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My brother, an expert in recess, could have explained this to them had they only asked.

Many of us grew up in the Age of Structure. At this time, you will be in school, studying, playing, taking your bath, etc. Except for summer and holidays, day in and day out, we had a fairly clear idea of when we would be doing what. That, however, included generous amounts of play time. How lucky we were.

Structure—predictability—is intended to produce a sense of security in a child so the child can do the hard work of growing physically and mentally. As boring as all that seemed to me then, those orderly days did do that. (I wanted to be an adult in the next 10 minutes so that I could do what I wanted.)

At that time, adults thought play time was important. Adults built it into the school day and at home. My mother firmly believed every child should be able to work and play well with others (as noted on report cards), but equally important, she thought children should be able to entertain themselves at play.  “Anyone should be able to play happily alone,” she said. “You shouldn’t count on other people to entertain you.” (Note: E-mail this to Paris Hilton’s mother.)

In the decades since, apparently educators have thrown recess out along with history and other subjects our teachers believed we could not possibly ignore if we were to be educated.

As scientists are able to discover new knowledge about the brain through non-invasive scans—not possible before—these studies have found that workers who keep going without a break go on “overload,” make mistakes or have reaction times which are slowed.

An example: For patients who go to teaching hospitals, this is important. Medical residents who go too long without any sleep make more errors.

Early childhood educators somehow have missed the studies that underscore how much brains need a break.

This is from Well, a column by Tara Parker-Pope, in the New York Times, and one of our favorites.

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New York Times

“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. (Emphasis added)

“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.”

Source:  New York Times,  February 23, 2009

Citation Source:  Pediatrics, February, 2009