A Reason for Recess
I hope Hawaii's DOE read this article and realizes just how critical
outdoor play is. Currently most Hawaii schools have only 15 minutes of
outdoor free time a day. My six year old's principle apparently read the
article but seemed to confuse their physical education curriculum with
recess.
New York Times, February 24
The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: Recess
By Tara Parker-Pope
The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be
to take them out of it.
New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a
child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that
regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior,
concentration and even grades.
A
study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the
links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children
age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed
better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although
disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the
association between better behavior and recess time held up even after
researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex,
ethnicity, public or private school and class size.
The lead researcher, Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician and an
assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
said the findings were important because many schools did not view
recess as essential to education.
“Sometimes you need data published for people at the educational level
to start believing it has an impact,” she said. “We should understand
that kids need that break because the brain needs that break.”
And many children are not getting that break. In the Pediatrics study,
30 percent were found to have little or no daily recess. Another report,
from a children’s advocacy group, found that 40 percent of schools
surveyed had cut back at least one daily recess period.
Also, teachers often punish children by taking away recess privileges.
That strikes Dr. Barros as illogical. “Recess should be part of the
curriculum,” she said. “You don’t punish a kid by having them miss math
class, so kids shouldn’t be punished by not getting recess.”
Last month, Harvard researchers reported in The Journal of School Health
that the more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they
did on academic tests. The study, of 1,800 middle school students,
suggests that children can benefit academically from physical activity
during gym class and recess.
A small study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
last year found that walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests
of attention and concentration. Notably, children who took walks in
natural settings did better than those who walked in urban areas,
according to the report, published online in August in The Journal of
Attention Disorders. The researchers found that a dose of nature worked
as well as a dose of medication to improve concentration, or even
better.
Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior researcher at the
Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois,
says other research suggests that all children, not just those with
attention problems, can benefit from spending time in nature during the
school day. In another study of children who live in public housing,
girls who had access to green courtyards scored better on concentration
tests than those who did not.
The reason may be that the brain uses two forms of attention. “Directed”
attention allows us to concentrate on work, reading and tests, while
“involuntary” attention takes over when we’re distracted by things like
running water, crying babies, a beautiful view or a pet that crawls onto
our lap.
Directed attention is a limited resource. Long hours in front of a
computer or studying for a test can leave us feeling fatigued. But
spending time in natural settings appears to activate involuntary
attention, giving the brain’s directed attention time to rest.
“It’s pretty clear that all human beings experience attentional
fatigue,” Dr. Faber Taylor said. “Our attention has to be restored from
that fatigue, and there is a growing body of research evidence that
nature is one way that seems particularly effective at doing it.”
Playtime and nature time are important not only for learning but also
for health and development.
Young rats denied opportunities for rough-and-tumble play develop
numerous social problems in adulthood. They fail to recognize social
cues and the nuances of rat hierarchy; they aren’t able to mate. By the
same token, people who play as children “learn to handle life in a much
more resilient and vital way,” said Dr. Stuart Brown, the author of the
new book “Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and
Invigorates the Soul” (Avery).
Dr. Brown, a psychiatrist in Carmel Valley, Calif., has collected more
than 6,000 “play histories” from human subjects. The founder of the
National Institute for Play, he works with educators and legislators to
promote the importance of preserving playtime in schools. He calls play
“a fundamental biological process.” “From my viewpoint, it’s a major
public health issue,” he said. “Teachers feel like they’re under huge
pressures to get academic excellence to the exclusion of having much fun
in the classroom. But playful learning leads to better academic success
than the skills-and-drills approach.”