable with a steady income, helps out his brothers, and happy.
Students now don't have enough time to do anything but homework when they get home. It's a nightmare. Even the kindergarten children have homework that parents have to help with. Hasn't anyone else noticed that the more we have pushed on them, the less they have accomplished? If parents have more than one child, they don't even have time to "help" with homework.
Homework for kindergarten????
My oldest is in kindergarten, and if they didn't have two recesses a day, I doubt he'd be able to sit still all day in class. Weather permitting, I try to get my boys outside as often as possible- usually once each weekday evening, and twice each weekend day when it's really nice out. This weekend, they got to spend a little time outside, even though it was cold. They also spent part of their time running laps back and forth across the apartment. Kids have a physical need to be in motion a large portion of each day, unless they've been taught to sit still and behave on command.
Eric - Agreed...The DOE & the states are failures.
Screminmimi - Agreed (in part)....Trade schools are good and necessary for those not seeking office work. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. Blue collar work is very respectable and can lead to ownership.
However, other countries are leaving us in the dust. If today's kids can't learn or do the homework now and other kids in the world are superior, then I guess Americans just have to be happy not being #1 any more. Maybe being #1 is too much pressure on our kids. Our kids are not smart enough or capable of learning at a high level.
I don't agree with that, but that's where society is taking us.
The kids need the recess. Why worry about recess when the teachers aren't teaching anything anyway? They teach kids to read, but not how to think, or what words mean. We need to get government out of the school, and stop teaching down to the class bullies and idiots. How are kids going to learn if they spend 50% of class time worrying about what the class bully is doing or going to do after class? We keep throwing money at schools and they keep getting worse. We need better administrators and less administration. Raise expectations not lower them. Most 4 year collage grads wouldn't graduate from my high school. They know lots of stuff, just nothing having to do with reality.
The Social & Physical benefits of recess are immeasurable - no psychotropic drugs needed.
At the age of almost 70 and growing up in Ohio, I would think that recess was very important. But living here in Florida I wonder what would be the effects of Perspiration on the rest of the day.
It's up to us as parents to demand recess stay a part of the school day. Some of my fondest memories are from the playground. Sure we all got skinned knees and there were a few broken arms, but I bet there isn't one of my former classmates who didn't like recess.
Ya, those know-it all 20 years ago, that thought it useless to send kids out to play, their "theory" was then and is now proved to be nothing but hogwash science
That was the only time kids got to run, scream, and let off steam by playing hard. That was how we got to know how to interact with society on a level outside the class room. That interaction was and is vital to learn how to deal with other people.
Sure there were bullies, but dealing with them was what a kid had to learn fast. Today they just run to the supervisor and NOTHING ever really gets resolved.
What did we learn? We learned that there are always going to be bullies, and sooner than later, we fought back.
That was the lesson. We Fought back. That was life and better to deal with it than run and hide behind a long dark coat. That was where the playing field was leveled.
And that was where we got a break from school itself. Our brains were distracted for 20 minutes and when we got back it was a whole lot easier to finish the day.
Common sense should have told those so called "educators" that it is like being at work and getting a 15 minute break. Same thing.
I believe it is overprotective parents that have caused the bullying problem to turn into what it is today. Steve, you are right that we learned to fight back. The social misfits banded together and formed their own groups, had their own clubs, and interests. If bullying got too cruel, parents went to visit parents or got the police involved when it became violent, but if it was just words, well, the kids got toughened up and learned to defend yourself or ignore it. Now these kids are so pampered they are driven to suicide because nobody has ever said a bad word to them before. There are two reasons they are trying to take recess away, lawsuits and bullying. These both stem from the same problem: Parents.
The brain can only absorb so much until sitting too long deadens it.
Dumbest thing ever to cut down on recess & PE. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that more overweight kids & more ADHD stems from getting less & less time to run around & get some exercise. My goodness - children NEED to play. It's how they learn to socialize, work with others, learn what their body's need, all sorts of things. And I'm guessing the teacher's need the break equally. The more physical time you take away from children, they more difficult it's going to be for them to concentrate & learn. Get a clue people!
Back in the day, we had two 30 minute recess periods and an hour for lunch. It's amazing what a bunch of kids could do in that amount of time. We learned to organize our own games and had lots of fun: Baseball games that lasted a week; snowball fights in the battle ground in snow forts that we built (the only place where we were allowed to throw snowballs) with the first snowfall; games of marbles; and lots of jumping rope. No one took drugs for attention deficit disorders or other behavioral issues. Children need to play and burn off energy so they can learn better.
Recess is far far too competitive. And all that social interaction.... oh my, the poor little children.
Workplaces give their employees breaks, and an entire lunch hour to socialize or rest. Why wouldn't they think that kids need a break from their day and all that cramming as well?
God how it must suck to be a kid now. Glad I got my childhood in the 70s... when parents were inattentive and phones were on a wire.
Have you looked at what the public schools are turning out these days? One fun fact... one out of four high school graduates cannot locate the United States on a world map. Not Indiana, Not Chicago, not their street, the freaking United States. But they all know about condoms because we are now so very attentive to their needs. And they are fat.
Don't eliminate recess, get rid of testing. I don't think all of these tests have improved learning at all. In fact it has taken away creativity. Kids know facts now, but can't figure out how to use them. Let them play, let them learn how to create and imagine.
The incompetence of these school administrators is stratospheric. We are creating a nation of people who don't know the first thing about staying fit, physical education and how to live their lives as healthy individuals. We are all paying for it with massive health care bills and the chronic idiocy that is employed at the administrations of these institutions.
I am a teacher and children need recess. They need to recharge. Instead of improved performance, students will work less because they will be pressured and tired.
Classrooms are very unnatural as an environment.
Recess is where friendships are forged, bodies are built on everything from the baseball diamond to the monkeybars. Recess give the kids a sun break, and fresh air, and is a great source of tension or stress relief.
The only reason it is an issue today is because for-profit schools, who have no playgrounds, like it that way! They can shuffle more students in and out with less breaks. It's all about greed.
Romney invested 60 million bucks into Charter Schools and wants to maximize his profit! This is why the push os on to give our children less, for the sake of profits.
Shame on the rich!
Maybe if they put limits on all of these frivolous lawsuits and stopped parents from suing the schools if the kids so much as fall down on school property, healthy exercise, recess, and school athletics wouldn't be sacrificed. Too many people think of an accident as some sort of windfall with the possibility of a life of leisure suddenly looming before their greedy eyes. If true negligence is involved, by all means, sue and get reimbursed for medical costs, but 20 million settlements for an accident playing football or thousands of dollars because somebody said a bad word to your son? If you are thinking of suing the school because your child is being bullied, then you are part of the problem. Recess is a block of time where the children's activities cannot be controlled, so they are trying to remove it. Do something about the litigation against schools, and the attempt to rid the school day of recess will probably disappear.
Recess is a given, if we are to both improve academic performance & reduce obesity rates. Our intelligences need engagement & exercise of both mind & body too achieve this needed element for the best growth.