The Importance Of Recess In School

This fact further concretes the idea of bringing recess back into the curriculum of schools because students can benefit a very significant amount from a break, and from a bit of exercise. Recess promotes good behavior during classes and more attentiveness. Classes after a good recess program have less disruption (London et al. 58). This means that a lot more can be learned in the classes after recess, when children are a bit more energetic due to recess. Without recess, about half-way through the school day, many students become very bored with school and feel like going home because it becomes too boring. Recess is the catalyst which promotes children staying attentive in school because it keeps them from hitting the point in which they …show more content…
57). A “connection” to school is very important for students because it motivates them to learn. This special kind of connection enables the student to become excited and proud of their school and what the school does. This helps both the student and the school, as the school can become a more positive environment, especially between teachers and students, when students are emotionally connected to their school and truly believe that it is a “good school”. Without this connection, students may be neutral towards school, dislike or even hate school because it has no meaning to them, and the students do not see the purpose of school. Recess establishes this crucial connection through the nature of exercise and how it affects our minds, releasing chemicals like adrenaline that naturally make us as human beings more alert and attentive and connected to our environment in a physical sense rather than just a mental …show more content…
Many students can find Physical Education to be boring if they do not take interest in the material being presented and have no desire to participate. With recess, the students are free to make up any random kind of game to play as long as it is not in any way negative, inappropriate or condescending towards other students. Physical education also does not always provide a break for students, as Jarrett et al. says, “To make full use of the PE teacher, some classes must have PE during the first period or the last period of the day” (121). This inconsistency supports the idea of recess because each child needs a break from schoolwork, and although Physical Education can provide this break, it is not reliable for all students in the way that recess is. In addition to scheduling problems, Lounsbery et al. explains that “only 17% of U.S. elementary schools provided 150 mins of PE per week” (2). This is saying that only 17% of all schools in the U.S. provided about 30 minutes of Physical Education each day of the week in 2013, which is a miniscule