Daily Herald opinion: Protecting unstructured play: The role of recess is vital for suburban schools

With blocks of time spent hunkered down at their desks, many kids will be quick to tell you their favorite part of the school day is recess — a chance to run, relax and recharge.

Grade-school students like it because it’s fun. But unstructured play is also good for them in terms of their physical health, social development and ability to learn when they return to their classrooms.

That message comes through loud and clear in the updated guidelines from the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics.

The policy statement, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, notes that recess is vital for a number of reasons. And in its first new guidance on the school break in 13 years, the AAP emphasizes that unstructured play time is important for kids of all ages, not just those in the early grades.

Yet, schools across the U.S. have been chipping away at time allocated to recess as they try to fit more into the school day. In the last two decades, up to 40% of school districts across the country have dropped or reduced recess time, according to data from Springboard to Active Schools in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s the wrong move, as the guidelines underscore.

The academy acknowledges two “competing perspectives.” In the first, schools set out to prepare students for their future role in society, maximizing time spent on academics. The second, however, focuses on schools’ role in developing the “whole child,” setting students up to succeed both academically and within “the social, emotional and complex societal challenges of 21st century life,” according to AAP.

That’s where recess comes in. Time spent climbing, playing and chatting contributes to children’s emotional and cognitive health. It also gives them time for physical activity, much-needed in a society where about one out of five children are considered obese, according the CDC.

Plus, developing brains need a break to better retain what they’re learning, and physical movement aids in that, according to the AAP. Breaks also reduce stress.

Illinois rightly requires that public schools provide at least 30 minutes of unstructured free play for all students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The state also aligns with recommendations that recess not be taken away as a punishment unless there is a safety threat involved.

Some suburban schools go further, as our Madhu Krishnamurthy reported this week.

Libertyville Elementary District 70, for example, provides a formal recess block through the eighth grade.

“These short bursts of activity are scientifically proven to reduce stress and improve memory retention by giving the brain a necessary ‘reset,’” said Robin Smith Kollman, District 70 director of communications.

That “reset” must be protected. Illinois does that for its public schools, but we like the approach of extending breaks to older kids as well, even after they’ve outgrown hopscotch and four square.

Adults need time in their work day to recharge. Kids need it even more.