Schools Cutting Recess and P.E. Time: A Terrible Trend in Many Ways
By Ken Reed
A suburban Denver school district has decided that the best way to increase the academic performance of its students is to cut recess time.
The research says the school district couldn’t be more wrong.
According to an article by Ann Schimke posted on chalkbeat.org, elementary children in Adams 14 school district get about 15 minutes of recess time a day, but as little as seven minutes on some days, according to teachers.
Cutting recess time — along with the equally troubling national trend of cutting the number of physical education classes students are required to take — is a completely misguided and inappropriate strategy for increasing academic performance. In fact, based on a growing mound of research, it’s the exact opposite of what needs to be done to not only boost academic performance, but also decrease health and behavioral problems.
“I honestly think it’s going to bring (test) scores down,” says Hanson Elementary teacher Jodi Connelly. “To tell them you’re going to have to sit in a chair all day long … and have things put in your head …. That’s not how they’re wired.”
No, it’s not how kids are wired. And it’s not what their bodies or brains need.
Over 75 percent of American children are not even active for 20 minutes a day! The country is in the midst of a childhood obesity crisis. We need to get our children moving more to improve their short and long-term health.
But let’s put the positive health benefits of getting kids more active to the side for a minute. The fact is, cardiovascular exercise also positively impacts the brain and academic performance. Kids would be much better served going for a vigorous 20-minute walk before a test than studying for an extra 20 minutes.
“Exercise is like Miracle-Gro for the brain,” says Dr. John Ratey, author of SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. “It grows brain cells.”
The “Father of Aerobics,” Dr. Kenneth Cooper, founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, Texas, concurs with Ratey.
“Students at schools with daily fitness-oriented physical education programs are reaping benefits of being physically fit: 1) improved health; 2) higher academic performance; and 3) fewer behavioral problems. There’s more good news. Exercise has also been shown to improve attention span and focus, lower anxiety and depression levels, and raise self-esteem.”
Educators and school board members in Colorado’s Adams 14 school district who pushed for, and implemented, this irresponsible plan are committing educational malpractice. They, and any other like-minded school districts, need to be stopped.
The clear solution to academic, behavioral and health challenges is more recess and P.E. time, not less.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman, and has a long involvement with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport (now called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition). We discuss the state of college athletics today, given the pressures of NIL, the transfer portal, sports gambling and huge media contracts. McMillen then provides great perspective on the poor state of physical fitness our young people are experiencing today.
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Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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