When Will the Children Play?

Recess. For many of us, it was the best part of the school day, even if the last five minutes of it were spent plucking embedded gravel out of our knees from a monkey bar spill, or desperately hoping Red Rover, Red Rover, someone would finally ask us to come over. These days, with obesity and incidences of Type II diabetes increasing at frightening rates in children, recess has become one of a school's weapons to fight off poor health.

Now the Meriden Board of Education is deciding whether elementary school children should have such a 15-minute play period every day.  On Tuesday night, Associate Superintendent Robert Angeli told the board's curriculum committee that two competing rules about recess were on the district's books: one says that schools should plan daily recess only on days kids don't have physical education (PE) classes, the other that children should have recess every day, even if they do have PE.

Different elementary schools in the district have been following different policies. The board intends to make only one standard for all.

Those in attendance were broadly in favor of making daily recess mandatory for schools.

"I think recess every day is what our students will benefit from," School Superintendent Mark Benigni said. "I don't think a 15 minute recess break is too much to ask for. "

Board Member Irene Parisi works in East Windsor's school system and says that as a teacher of grades 3 and 5 she saw the benefits of daily play first-hand.

"They went from lunch immediately to recess, and they came back ready to learn," Parisi said.

Both policies currently comply with a 2004 Connecticut law on childhood nutrition. The law requires a period of daily exercise for children in Kindergarten to grade 5, along with healthy food options in cafeterias and a 20-minute lunch period.

But an intended introduction of health classes into PE periods could violate this law if daily recess isn't scheduled. Students would be sitting for these classes and not engaged in any physical activity.

The committee decided to recommend that the Board of Education adopt the rule of daily recess, but not before a stop through the Board's policy committee for further review.

"We're very concerned about the health and well-being of all our students," Angeli said. "So while our primary mission is in terms of academic achievement, we keep in mind that our students are people and there's more to them than just their academics –there's also their social, emotional and physical well-being."