Play is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Recent reports have stated that many schools across the United States have been reducing recess to minutes per day or canceling it all together, so that more time can be spent in the classroom. The assumption behind this is that as a result of the Common Core State Standards which many states had adopted, there is more pressure for teachers and their students to score better in the classroom. There has been very little research which has proven that more time in the classroom, and less recess, equals better academic outcomes for children.

      In 1983, A Nation at Risk misleadingly alarmed our country that the educational foundations of our society were being eroded by mediocrity.  Since that time, there have been numerous federal, state, and local reformations of our American education system, none of which have proven to improve the quality of education for all children.  Throughout the last twenty years, we have seen states raise graduation requirements, compete for funding, and implement a faulty accountability system for educators based on test scores.  No Child Left Behind (2002) left many children behind and placed an unwarranted emphasis on scores of numerical grades which left teachers questioning their practices.  The Obama administration’s version of corporate reform came in the policy of Race to the Top, with states competing for funds by following the rules of Big Brother, and the implementation of Common Core narrowed existing curriculum and forced teachers to read from the scripts of packaged programs.  These programs, created by big business moguls, promised to raise test scores, which would increase teachers’ Annual Professional Performance review scores, which would ultimately make everything “better.” The big business model and money pit has not only set us back at least twenty years, it has assisted in the creation of a system which has become dangerously antiquated.  It has not been proven that in 1983 our system was failing our children, yet in the wake of that hysteria we have ultimately caused the destruction of American public education.  We have lost sight of the true meaning of education, which, according to Webster, is an enlightening experience.

      Since that time, schools and school districts have been hyper focused on increasing instructional time, and reducing recess. Educators and educational leaders have memories of recess including playing tag, capture the flag, swinging on swings and flying high up on a teeter totter, yet children of today, our future leaders and citizens, may end up having very few, if any memories of these types of activities. In many districts across the United States, recess in elementary school is being questioned, reduced, and even eliminated (National Education for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC], 1998;Pellegrini, 2005). In an effort to meet federal and state standards, the days of recess are dwindling, yet the reality is that recess may not be the problem, but the solution.

       The time has come for educational leaders, teachers, and policy makers to transform, not reform, our American education system. The first step is to redefine success, and establish guidelines which provide for achievement for each individual child.  By redesigning our teacher preparation programs, and glorifying the most important profession in the world (for without education, we have nothing) we can begin to rebuild.  By looking to countries around the world, such as Finland, who are global leaders in education, and learning from and collaborating with them, we will have a better understanding of how to prepare our students as successful citizens in a global society. The reality is that we are currently preparing children for jobs and careers that do not yet exist.  Pushing more standardized testing on children is not the answer.  Educating children by helping them to develop social competencies, emotional well-being, and physical abilities while teaching them how to communicate, collaborate, and problem solve is the best gift we can give to our children.

      How do we do this?  First, we need to rediscover our core values.  Offering elementary school students ample for time for recess daily (the CDC recommends at least 60 minutes a day), along with brain breaks between sustained instruction (5-15 minutes is all that is needed), will optimize attention to learning and as a result, students will be better able to attend to their academic tasks.

      I speak from experience. As an educator for three decades, and having spent the first 26 years of my career as an elementary school teacher (having taught every grade, Pre-K-6), I am well versed in curriculum, design, and best instructional practice.  As an adjunct professor for nearly a decade, it was obvious to me that we need a complete overhaul where teacher training is concerned, following, of course, an examination of our values as a society. 

     As an elementary school principal who is involved in shifting the paradigm of my current district, we have implemented all of what has been recommended here.  Additionally, every student in our school (and through the district K-8) receives formal yoga instruction as part of their school day, and mindfulness practice through the use of tranquility rooms and teacher led mindful minutes.  Students have 30 minutes for lunch and 50 minutes for recess every single day.  Brain breaks are used to refocus and re-energize students, and no, there has been no loss of instructional time with all of these initiatives.  As a matter of fact, we have actually increased instructional time because “less is more.”   We have rewritten curriculum to an interdisciplinary approach with thematic units at the epicenter of our instruction. Attendance is up, and behavior referrals are down. We have a Discovery Center with life size blocks and other materials for children to create and explore.  We go outside in the snow.  We get dirty.  We cooperate and understand empathy.  We take turns and help each other.  We realize that mistakes are proof that we are trying.  We offer students time to explore their individual talents and passions, and we are bringing Career and Technical Education to our high school, so that every student has an opportunity to achieve.

     This is my perspective.  Let’s look to Maslow, Paiget, Vygotsky and Gardner, remind ourselves of the true purpose of education, provide the “building blocks”…..and the rest…will be history.

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform(Rep.). (1983).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The association between school based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2010.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs: A Guide for Schools. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2013

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and SHAPE America—Society of Health and Physical Educators. Strategies for Recess in Schools. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2017

NAEYC, Education. (2001, July). RECESS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY A Position Statement on Young        Children and Recess National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education[Press release]. Retrieved July 11, 2018, from http://www.peacefulplaygrounds.com/pdf/right-to-recess/recess-impor...

Pellegrini, A. D., & Bohn, C. M. (2005). The Role of Recess in Children’s Cognitive Performance and School Adjustment. Educational Researcher,34(1), 13-19. doi:10.3102/0013189x034001013