Protecting the Playground

Every day I ask my son about school, specifically inquiring after the parts he most enjoyed and times that were the most challenging. Without fail, every day he says that recess is his favorite part of the day. Not surprising for a first-grader.

However, a week or two after school started, I asked him how many recesses he had each day and how long they were. When he answered, I was sure that I misunderstood. First graders get only one recess? And 20 minutes could not be right. I emailed his teacher to check. Yes, she answered, one recess each day for 20 minutes.

I did some research on the minimums for recess and was directed to the Mehlville School District Wellness Policy, the same document that regulates the with room parents at the beginning of the year.

The Wellness Policy requires that elementary school students participate in 15 minutes of supervised recess each day. This is in addition to 50 minutes each week of physical education class.

While, as a mom, I was happy to see that there are some protections in place over recess in our district, I didn’t feel like 15 minutes was very generous. Troubling me further was the knowledge that, at least in my son’s classroom, when a child misbehaves, recess is on the chopping block.

I am not a mom who thinks kids should not have consequences. But I know from my short career in motherhood that when kids get rowdy, the first tool at my disposal is to send them out to the backyard. It seems like a punishment to the teacher to deny children who lack self-control the opportunity to blow off some steam.

The Wellness Policy is maintained by a group of teachers, administrators, and parents and is led by Katie Koester, the Food and Nutrition Director for the district. Ms. Koester told me that one of the changes the committee implemented since its formation was to ensure that recess occurred before lunch, because studies have shown that when kids have physical activity before eating, they tend to eat better.

I spoke with Jim Kern, assistant principal at and one of the members of the committee. He oversees physical education for the district and explained that recess must be maintained in addition to physical education classes. While recess aides play a valuable role, a certified teacher must supervise physical education to protect the levels of activity that fulfill state requirements.

The Wellness Policy is based on requirements from the State of Missouri through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). The regulations help protect physical activity in the face of other requirements fighting for school time, such as heightened testing pressure.

Could You Get by on 20 Minutes?

Thinking about the recess practices in the district made me reflect on what we are asking of these kids. My recess days were a long time ago, but college years are a little less fuzzy in my memory. I don’t typically struggle with self-discipline, and I could pretty easily handle the 50-minute lectures at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Anything longer than that, though, and I was tapping my pencil and stalking the second hand around the clock, willing it to go faster.

I can’t imagine sitting still for several hours in a row. One of the main reasons that my husband hasn’t made a football fan out of me is that I feel sluggish after sitting still for an entire game.

Recess in Other States

I have a couple of cousins and friends who are teachers and moms in other parts of the country. I asked them to give me a quick description of how recess looks in their schools.

My cousin Christa, a mom of two, teaches in a district located in a suburb of Los Angeles. She told me that up until third grade, their school has a total of 60 minutes per day of recess time, distributed between three recess periods. Kids in the fourth and fifth grades still get two 20-minute recesses each day. In addition, kids in elementary school are required to have two 45-minute physical education periods each week.

Another friend, Elizabeth, who lives in South Carolina, told me that her kids’ school gives kids just one recess per day, but recess continues through middle school. Angie, whose daughter just started kindergarten in Columbia, MO, enjoys recess three times a day, including a lunch recess.

The Teachers Give Insight

When I complained that in my son’s class, recess was quick to go in disciplinary situations, a mom in a district north of Kansas City told me that in her child’s school, instead of sitting on the side as a consequence, a child with a disciplinary problem walked laps around the school. This practice protects the physical activity needs of the child.

A friend who teaches in Florida explained that one reason that recess is often targeted for consequences is that it provides a consistent daily reward that can be taken away, especially if a child’s behavior issue is not being adequately handled at home. She said that with increasing pressure and regulations on academic requirements, teachers are left with little time and resources for reward incentives and are forced to be extremely creative.

Is it a Big Deal?

I want my kids to be kids. But that’s really not my motivation for wanting more recess in elementary school. It just seems like common sense that children, especially at the young age of six, need opportunities to burn off energy to focus on academic challenges. I need that, and I’m an adult.

Educators are under an immense amount of pressure to meet high standardized testing requirements, and I am certainly not trying to advocate for recess at the cost of academics. I am extremely impressed with my son’s teacher this year and the specific efforts she makes to tailor his education to his needs. It is a difficult challenge to maintain that level of commitment to 22 students and prepare them for the demanding testing requirements they will encounter when they reach third grade.

But, broadly speaking, there is research to back up what we know from common sense: kids learn better when they’ve had time to be active. In a 2002 study, the California Department of Education showed a connection between physical fitness and achievement on standardized tests. A high level of physical fitness resulting in perfect SAT scores probably won’t be directly tied to a first grader’s kickball career, but another oft-cited study provided evidence that children become increasingly inattentive as recess is delayed (Pellegrini and Davis, 1993).

On a Positive Note

It’s easy to point your finger at the school when you’re a parent. However, I found that this was another opportunity to learn about the things our district is doing right and look at how I might take more responsibility.

Having looked into national trends that show increasing recess cuts across the nation in response to heightened testing requirements, it is comforting that we not only have a Wellness Policy that protects recess in the district, but there is a committee that meets every month to review challenges and opportunities related to wellness. It’s not a policy that was written only to get dusty on a central office shelf.

In addition, I know that incentives are an integral part of education at , and my son tells me that second recesses are often rewarded when kids are showing patterns of good behavior. The principals at Bierbaum are also contagiously energetic, setting an example of positive momentum for the kids.

I would like to see more recess at the elementary level. But I also encourage fellow parents not to leave your child’s unstructured physical activity up to the educators who have tough demands on their plates. If we are not headed for a playground or Grant’s Trail after school, we make an effort to hit the backyard before inside play or homework begins. After a full day of sitting still, I usually don’t have to nag my son to get moving.