Bill 23: Reintroducing Recess

Take a look back at your career as a high school student. A blur of classes, scheduled back-to-back with minutes in between to make it to each class. A half hour to one hour lunch break, mostly consumed by the scramble to make it to the caf, try to charm Lunch Lady Edna into slapping on an extra helping of the special sauce with your generic lasagna, wait in line behind your fellow daring lunch-eaters, and find the perfect seat in which you can avoid sitting beside the FOBs and their "pek-pek" jokes, and the dice-players. Then you slip back into the regular routine of things. For those of us lucky enough to have made it to one of the sports teams (5 in my high school, I think), there's always basketball/soccer/volleyball/track&field/softball practice to look forward to. And for those who aren't seasoned athletes, well you can try setting up some sort of "just-for-fun" teams, but then of course you'd have to convince your friends to put the doobie down and join you for some physical activity that requires more than just clicking the TV's remote control buttons...

Now, think back to elementary school (if your memory is as bad as mine, this might take some straining). Again, a blur of classes in which they try to instill the valuable lesson: i before e, except after c.. something something something... Then there were the teams. Sure, there were those athlete-kids that shone, but more importantly than the competitive aspect, coaches and teachers stressed 2 important aspects: FUN, FUN, FUN aaand physical activity. There was lunch, which involved a Dunkaroos-auction while you and all your friends tried to shove down lunch so you could run outside and play. Then of course, there was RECESS.

The other day my friend Sammy and I were talking about the golden days. We reminisced about the days when recess was a major priority- not so much because we needed a break from the ever-so-tedious multiplication table, but because we simply wanted to get outside and play with our friends in the fresh air. He made a very good point: If physical activity is an aspect of early education highly valued within our system (as implemented in school board curriculums across the nation), why does it suddenly take a back seat as soon as we reach highschool or junior high? This led us to reflect for a few minutes and think of more questions. At which point to decision-makers actually decide to draw the line, and eliminate the need for exercise and fresh air? If there is an obvious correlation between being outside with your peers, provided with basic things to help you make use of your break (i.e. a basketball court), and staying in shape then why isn't the idea of recess somehow worked into your schedule as a post-elementary school student?

Sammy invited me to imagine the differences that could result from such a simple tweek of the curriculum. As any student knows, studying/learning down in intervals between breaks is highly beneficial and allows you to retain more of the material, as opposed to over-cramming your brain. The academic benefits of exercise have also been visited again and again- students' behaviour is more receptive to learning, energy levels remain stable and allow students to actively participate in class, and cognitive capacities have more "breathing space. An examination of this issue is also most appropriate in this generation. Unlike your parents generation, we live in a world of commonly-overweight children and staggering obesity rates. We're bombarded with commercials and ads urging us to try the latest videogame or watch the latest movie. Lets face it, a 5 year old will see infinitely more ads for a Nintendo DS than he/she will for the newest soccer ball. At such a crucial point in which educators could be the leading actors in a complete overhaul of physical-activity related material in our schooling, why isn't anyone pursuing this with the vigour that they should be pursuing it with.

This lead us to propose a theoretical bill to be brought before the ministers and educators who play a key role in enhancing the educational experiences of Canada's students. We named it Bill 23, appropriately, after basketball legend Michael Jordan. Can you imagine a world in which MJ and other great athletes of our time were limited to ONLY playing during recess in elementary school? The premise of this "bill" is simple: REINTRODUCE RECESS. Its ridiculous to believe that some of the benefits of physical activity, essentially the idea of recess, is only beneficial during the first portion of our life.

Yesterday was my first day of summer after my university exams, and luckily it was sunny and mild outside. I seized the day and headed out to a beautiful park/forested area. While wandering around crossing creeks and skipping stones (okay maybe not so much skipping stones as getting stoned), we discovered the playground was empty. To my utter joy, we spent the next little while completing the obstacle course, sliding down windy slides, see-sawing and trying to see who could swing higher. The wind was in my hair, the sun was beaming down, and I was too preoccupied to realize I hadn't done this in years, and my lungs really are little engines that say they could. It also made me draw on my earlier conversation with Sammy.
Lets face it:
REPLACING RECESS, or PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WITH IN-CLASS TIME
a) does NOT improve a child's academic performance
b) can result in more overweight, inactive generations to come


And boy, with every swing I took higher and higher, I realized just how much I missed recess...