A recent study published in Pediatrics went viral (WebMD, New York Times). What the researchers did was compare executive functioning (various important cognitive abilities related to self-control, attention, and task-switching; EF is well-linked to academic performance) in two groups of 8-9-year-old children. One group went to an after-school play program where they just ran around, playing games for two hours every day. The other group didn’t. Not surprisingly, one year later, both groups did improve (yay for schools and human development!). But the play group—and especially kids who went every day–saw the biggest gains in executive functioning.
This study adds to a large body of evidence showing play to be crucial for children’s cerebral, cognitive, and emotional development (1, 2). Parents and teachers and researchers seem to agree that recess and playtime is important. Yet, to school administrators and policymakers, recess is like sand slipping through the hands. Tellingly, Chicago schools just emerged from a 30-year period in which their schools had no recess! An occupational therapist, writing for the Washington Post, noted that today’s children have far worse balance and motor control than they did 30 years ago. No wonder, since children have, altogether, lost about 12 hours per week of free time in that period of time.
This can’t be right: how can something that looks so basic for children’s development and is universally supported by so many stakeholders be so hard to restore? High-stakes testing has squeezed out recess time (along with arts and other “extracurricular-sounding” activities). And yet it’s making children learn less and fare worse on all those assessments. Talking about being counterproductive. We got to bring back recess, and bring back lots of it. I’m talking a half hour here and a half hour there. I remember in school back in the late 80s and early 90s I seemed to always be playing outside. We had ample time to play dozens of games in one recess session. And we did fine in schools and on our exams (well, at least I did).
Policymakers and administrators may not have found ways to bring back enough time for recess, but entrepreneurs have definitely noticed a need–and potential market–here. Standing classroom desks have been found to increase the amount of calories burned by children and increase their attention span. Thinner, more focused students, who doesn’t want that? Standing desk entrepreneurs must be salivating at the notion of selling millions of these desks soon for school officials looking for a quick fix.
How about just bringing back recess? Just do it already! Kids will still do fine on exams, and they’ll be happier, healthier, and probably focus better. And best of all: it’s free.
P.S. Also feed them healthy, whole, plant-based foods. I went to a symposium on neuroscience and child obesity (one of the authors of the Pediatrics paper about kids and the after-school activity program came to present!) and it turns out the Western Diet (high-fat, high-sugar) actually leads to brain damage in the hippocampus of rats (and probably humans, too) causing them to be less resistant to external food cues, so they kept gorging on food. Yikes!