Recess in schools: Moms push Clarksville-Montgomery County to offer more breaks for kids

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Morgan Garner noticed her third-grade daughter was coming home from school with unusual behavior, high energy and high stress.

“In kindergarten she was like a different kid from pre-school age, when she was able to play outside for like two hours a day and did a lot of hands-on learning,” Garner told Clarksville Now. “Then she went to a school in CMCSS, and she was kind of a different kid. She was stressed out, and she had insane energy at the end of the day. Like, uncontainable energy.

“I would especially notice it on rainy days. It was even worse,” Garner said. “So, I would ask her, ‘What did you guys do for recess?’ And they weren’t even allowed to go in the gym or anything. They would sit in their classroom, and I know the teachers do their best – they can only do so much. The teacher would let them play a game or play on the computer, but only within the confines of that classroom that they’ve been in all day long.”

Garner got together with another Clarksville mom, Rachel Bush, who was noticing the same problems with her children, and together they created a Facebook group and petition to urge the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System to put more of a priority on recess.

Benefits of recess for behavior, academics

“The research is all there, and it fully supports the overall benefits of extended recess,” Bush told Clarksville Now. “Scores go up, bullying, anxiety and depression go down. We have all seen firsthand how less recess has negatively affected our children nationwide. This ‘inside generation’ has a higher level of depression than ever before. Something has got to change.”

The moms have collected research on the advantages of recess in school. The Centers for Disease Control says recess not only increases students’ level of physical activity, but it improves their memory, attention and concentration while also reducing disruptive behavior in the classroom.

Garner and Bush found that a school in Texas – Eagle Mountain Elementary – is adopting a recess-filled curriculum that many schools in Finland have been following. Finnish schools are well-known for their high test scores and extended use of recess.

Debbie Rhea, a kinesiologist at Texas Christian University, traveled to Finland to study their system. When she got back, she collaborated with American schools to implement a similar program. She designed the program now in place at Eagle Mountain in which children have four 15-minute recess periods.

According to an article by The Literacy Site, teachers in Eagle Mountain have noticed their students are now more focused and less fidgety. They appear to be generally healthier and happier, make more eye contact, and they perform better on tests.

What recess is required in Tennessee?

Garner and Bush took it upon themselves to study CMCSS class schedules to see where more recess time could be fit in. They said they found that CMCSS elementary students are in school for 6.5 hours while most other counties go only 6 hours. The school day is 390 minutes. Of that 390-minute day, the master schedule fills 355 minutes, leaving over half an hour not accounted for.

The mothers said most local schools provide only 15 or 20 minutes a day of recess, and that includes walking the students to and from the playground, getting coats in classrooms and putting lunchboxes away after lunch.

According to Tennessee State Board of Education, physical activity is to be integrated into the instructional day for all students. Elementary school students are to have a minimum of 130 minutes of physical activity per full school week, and middle and high school students are to have a minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity per full school week. To satisfy those requirements, elementary students should have at least one 15-minute period of physical activity every day. Schools would have to go well beyond that, though, to meet the weekly minimums.

The policy states that walking to and from class is not considered physical activity and “shall not be counted toward the required minutes for physical activity.”

Also, the policy states, “Physical activity shall not be withheld from a student as a punishment.”

“CMCSS teachers have been known to take away recess as a punishment,” Bush told Clarksville Now. They said they were told by administrators that withholding recess as punishment was discouraged but not mandated.

CMCSS says it gives all recess it can

CMCSS spokesman Anthony Johnson responded that all CMCSS elementary schools schedule supervised recess each day.

“However, students may not be able to have recess at the playground or outside every day due to factors such as weather or a lockout/lockdown which inhibit our ability to offer recess outside,” Johnson said.

“If students are not able to go outside, teachers provide indoor recess, which can include indoor physical activities, games, centers for students to choose creative outlets, etc. Additionally, CMCSS schools must make accommodations for students who cannot play outside due to allergies or other health concerns.”

As for adding more recess, Johnson said the schedule is already full.

“There is a finite amount of time students are at school, so in order to increase recess time beyond the average 15-20 minutes per day, time must be taken from other areas,” he said.

Additional recess pilot program

Last semester, Barksdale Elementary and Spanish Immersion at Barksdale Elementary piloted a program to increase recess time. An additional recess period was not feasible with schedules, but the teachers in the pilot program extended their classes’ recess period for the second quarter of school while tracking student behavior and academic performance. The teachers provided the following feedback:

• The extra time was a challenge to accommodate balancing many non-academic transitions (ex. snack time, classroom bathroom breaks, time traveling to and from lunch and specials) with academic content.
• With Spanish Immersion specifically, the students have to be explicitly taught grammar; it cannot be embedded into RLA, which is another time commitment.
• The teachers did not observe a decrease in student disciplinary issues or an increase in student academic performance and requested to return to their initial schedule after the break to address the aforementioned scheduling challenges.
• The teachers also noted that in addition to recess, they integrate several “brain breaks” and incorporate movement in their regular daily instruction.

Johnson said that when possible teachers and schools do add extra recess time on a class-by-class, school-by-school basis, and in the warmer months, they generally observe an increase in extra recess, field days, fun runs, kickball tournaments and other activities at schools.

CMCSS is also exploring opportunities to provide more access for students to learn outside, such as supporting outdoor gardens and providing outdoor classroom furniture.