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Child advocates have worried in recent years that recess has been disappearing from public school calendars as schools focus more heavily on academics--primarily math and reading.  Is this concern warranted?  According to the National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education, the answer is yes and no.

In its recent analysis of research on the fate of recess, the Center reaches the following conclusion:  "To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of recess's death seem to have been grossly exaggerated....  Even so, the pressure on schools to find more instructional time is real, and it seems to be leading many districts to shave minutes from the recess time they provide. In addition, children who attend high-poverty, high-minority, or urban schools are far more likely than their peers in other locations to get no recess at all-a definite 'recess gap' that commands our attention."

The report includes an interesting sidebar deflating some of the more alarming statistics about the demise of recess.  As in a game of telephone, some rather mild findings about the status of recess have grown to monstrous dimensions as they have been passed from report to report.

Still, the report's conclusions that time for recess is growing shorter--especially in schools serving disadvantaged students--deserve attention.  Coupled with swelling childhood obesity rates, the evidence that learners need a break from time to time should be enough to make us vigilant.

Photo courtesy of http://library.thinkquest.org/J002606/Recess.html