Within the past several years, school districts have been allotting more time for academic courses which, obviously, is great. But, schools are at a fixed every day schedule; so, they must make room in this daily schedule for the increased academics. For this reason, school districts over the country are decreasing, or overall eliminating, recess. Removing recess from a child’s schedule does not provide any benefits.

The few school districts out there that still have space allotted for recess use recess as a means for punishment for the students. You know what that means: If little Susie is being bad, she loses her recess. Punishing Susie by removing her recess does not end up being beneficial; studies have shown it ends up hurting the other students and teachers, because it does not actually fix why Susie needed punished. For this reason, why do teachers everywhere still use the elimination of recess as punishment? There are numerous more propitious means for punishment that should be used by teachers.

Slowly, teachers are beginning to realize that recess is just as important for students as lunch or physical education is. Recess provides students with the chance to burn off energy, make social connections, and just give their mind a break!

Recess serves as a time for children to form relationships and bonds that could potentially last a life time. It is a time when children learn proper social skills, without having mom and dad constantly reminding them to say “please” and “thank you.” Just like any other adult, a child needs a stress free activity; it may be surprising, but children can stress like adults do. Having recess reduces a child’s stress and anxiety levels by giving them several minutes of freedom from the classroom.

Having an unstructured break during the day has been proven to increase children’s attention span and productivity. This, in turn, can improve a child’s success with academics. Because of this, numerous children are often more attentive in their classes that are scheduled after recess.

It is also a time for kids to burn off their energy as well as get their physical activity. It is obvious exercise is good physically; it keeps the body in shape and involves the practice of motor skills and movement. It is unknown to most that exercise can be constructive for academics; in layman’s terms, exercise gets the “brain juices” flowing which increases academic success.

If numerous studies were done proving the importance of recess, why are there still elementary schools throughout the country phasing it out? The reason is because people are not aware of the plentiful reasons recess is beneficial for elementary aged school children. Let’s share the knowledge we learn about this and change people’s ideas.