Rescue Recess Indeed

Recess, every child’s favorite subject, is slowly disappearing from American public schools. According to the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), over 40 percent of elementary schools have eliminated or are considering eliminating it. Administrators at these schools argue that impressionable children should be protected from overly competitive games and accidents that unstructured play can provoke. Of course, the implication, much of the time, is that the potential for lawsuits will also be minimized.

While we sympathize with the pressures that have instigated this trend, we believe that it is ultimately harmful to the welfare of today’s youth.

Americans have a well-deserved reputation for suing at the slightest provocation. Whether as consumers, employees, patients, or parents, the courts are often the option of first resort, instead of the last. Schools have not been immune to our litigious society—on the contrary, they have been a focal point. In Adrian, MI, a mother sued when her hemophiliac son was punched by classmates; in Warren, OH, parents sued when their developmentally delayed daughter fell off a slide. A full 82 percent of teachers and 77 percent of principals say that their teaching decisions are influenced by their fear of litigation. “[Recess is a] time when accidents can happen,” told an Attleboro school principal to the Boston Globe in defense of her decision to ban tag and touch football. That much is obvious—the point, of course, is that accidents should be treated as such, and not as excuses to exploit well-intentioned schools to the full extent of the law.

Yet, the problem cannot be blamed on unreasonable parents alone. The Adrian and Warren cases should have taught school administrators to be more alert in general, and take additional precautions with special-needs children in particular. Instead, many have chosen an easier path—eliminate all potential for liability—that is also a gross overreaction. Eliminating recess will not fix the real problems such as bullying, but instead deprives children of the opportunity to exercise their imagination, compete, and risk that makes unstructured play valuable. In fact, protecting children at all costs will only make them more vulnerable later in life.

Other schools, responding to pressures from newly implemented standardized testing regime to find more instructional time have labeled recess “dead time.” They couldn’t be more wrong. Recess not only gives children the chance to exercise, but also makes makes physical activity fun. In an era in which the childhood obesity epidemic has never loomed larger, recess should be expanded, not eliminated. Structured physical activities simply don’t command nearly as much energy or excitement.

Furthermore, as the only unstructured time during the school day when kids interact wholly with each other without supervision (possibly excluding lunch), recess is an essential part of growing up. Only through lost games, hurt feelings and skinned knees can children build the social skills and develop the emotional maturity that they will need as adults. As one fifth-grader lamented, kids today are kept inside “if there is a rain cloud…if there is a snowflake...if there are puddles.” Coddled to this extreme, they will hardly be able to deal with sleet; how will they react to a bad SAT score, a pink slip, or jilted love?

We commend groups ranging from the Centers for Disease Control and the PTA for advocating for the preservation of recess. Though elimination of the period may eliminate legal risk and expand instructional time, the educational experience of today’s children will be impoverished for it.