Recess is important, but how long should it be?

Amarillo educators see eye-to-eye on the idea that recess is vital for young students. They especially agree those times should be unstructured, letting the child decide how to use them.

However, there is disagreement over how much time should be set aside. As a result, recess time varies in local schools.

Interviews with four educators from different districts and institutions showed a range from 15 minutes in Amarillo Independent School District to 30 minutes for every grade level at Highland Park Elementary School.

Texas laws require elementary students to participate in vigorous activity at least 135 minutes per week, which could be gained through physical education classes or a structured activity during recess.

A sample resolution from the Texas Department of State Health Services states recess, as an unstructured play time where children have choices, should not replace PE. The resolution, provided as recommendations for districts to consider, also states recess should not be viewed as a reward, but a necessary educational support component, where aggressive behavior must not be allowed.

The topic has been a perennial source of debate for lawmakers. In the past week, a bill requiring elementary schools to set aside 20 minutes every day for recess passed in the Florida House. And Rhode Island lawmakers have worked up a bill mandating a minimum of 100 minutes of recess per week. That state's Department of Education requires a minimum of 100 minutes per week for PE, but it has no recess requirements.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement on recess in 2013. Two of its conclusions are worth noting: "Recess is a necessary break in the day for optimizing a child's social, emotional, physical and cognitive development," and "Cognitive processing and academic performance depend on regular breaks from concentrated classroom work."

Barbara Morgan Fleming, a professor in the Texas Tech College of Education, said play helps children relax and return to classrooms ready for academic performance. When she taught fifth grade in Tucson, Ariz., she said they had 30-minute breaks in the morning, after lunch and in the afternoon.

Students "would return ready to sit down," she said.

Many things have changed since she was an elementary school teacher about 20 years ago, she said. Recess helped her as a teacher to see her students' relationships and develop strategies for teaching each of them.

"To expect a third-grader to sit quietly all day with just a very short break," she said, pausing to laugh. "It's a surprise to me that people expect that."

Adults aren't capable of sitting for four hours straight in the morning, having a short lunch, and then sitting for four hours in the afternoon, Fleming said. If it were within her power to do so, Fleming said she would implement two 30-minute breaks for students each day, but she said she'd also be OK with two breaks of 10 to 15 minutes per day.

"It's the kind of thing that you have to compromise," she said.

Amarillo ISD

If recess were taken off the schedule, Christina Ritter believes we would produce a very different kind of student. Ritter is the executive director of Amarillo ISD's Palo Duro Cluster.

"I think what we would create are students who are stifled," Ritter said, "who view school as just a place where 'I don't have an opportunity to really re-

energize or refocus myself.' We're going to create a learner who feels boxed and limited."

Each Amarillo ISD campus is allowed to set its own recess policies. Ritter said what she sees around the district is an average of about 15 minutes of recess a day. That time usually comes at the tail end of a student's lunch period.

For her, social engagement possibilities are the best reason for recess.

"That is an opportunity for students to have time to interact and use their social skills," she said.

In that unstructured environment where a student gets to choose and sometimes invent ways to use that time, and then articulate that decision to someone else, Ritter said there are invaluable lessons in critical thinking.

"I think that allows for that free thinking and that free flow of ideas so that when they go back into the classroom, they know there's more than one way to approach a problem," Ritter said.

Ritter said three principals she talked with prior to her Globe-News interview described the lunch-recess period as a time that starts with students eating and talking with their friends, and that ideally continues with more engagement when they head outside to play.

"We're very social creatures, and I think that our kids are even more so," said Ritter.

"If they're going to learn and retain their learning, they need an opportunity to talk to each other."

Canyon ISD

"Learners need a break" is how Justin Richardson sums up recess' value. Richardson is Canyon ISD's executive director for curriculum and instruction.

"When kids are in the middle of grasping new concepts and practicing the work they're learning, it's important for them to have that mental pause," he said. "And I do think when we pick back up, I think it helps us continue learning in a better state."

Canyon ISD also lets each of its schools make decisions about recess. Richardson estimates most campuses are giving students about 30 minutes.

"Sometimes they determine that a short recess in the morning and a short recess in the afternoon are most appropriate," Richardson said. "Others feel there's one larger recess time that would be more appropriate for their campus and their schedule."

One thing principals and teachers must watch out for at recess time is aggressive behavior. Richardson confirmed discipline problems - including issues involving bullying - spike during those periods.

But most days, he said, recess is simply a great way for kids to use their imaginations.

"Play is one of the highest forms of learning that students exhibit," Richardson said.

Highland Park Elementary School

Vanette Barnett, principal at Highland Park Elementary School, said every grade level, pre-K through fifth, gets 30 minutes of recess every day. In an age when schools are cutting recess in favor of tests and test preparation, she said her way is better.

"I kind of see the opposite," Barnett said. "I would love to provide more."

More is where HP might be headed. Barnett is researching the four-recesses-a-day concept fostered by the high-scoring school systems in Finland and adopted by U.S. schools, including Eagle Mountain Elementary in Fort Worth. She said that could mean perhaps a 90-minute period of instruction, followed by a 15- to 20-minute break, repeated four times in a school day. Barnett is curious to see how it might work first with her full-day kindergartners.

"They do not take a nap in our program," she said. "As you can imagine, especially at the beginning of the year, 5-year-olds are very active at that point in time, so they probably need it more."

Although it isn't recess, Barnett said the district might soon start a "Read and Ride" program in which kids pedal stationary bikes while they read - anything, she said, to get them into some physical activity.

"I just think you're going to get a whole lot more out of children if you give them that chance to decompress and have a moment than just continuing through this whole spiral," said Barnett.

Cutting recess, she cautioned, "would be producing a very intense person who's not sure how to socially interact."

St. Mary's Cathedral School

"Coming to school is a job for students, just like going to work is a job for adults," said Linda Aranda, principal at St. Mary's Cathedral School. She thinks recess helps relieve stress and teach some lifelong skills.

At St. Mary's, she said the kids in Montessori preschool get 30 minutes of recess, and everyone else up to fifth grade gets 20. She argues that makes for better learning and benefits "the whole child."

"It gives them time to play, to imagine, to think, to move, to socialize," Aranda said. "If they can't do all of those things, then I think it's going to undermine their cognitive development."

She pointed out recess also shows kids they don't have to be couch potatoes. "There are some who all they do is play on an iPad or sit in front of a TV or do video games, and that's all that they do and they don't go outside anymore. That fresh air is so good for them."

Aranda also noticed "character building" that sometimes happens at recess, as in the case of an older student teaching a younger one how to throw a football.

"I call it, because we're in a Catholic setting, being a good steward," Aranda said, "because they were sharing of their time and their talent with someone else."

While recess can build important relationships between students and the teachers who supervise their activities, Aranda said there are also grown-up lessons for those older kids.

"It's interesting to watch the dynamics as they take on the role of leader and making sure they're safe and they're following the rules."