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Exercise
Matters--For the Body and Mind!
Which
to Prioritize: Exercise or Test Scores?
_______________________________________________________________________
Prianka Waghray, BS, MPH
April 2015
In January 2013, the
American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) cautioned against the loss of physical
activity and recess in children’s school day.1 Furthermore, AAP stated that recess is as
important to a child’s development as math or reading. With obesity as
the major risk factor for two of the top ten leading causes of death (heart
disease and diabetes)2 our society has been shifting towards
increasing physical activity in daily life. Educational systems, on the
other hand, are cutting out recess to make more time for test preparation. Not only is regular exercise necessary to stave off diseases such as diabetes
and heart disease, but it has also been scientifically proven to improve
cognitive skills. So why are we cutting out recess?
Where does Florida
stand? Test scores vs Recess:
Schools around the
nation are removing recess because of liability issues with injuries on the
playground and to make more time to prepare for standardized testing.
Cutting out recess is an especially prominent issue in Florida due to the
recent change in standardized testing with the introduction of Common Core exams in 2015. Student performance on these exams often dictates teachers’ pay and sometimes even
their jobs.3 This incentivizes teachers to spend more
time on preparing the children for exams and they inadvertently take that
extra time from recess.
---"Because so much of the money is tied to the schools'
scores and their grades, everybody's pressured,'' Diana Moore, president of the
Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, told TODAY3 ----
The question is, should
recess be sacrificed for just 20 extra minutes of test practice a day?
Numerous scientific studies have proven that physical exercise throughout
the day is not only necessary from a health standpoint but also improves
cognitive function and increases the child’s ability to focus. By removing
physical exercise from the school day, schools are actually hurting their
students’ chances of performing well on the Common Core exams.
Another concern schools
have with giving recess is the issue of liability. Due to fear of lawsuits, schools
are shying away from offering recess instead of hiring more help for
supervision on the playground. Although liability is a valid concern,
shouldn’t the overall well-being of the students come first?
Benefits of recess
Recess as a daily
routine for students allows them to develop social, emotional, physical and
cognitive skills that are crucial for success in school and in society at
large.4 Removing recess deprives children from
experiencing a very important
learning opportunity. Leading psychologists and exercise scientists
have found that children experience the following benefits from daily recess:
- Builds confidence in children
- Builds socialization skills
- Improves focus and attention in
school
- Improves strength, endurance,
helps build healthy bones and muscles and helps control weight
- Reduces anxiety and stress
- Increases self-esteem
- Promotes psychological
well-being
Scientific institutions
such as the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP), the Institute of Medicine
(IOM), the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Harvard
University, among other institutions, have published numerous reports stating
that students need at least one hour of physical activity during the school
day and have encouraged schools to make P.E. a core subject.5
According to CDC,
regular exercise allows more efficient delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the
brain and releases endorphins
making children feel happier. Research supports that physical activity
improves children’s attentiveness and decreases restlessness.6 In the past few decades more and more students have been
diagnosed with ADD and other attention disorders. These disorders may
actually be caused by lack of exercise, in which case we are unnecessarily
medicating our children. With the advent of video games, television,
computer games, ipads and other technology children have been spending less and
less time playing outside. Families face a difficult challenge encouraging sedentary children to get active and
fitting exercise into already over-loaded evening routines. School should be
part of the solution, not part of the problem. Schools should not remove
what is potentially a child’s only
opportunity in the day to play outside by eliminating recess.
In Harvard University professor John Ratey’s 2009 book Spark he
highlights the numerous benefits of recess from a neuroscience perspective.7 According to Ratey, exercise is highly correlated with
neurogenesis (the production of new brain cells) and neurogenesis is correlated with improved learning and
memory.7 In other words, exercising at a young age is
vital to increasing a child’s ability to learn and remember critical skills.
Additionally, other scientists such as Ratey have discovered that play is
an active form of learning, and the learning that is achieved on the playground
is simply not possible in a structured classroom.
Is there a solution?
Given that recess is
vital to a child’s development, what can we do about it? The first place
a parent can start is by looking for a school that prioritizes physical
education and unstructured recess during school time. Wellington
Collegiate Academy, an up-and-coming
private school in Wellington, Florida, has made daily physical
activity or daily physical exercise one of their founding principles.
WCA is an affordable, independent middle school that is bringing recess
back in grades 6-8. (for more information about WCA please visit www.gowca.org)
Parents and educators need to take a firm stand on
the issue of recess. We know it benefits our children’s health, improves
emotional well-being, increases ability to focus, and boosts test scores. Let’s
take a stand and bring recess back into our kids’ daily routine at school.
References:
1. American Academy
of Pediatrics. 2013 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full
2. http://www.today.com/health/should-elementary-schools-have-recess-some-florida-parents-fight-break-1D80423842
3. Center for Disease Control. 2015 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
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