Steve Nuzum used to teach sixth graders, his first encounter with the problems of eliminating recess.
I taught sixth grade for two years in Southeast Richland County. During that time, I only saw my kids get to spend time outside a handful of times, during school-wide events like field day.
On every “normal” day of the school year, those sixth graders left class with their teachers in the late morning, marched down to the lunchroom in lines, cued up to get their lunches on Styrofoam trays, and then sat at crowded lunch tables with built-in plastic seats, beneath harsh fluorescent lights, until it was time to march back to class.
I imagine Sisyphus could relate.
I don’t remember if we ever received an official explanation for the decision to completely forgo regular recess/ outside time, but I seem to remember hearing that either a kid getting injured in a previous year while at recess, or the overall “bad behavior” of the students was the culprit.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) both formally recommend recess time during the day, with the AAP calling for a total of “60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day,” including recess time and the CDC calling for at least 20 minutes of recess time per day.
Because I taught in a school with no recess, I am not surprised by research showing, as the AAP puts it, “a trend toward reducing recess to accommodate additional time for academic subjects in addition to its withdrawal for punitive or behavioral reasons.” At the time– the immediate aftermath of the mid-2000s Great Recession, and just a few years away from the absurd No Child Left Behind requirement that all students score “proficient or advanced” on state testing, the school was frankly obsessed to an unhealthy degree with bringing up test scores.
Ironically, like many decisions in education policy, eliminating recess seems to be not only bad for students in itself, but is actually counterproductive even if your goal is to improve behavior or test scores. Research shows a connection between recess and improved academic performance, improved focus in class, better executive function and “classroom behavior,” and improved social-emotional learning.
