Once again I received a note home from my son’s school about
President Obama’s address to school kids. Since Obama has now made
this questionable practice a tradition, I’d like to suggest what
Obama should say. Unlike those who might be concerned that Obama
will try to brainwash the children about health care, I think Obama
needs to talk to students about health. I also think he needs to
act like a good politician and tell kids exactly what they want to
hear. He needs to tell them, “You need more recess.”
Sadly, recess is dying by strangulation from other
supposedly good things. Recently, I met my son’s teacher and
received a copy of my son’s schedule. I saw lots of good things he
needs to and should learn, but I also looked for what I always
loved — those precious times of recess.
When I was in school, I had three of them. Fifteen minutes
in the morning, thirty minutes after lunch and fifteen minutes in
the afternoon. During those times I learned to create games with
others, choose my own activities, get along, argue, and
negotiate.
Of course, I also learned in class, but that was a
different kind of learning. I learned to follow directions, write
papers, sit still, complete math problems, and be quiet. I learned
under the teacher’s direction and with limited peer governance. I
loved recess as the place of student freedom and creativity and
friendship building. Remarkably enough, in addition to that hour of
recess, I also had physical education. It’s no surprise to me when
I read that Colorado, the state where I attended elementary school,
has fewer problems with obesity than most other states.
One of my worst memories involved moving from the recess
rich state of Colorado to Texas in seventh grade. In Colorado, I
could play soccer, basketball, four-square, tetherball, or various
other games during recess. When I arrived at my Texas junior high,
however, the only option was to sit in the courtyard, which I did
by myself until some big ninth-grader came up and told me he was
going to kick my butt.
Recess became a place of two great student maladies —
boredom and fear. Fortunately, I eventually found those resourceful
few students who, even without soccer fields or basketball courts,
created their own games with a wall and a tennis ball. Even as a
kid, I wondered, “Why doesn’t this school know how to make recess
fun and productive?”
Unfortunately, I find Texas and other states now passing
along this woeful recess tradition in a different way — by
severely limiting recess time. For example, although Texas is one
of the more obese states and the American Heart Association finds
that between 25% and 50% of children are overweight, I discovered
on my son’s schedule that he has 20 minutes of recess and that’s
it. What’s going on here? Why such disrespect for the time kids
play outside?
This trend is quite puzzling, because the benefits of
recess are clearly documented. Studies find recess leads to
“increased student focus on studies, physical activity
participation, awareness of healthy habits, alertness and
enjoyment, and higher staff involvement.” Of course, recess is no
cure all for physical education problems. Various studies show that
only around half of children participate in moderate to vigorous
physical activity during recess. More probably needs to be done to
provide incentives for students to engage in physical activity
during recess. Yet, if schools only have recess for 20 minutes (or
less) each day, they will have little motivation to improve
it.
This matter also ties back to the issue of health care. If
we only give kids 20 minutes of recess per day, it will
increasingly become obvious, as it currently is anyway, that
President Obama underestimated what we’ll need to spend on health
care. Since many medical problems are tied to obesity (and our
schools are making the problem worse), we can be sure that we’ll be
spending more. So President Obama, go ahead and try to brainwash
those children. Ask them to call their state legislators and demand
more recess.
