Recess In School Essay

Should recess be included in the school day? Opponents of recess during the school day say students need more time for academics, school obligations, and extra-curricular activities. They also fear that recess can be unsafe. Some say that Physical Education (PE) is a better replacement. An increase in the need for and the use of technology has also taken away time for recess. However, recess is definitely an integral part of the school day. Recess is a necessary part of the school day because children, quite simply, need it. It is a time for them take a break from the intensity and stress of the classroom. Elementary age students can only stay fully attentive for an average of 40-50min at a time according to Ramstetter, Murray, and

First and foremost, it is a hands-on experience. At the elementary level, one of the primary ways kids learn is hands-on because their reasoning skills have not developed enough to understand abstract ideas. Recess helps children develop cognitive skills like awareness, reasoning, observation skills, creativity, concentration, and imagination (Dowdell, Gray, and Malone, 24). When playing, children use their imagination and creativity to make up games like walking on the moon. They may imagine a stick is a flag and the white rocks are the rough surface of the moon, or maybe there is a moving bridge and that is what they assume walking on the moon with less gravity feels like. Kids are very observational; they learn by watching how their peers, teachers, and others act. If a teacher seems uninterested in whatever discovery a child makes, he or she is more likely to leave it and move to something else. It will become less important to him or her because the teacher finds it, or seems to find it unimportant. The physical aspect seems somewhat self-explanatory. Playing betters children’s movement and motor skills such as co-ordination, balance, and agility. The more they do, the more they want to do, and the better their skills become. Finally, the area with the most development because of the nature of it, social and emotional. In large group settings, like school

Physical Education is structured activity time requiring students to participate as much as physically possible. Therefore, they tend to exercise more vigorously and burn more energy. The people that support PE over recess, do so because of the current rise in childhood obesity. They are encouraging the higher activity levels, in hopes of making the children healthier. However, views start clash when they also want children to improve academically and move on to higher education. Improving academically starts with development. If recess is replaced by PE, children lose their ability to be creative and imaginative in coming up with their own play, their ability to socialize as much, and their acquisition of motor skills. While, each of these things is addressed to a certain extent, it is impossible for structured time to completely attain the same level of development as unstructured time. A last difference is that PE is typically indoors, while recess is typically