Elimination of Recess

Is recess a necessary activity for elementary school children? Does it serve any real purpose? Does it help them in any way that another hour of classroom time couldn’t? These are just some of the questions being answered "no" by a growing number of school districts across the country, including many in the Atlanta area. In fact, many of these schools have decided to rid themselves of recess altogether in favor of more "seat time."
One of the main reasons they say they are doing this is because of the much wider volume of material elementary schools are now required to cover in comparison to 20 years ago. Back then it was just the "3 rs," reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. Nowadays they there is increased demand for them to teach things like drug prevention, "stranger danger" and even sex education. Because of these increased demands on the teachers, they feel they should have more time with the kids in the classroom to teach all of these things, which is a fair argument. But I just can’t see how eliminating recess could really help that much, I don’t think that it is the best solution to the problem.
Children are restless by nature, it is hard for them to stay in one spot for very long. Recess gives them a chance to get outside and sort of "get it out of their system." I can remember how hard it was for me to concentrate on days where we were denied recess either because of adverse weather conditions or excessive backwork. I would practically go nuts trying to sit still, without that outlet provided by recess I was full of energy.
I asked my 11-year-old brother what he thought about eliminating recess, and he said "that would be too boring, it would be hard to sit still for that long." And most of his friends have said they feel the same way. He said he would gladly go another hour in the afternoon rather than go all day without recess.
I agree that that would probably be the best solution, add a little more time onto the school day and keep the recess. Don’t take away a kid’s only chance to get out of his or her seat and run around. Think about it, if the kids have to keep all of their energy bottled up inside of them, then that pent-up force will have to come out sometime. I’m willing to bet that if recess is eliminated, the occurrence of classroom disobedience will increase greatly, kids will be bouncing off the walls. Have you ever tried to make an 8-year-old sit still for just an hour? It’s virtually impossible, if you don’t believe me, just take a kid to church and try to keep them quiet. It’s a constant battle, and that’s only for an hour. Now multiply that by 4 hours and 30 kids, beginning to see my point?
Energy release is not the only benefit of recess. Kids learn important social skills through their interaction with others during recess. Skills learned on the playground can be used throughout a person’s life. Kids learn how to communicate effectively with one another, and make friends that can last for life. This type of interaction is not possible in a classroom setting, especially the rigorously structured environment which these teachers are trying to ultimately achieve.
Eliminating recess is not the answer to increasing teaching demands. If it is done away with, the concentration levels and therefore the level of actual learning will be greatly decreased. It’s true that there are increased demands on teachers today than there were 20 years ago, and more time is required to teach these things, but adding another hour to the school day would be a much more effective solution, as long as you break up the long periods with recess, concentration levels would be unaffected and everyone would be happy. Don’t make kids hate school anymore than they already do, the last thing we need is another crop of high school dropouts. Keep school fun, keep recess.

Copyright 1998, The Commuter, Albany, OR. Reprinted with Permission