What Ever Happened to Recess?

by Terri Wagner

Long ago and far away, schools had this awesome daily activity called Recess. It usually came twice a day in some of the school systems I attended as a child, and some had a combination of recess and physical education or PE. Recess was time outside doing anything you could think of. When we lived down south, recess included games that had fun names like Red Rover, four square, and dodgeball. In the more northern climes, it included tasting snow, skating on ice without skates, and snowballs.

Anyone remember those? The whole point of recess was time out, time away from studies. Lots of fresh air. I think it is very interesting that most eight hour employees get get two 15 minute breaks a day in addition to lunch. Students should get at least the same, right?

G. Stanley Hall back in the 1890s promoted the concept of recess. Let me be clear this is not a break that most middle schools (and high schools) give students. That is generally a 10 minute break to eat or talk, like somehow they would talk themselves out in 10 minutes.

Data suggests the current emphasis on test scores at the expense of recess has had a negative effect on students. Adding recess back into the curriculum has been shown to increase test scores. Let's rethink this. This Texas school did and check their very positive results.