Parents' victory in reclaiming recess for their children.

Red Rover, hopscotch, jump rope, chase, telling secrets, hanging out, making friends, losing friends--these familiar pursuits of childhood recess are vividly memorable. The ringing bells, indicating physical, cognitive, and social liberation, were music to our ears. Released from the confines of the school building and the inherent control it represented, we were free to run, to plan, to think, and to dream. The break from the routine of the classroom offered the emancipation, rest, and rejuvenation our growing bodies and our psyches required. For periods each day, we became the architects of our own designs.

While these are common memories for adults, many children now attending elementary school are experiencing a different reality. Today's climate of increasing school accountability and intense focus on strictly cognitive performance has forced a restructuring of the school day. In the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, time literally can mean money. Schools are eliminating activities deemed unnecessary or frivolous, especially those whose contributions to academic achievement are not "scientifically proven." Current research suggests that as many as 40 percent of school districts throughout the United States are reducing or deleting recess as they focus additional time and resources on teaching and learning (American Association for the Child's Right to Play, 2004).

Current studies challenge the idea that limiting recess will benefit children's academic performance, however. Research on the human brain informs us that excessive and/or unrelieved periods of instruction can, in fact, impair our ability to learn and retain material (Healy, 1998; Jensen, 1998). Particularlygermane is the research of Pellegrini, Huberty, and Jones (1995), who documented children's inattention to instructional material after long periods of instruction and their returned focus following recess. The research suggests the longer the period of "deprivation," the more the inattention increased. Similar research is reported by Jarrett et al. (1998), who found children's attention to be greater on days when they had recess. A growing body of research suggests that academic achievement improves even when recess reduces the time for academics (Shephard, 1997; Skrupskelis, 2000; Symons, Cinelli, James, & Groff, 1997).

The opportunity for physical and mental release contributes a host of benefits to children's development, aside from academic achievement. With 15.3 percent of children ages 6 to 11 classified as obese in 2000, up from 4 percent in 1971 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004), addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity is imperative (Duke University, 2004).

Research suggests that children's participation in vigorous physical activity in the schoolyard surpasses that which occurs during structured physical education (PE) classes (Waite-Stupiansky & Findlay, 2001). This activity can thwart the onset of cardiovascular disease and diabetes that overweight children are prone to as adults (Ebberling, Pawak, & Ludwig, 2002; Sothern & Gordon, 2003).

While the noticeable absence of children in the schoolyard should cause concern on its own, children also are vanishing from their neighborhood environs. Due to busy parental work schedules, increased participation in extracurricular activities, and concerns about safety, children's free time decreased by 16 percent and outdoor activities declined by 50 percent from 1981 to 1997 (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001). Coupled with decreasing opportunities for physical activity during the school day, this phenomenon represents a multitude of potential risks for developing children. A current study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2004) indicates a 33 percent increase in deaths in the United States that are related to physical inactivity. Incorporating vigorous physical activity into the school day yields physical, affective, and academic benefits for children. According to Pollatschek and Hagen (1996), children who participate in daily physical activity show enhanced motor fitness, academic performance, and attitudes toward school, as compared to their peers who lead a more sedentary lifestyle.

Not only do breaks in the regular school day boost children's cognitive and physical development, they strongly support children's social development. According to Thorne (1994), "The playground is an area where adults exert minimal control, and kids are relatively free to choose their own activities and companions" (p. 44). It is on the playground where children develop and experiment with social strategies. Sharing, cooperation, problem solving, conflict resolution, and self-control--all skills necessary for successful living--are rehearsed and modified during daily intervals of unstructured play (Jambor, 1999). According to Vygotsky (1978), opportunities for the refinement of these important skills with peers actively contributes to cognitive development.

Time away from the classroom allows children the chance to develop games, rules, projects, and stories in the absence of an adult-imposed structure--which may actually limit their creativity (Goleman, Kaufman, & Ray, 1992). Being creative allows children to forge connections between one area of learning and another, and thus extend their understanding. Consequently, what has been mastered in the classroom can be processed and enhanced in the novel setting of the schoolyard. The non-evaluative, lower-stakes nature of the playground may help children avoid a "right answer fixation" (Treffinger & Reis, 2004), a mind-set that limits creative potential. According to Presbury, Benson, Fitch, and Torrance (1990), "One of the first challenges to creative imaginings may be formal schooling. Teachers, and parents by this time, like conforming behaviors best--e.g., being courteous and obedient, following rules, handing work in on time" (p. 1). The playground may provide relief from such required conformity and can serve as a laboratory with endless promise for experimentation. Afforded such opportunity, children may exercise otherwise untapped creative potential.

Children's "right to play" (United Nations, 1989) is being debated throughout the United States, and families' concerns over current trends to reduce or eliminate recess have spurred action in many communities. In a national survey of parents, 97 percent indicated a strong preference toward guarding the right of recess for their children (cited in Cromwell, 1998). While advocacy efforts in Michigan, Virginia, and Connecticut have resulted in statewide mandated recess (State of Connecticut, 2004; State of Michigan, 2000; State of Virginia, 2000), other efforts have yet to realize results. According to Johnson (1998), "School districts in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and New Jersey are opting to eliminate recess, even to the point of building new schools in their districts without playgrounds" (p. A1).

Family and community mobilization around educational issues has the capacity to significantly alter policy (Brown Foundation, 2004). In the words of Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." This statement rings true in the following document of families' victory in reclaiming recess for their children. The story is recounted from the perspective of a key member of the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council in a midsize community in the Midwestern United States. Teresa Bilello's story verifies the potential of individuals' ability to rally support and effect dramatic change for children.

Successful advocacy efforts require the combined energy and resources of individuals and organizations committed to a cause. In the case of recess, tools exist to support advocates in their quest to reclaim play for children. The American Association for the Child's Right to Play, the U.S. affiliate of the International Play Association, has the mission "to protect, preserve, and promote play as a fundamental right for all humans"; it has taken on the recess issue as a central focus of its work. The organization hosts a Web site (www. IPAUSA.org) that provides pertinent research regarding the benefits of recess, links to position statements from various organizations, a list of "recess advocates" by state, as well as "recess news" from around the United States. Those interested in pursuing advocacy in their own states and communities will find this site an invaluable resource.

A host of national organizations have issued position statements in response to current policies limiting or eliminating the opportunities for children's physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and creative development that recess affords (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2001; National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1997; National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education, 2002). The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) has recently released a position statement titled Play: Essential for All Children (Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2004). ACEI's position statement offers a concrete rationale supporting children's developmental need and fundamental right to play. The joint responsibility of us all to advocate for change is highlighted in the preface to the position statement, as the authors provide a compelling invitation to action:

Decades of research has documented that play has a crucial role in the optimal growth, learning, and development of children from infancy through adolescence. Yet, this need is being challenged, and so children's right to play must be defended by all adults, especially educators and parents. The time has come to advocate strongly in support of play for all children.

Indeed, the time has come for all child advocates to mobilize energy and efforts on behalf of children. While it is easy and justifiable to bemoan the increasing disappearance of recess, our energy and personal resources are better spent actively promoting policy that supports the developmental needs and rights of children. An ancient Chinese proverb informs us that "it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." As we persevere in promoting positions that nurture and support children, may our collective lights shine brightly.

References

American Association for the Child's Right to Play. (2004). Recess news. Retrieved June 14, 2004, from www.ipausa. org/recess.htm

Brown Foundation. (2004). In pursuit of freedom & equality: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Retrieved June 15, 2004, from: http://brownvboard.org

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2004). Prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents: United States, 1999-2000. Retrieved June 13, 2004, from www.cdc.gov/ nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/overwght99.htm

Cromwell, S. (1998). Should schools take a break from recess? Education World. Retrieved June 10, 2004, from www.educationworld.org/a_issues/issues042.shtml

Duke University. (2004). 2004 report: The Foundation for Child Development index of child well-being (CWI), 1975-2002, with projections for 2003: A composite index of trends in the well-being of our Nation's children. Durham, NC: Author.

Ebberling, C. B., Pawlak, D. B., & Ludwig, D. W. (2002). Childhood obesity: Public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet, 360, 473-482.

Goleman, D., Kaufman, P., & Ray, M. (1992). The creative spirit. New York: Dutton.

Healy, J. M. (1998). Failure to connect: How computers affect our children's minds--for better and worse. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Hofferth, S. L., & Sandberg, J. F. (2001). How American children spend their time. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63(2), 295-308.

Isenberg, J. P., & Quisenberry, N. (2004). Play: Essential for all children. Retrieved July 18, 2004, from www.acei. org/playpaper.htm

Jambor, T. (1999). Recess and social development. Retrieved June 15, 2004, from www.earlychildhood.com/Articles/ index.cfm?FuseAction-Article&A=39.

Jarrett, O. S., Maxwell, D. M., Dickerson, C., Hoge, P., Davies, G., & Yetley, A. (1998). The impact of recess on classroom behavior: Group effects and individual differences. Journal of Educational Research, 92(2), 121-126.

Jensen, E. (1998). Teaching with the brain in mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. ERIC Document No. ED434950.

Johnson, D. (1998, April 7). Many schools putting an end to child's play. New York Times, pp. A1, A16.

National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2001). Recess in elementary schools. Retrieved June 2, 2004, from www.aahperd.org/naspe/pdf_files/pos_papers/current_res.pdf

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1997). The value of school recess and outdoor play. Retrieved June 2, 2004, from www.naeyc.org/resources/ eyly/1998/08.pdf

National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education. (2002). Recess and the importance of play. Retrieved June 2, 2004, from http://naecs. crc.uiuc.edu/position/recessplay.html

Pellegrini, A. D., Huberty, P. D., & Jones, I. (1995). The effects of recess timing on children's playground and classroom behaviors. American Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 845-864.

Pollatschek, J., & Hagen, F. (1996). Smarter, healthier, happier. Boston: International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association.

Presbury, J. H., Benson, A. J., Fitch, J., & Torrance, E. P. (1990). Children and creativity. Retrieved June 15, 2004, from www.amphi.com/~psych/creative.htm1

Shephard R.J. (1997). Curricular physical activity and academic performance. Pediatric Exercise Science, 9, 113-125.

Skrupskelis, A. (2000). A historical trend to eliminate recess. In R. L. Clements (Ed.), Elementary school recess: Selected readings, games, and activities for teachers and parents (pp. 124-126). Boston: American Press.

Sothern, M., & Gordon, S. (2003). Prevention of obesity in young children: A critical challenge for medical professionals. Clinical Pediatrics, 42, 101-111.

State of Connecticut: General Assembly. (2004). Raised Bill No. 5344: An act concerning childhood nutrition in schools, recess, and lunch breaks. Retrieved July 18, 2004, from www.cga.state.ct.us/2004/TOB/h/pdf/2004HB05344-R00-HB.pdf

State of Michigan: State Board of Education. (2000). Policies for creating effective learning environments. Retrieved June 14, 2004, from www.michigan.gov/documents/ bdpolicy001214_16470_7.pdf

State of Virginia. (2000). 8VAC20-131-80. Instructional program in elementary schools. Virginia Register, 16(25).

Symons, C. W., Cinelli, B., James, T. C., & Groff, P. (1997). Bridging student health risks and academic achievement through comprehensive school health programs. Journal of School Health, 67(6), 220-227.

Thorne, B. (1994). Gender play: Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Treffinger, D. J., & Reis, S. M. (Eds.). (2004). Creativity and giftedness. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

United Nations. (1989). United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 31. New York: Author.

United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). Citing "dangerous increase" in deaths, HHS launches new strategies against overweight epidemic. Retrieved June 13, 2004, from www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040309. html

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Waite-Stupiansky, S., & Findlay, M. (2001). The fourth R: Recess and its link to learning. The Educational Forum, 66, 16-25.

Prior to starting a family relatively late in life, my interests in children only went as far as a few of my architecture projects required; I designed some pediatric units in hospitals, a few child care facilities, and a children's hospital. Professionals knowledgeable in children's health and development taught me about the physical environment needs of children and that there was a body of research that provided reasons for them.

My personal involvement in the recess movement began when my oldest daughter started kindergarten in Texas. Her elementary school had no playground equipment. I started to go about trying to remedy this by enlisting the PTA and neighborhood in doing a "design-build" project similar to those I'd seen community groups organize in other areas around the country. Then, I discovered that the school district was in the process of removing all of the playground equipment for "liability and maintenance" reasons. I was very dismayed that the children had only jump ropes, balls, and sand toys to play with during their twice-daily 15- to 20-minute recess periods.

Upon leaving Texas and relocating to the Midwest I found school playgrounds equipped with swings, climbing structures, etc. It didn't even occur to me that they might be rarely used. I became involved in the public school system in our new community because I was concerned about the length of the school day. The elementary school day is 8:30 to 2:30--an hour shorter than the schools in Texas and the school I went to as a child, and two hours and 45 minutes shorter than the magnet school our daughter was slated to attend in Texas. I joined the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council (SPAC) in our community in order to try to get the school day lengthened to accommodate more special instruction. The SPAC is a forum that gives parent representatives from each school in the district the ear of the superintendent on issues. At the time I joined, I was not aware of the limited recess time (8.33 minutes daily; see calculations in box on page 22) and underutilized playground equipment, and I didn't fully understand the implications until I began to discuss my issues about the length of the school day at the SPAC meetings, and other parents brought up their concerns over lack of sufficient recess.

I began to investigate the length of school days and state-mandated amounts of instruction by calling states' school boards and researching the information on the Internet. Our council determined that our school system had one of the shortest school days we could find nationally. In order to solicit input on this issue from families throughout the district, we developed a short survey that was sent out in the homework folders of all the elementary school children. The survey asked two questions: 1) Would families support a longer school day? (Yes/No); and 2) If so, how much longer? (10/20/30/Other--minutes). A space for comments was provided.

Generally, responses to the survey were positive about extending the school day an average of 30 minutes. Many of the comments on the survey reflected a variety of reasons families would be in favor of a longer day, recess being a recurring one. We decided to create a new survey to obtain more responses and gather additional information as to why families wanted a longer school day.

Our committee met to discuss and develop the new survey and the superintendent attended some of the meetings to give us some history. In our district, teachers are contracted to work 7.5 hours per day, 180 days per year. Music and Physical Education (PE) are each offered twice per week for 30 minutes, and art is offered for 45 minutes once per week. After the "specials" and state-mandated instructional time, there is 8.33 minutes left for recess or non-instructional activity per day. Teachers' professional development and parent-teacher conference time and preparation is also included in the teachers' contract time. We were told the issue of a longer school day had been raised before, but that unless there was a willingness to eliminate parent-teacher conferences, professional development, or use some teacher preparation time at the end of the day, there could be no additional time dedicated to recess or any other "special" without contract re-negotiation, which would be politically challenging. The superintendent would not consider altering mandated instructional time, and it seemed as if we had reached a roadblock. One of the subcommittee members referred me to the American Association for the Child's Right to Play Web site (www.IPAUSA.org) and I was captivated. As there was so much information and research available that supported the importance of play to children, I changed my focus from merely lengthening the school day to advocating for recess.

Our next survey was more extensive. It listed reasons for extending the school day (e.g., recess, academic instruction, health-related offerings, etc.) and then gave three choices for the amount of time (15, 30, or fill-in-the-blank number of minutes). It was determined that a larger response to the survey could be obtained if it was administered during parent-teacher conferences, where parent attendance was typically around 95 percent.

With over 1,200 surveys returned, it appeared that a majority of families wanted the school day lengthened. A spreadsheet was developed indicating the number of respondents in favor of extending the day and for what reasons. Over 60 percent of families stated they would be in favor of extending the school day for recess and/or health-related offerings. The results of the survey were presented at the SPAC meeting, and then to the school board.

I continued speaking at subsequent school board meetings to reiterate the importance of recess and to provide the members with research on the subject. At the same time, an "obesity bill" was introduced in our state legislature that would require at least 30 minutes a day for physical activity in all public schools. The superintendent told us that this bill might be just what was needed to get the school day lengthened and to renegotiate teacher contracts. Although the bill was eventually defeated, the emphasis it placed on children's health issues increased public awareness around the state and provided increased momentum for action.

I became concerned that it might appear to the school board that it was just a small minority of families who felt strongly about this issue. I sent E-mail to everyone I knew who might be willing to speak to the school board in favor of implementing recess and, if necessary, lengthening the school day. Parents, health care professionals, and university faculty were among those willing to provide testimony. I expected to be attending bi-weekly school board meetings for months and was prepared to speak and invite others to speak in favor of recess until change was realized.

In the spring, shortly before the end of school year, I was delighted when the superintendent made a recommendation to the school board that the half days in the school calendar normally set aside for teacher professional development be eliminated, and that time be spread out over the school year to allow an extra 16.5 minutes per day to the original time (for a total of 25 minutes) of non-instructional time (recess). The school day would not be lengthened, but the amount of time allowed for recess would triple. In a period of eight short months, we had changed the face of the school day for children.

I realize that school districts are faced with various state and now federal requirements, but it has become so clear to me that the basic need of children to play--the basic right to play, according to the United Nations--is being "left behind." The cognitive, social, and emotional development that children gain through play may serve them better in life than a higher standardized test score. And then, perhaps, test scores would improve if children got more recess. It's a story we look forward to telling.

How is the 8.33-minute non-instructional time calculated? Indiana requires 300 instructional minutes each school day. Anything more than 315 minutes is used for banked time.

Multiply 15 minutes by 180 school days = 2,700 minutes

Divide 2,700 minutes by 60 minutes = 45 hours

Subtract 20 hours [10 hours professional development, 10 hours parent/teacher conferences]

Equals 25 hours non-instructional time

Multiply 25 hours by 60 minutes = 1,500 minutes

Divide 1,500 minutes by 180 days = 8.33 minutes a day

Retrieved Sept. 6, 2005, from www.thestarpress.com

Eva Zygmunt-Fillwalk is Assistant Professor, Elementary Education, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Teresa Evanko Bilello is PTA President, a school representative on the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council, and parent of two children in the Muncie Community Schools.