What do you remember from your time in elementary school?
If you’re like me, you remember recess. Back in the ‘90s, having a lot of time to play on the playground was normal. We would play before school, during lunch and sometimes had a recess or two fit in during the school day.
Fast forward to today. Now, I am a mother of five and former teacher, and the obstacles facing my children are quite different from those I faced 30 years ago. Mental health in children is suffering. Many children struggle with their physical health and are facing a lifetime of obesity. And since the pandemic, our children as a whole have not gotten back on track to where they should be.
We are trying harder and harder to get the results our kids deserve, while taking away the very thing that could help turn the corner to success — free play outside. Play for children is not a luxury — it is a necessity. Many studies have shown that play not only benefits students physically and emotionally, it also primes them for learning.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Dr. John J. Ratey, a physician and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard, shares what happened at a school in Naperville, Illinois, where staff started an exercise program that raised their students’ heart rates before school started each day. After the program was introduced, the students scored first place in a global science test. And on the math test, they were sixth in the world.
This dramatic improvement came without spending more money — Ratey found this school spends less per pupil than all other schools in the same district. Another extensive study that spanned nine years, the LiiNK Project, has shown that increased recess time dramatically benefits students’ physical health, academic performance and mental well-being. The LiiNK Project found a 40% reduction in off-task behavior, a 10% increase in standardized test scores by fourth grade and a significant reduction in chronic stress and anxiety.
These findings underline the fact that more recess leads to more engaged, well-rounded learners. Better scores aside, our precious Georgia children need help regaining a healthy future. We have the 49th highest rate of obesity in the country, according to one study, with 37.3% of our children classified as overweight or obese. The rates are higher among individuals of color as well as those who are lower on the socioeconomic scale.
The poorest of our children may not have a chance to play outside before or after school because of where they live, but school is a safe place for those children to move their bodies and ward off a lifetime of health problems.
Recess will not solve all the problems facing our children, but research shows that it will help in so many ways. Let’s do the right thing for our kids and, in turn, improve our communities and the future of everyone.
Twenty minutes a day (including travel time) is not enough recess to get the results we want. Recess is a crucial part of our children’s curriculum. Let’s say YES to more mandatory recess for our children. If you would like to help, please join our movement, “Say YES to RECESS Georgia.”
Amanda Haymore is a Cobb County wife, mother and lover of the outdoors who is head of the Georgia chapter of Say Yes to Recess. She isn’t from Georgia, but she likes it the best.
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