Grand Larceny! - The Move To Steal and Distort Essential Free Play From Children

     Annually all the boys of our exiting eighth grade spend a casual lunch with their headmaster, sharing freely the highs and lows of their nine years in K – 8th Grade. Without fail, an appreciation for recess every day in every grade level is expressed every year.  Are you puzzled that such would even be mentioned?  Well, the recess of the past is fast disappearing, and these boys, through friends in other schools, know it, as does Amanda Gardner in USA Today.

     So, why the move to eliminate recess?  The reasons are multifaceted, Gardner of Health Day and others report:
    • the fear of having to control unorganized student behavior
    • the lack of acceptable secure space outdoors
    • the perceived need for organized play to better socialize children
    • the fear of school officials that their school would not “pass” state academic standards, so they decided to “put more into academics”

     This last reason is the primary one, and, ironically, eliminates one of the major goals of education --- to boost the brain!  It is here that study and research is continuing yearly to show the incredible value of exercise and free play.

     The USA Today article included research covering 11,000 students that even with only 1- 15 minutes a day of recess, children “behaved better in school”.  New research is showing far more benefits.  Dr. John J. Ratey in his book “Spark” points out that exercise and play do far more than help children just burn off energy and calm down; it causes “boosts” in the area of the brain that includes “the human capacity to dream and plan and create”.  Ratey cites the story of Naperville, Illinois where a program to reduce obesity surprisingly produced the 1st (science) and 6th (math) place students in the world on the International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) examinations.  

This dispels the idea for the need for less recess.

     However, there is even a step beyond this.  Fueling the brain through exercise is valuable, but misses the deeper impact of free play.  On top of many schools not allowing students time for recess, some parents are convinced that organized sports, dance, drama, cheerleading, and martial arts produce the essential elements of growth that children need.  Eight year olds running drills under the direction of a screaming coach may produce discipline, but little else. Even if children enjoy these pursuits, they do not replace the need for “unorganized” play.

      In reality these organized activities before middle school age actually limit the brain’s capacity for creative thought, problem solving, decision making and key areas of mental and social development.  Climbing a tree is more productive than standing on a sideline. Children expand their minds by creating their own games, constructing their own tools and manipulating their own environments.  A full day of teacher and parent “talk” poured into their brains is as numbing and harmful as placing them in front of TVs and iPads all day.  In the name of giving vital instruction, we are robbing our kids of the playtime needed to make those lessons stick and be understood well.
 
     Schools in Asian countries require students to run and play 10 minutes for every 40 – 50 minutes of instruction.  Maybe that’s why the US schools are so far behind.

What creative games have you watched children create? What was your favorite outdoor activity growing up? Spring is here! Open your doors and let the children play.

Bobby Scott, headmaster of Perimeter School in Johns Creek, Georgia, and director of the ChildLight Schools Association, has over 30 years of educational experience.   He is a co-author of When Children Love to Learn (Crossway Books), a Charlotte Mason education book for school educators. Bobby has been the headmaster of Perimeter School in Johns Creek, GA (a 500+ student school of grades K-8) for 26 years. Since 2004, he has annually led teacher training teams to the Punchmi Christian Academy in Karanse, Tanzania, East Africa, as well as been an adjunct instructor at the Joshua Teacher Training College, also in Tanzania. He holds a Master of Education in Counseling and a Master of Education in School Administration. He and his wife, Valerie, have a son and two daughters.