As part of the research my colleague Dr. Dale B. Fink and I are doing, we surveyed and interviewed teachers about their perspectives on recess. 100% of the teachers indicated at least one benefit of recess, but many still take it away. Nearly all of these teachers wish they had other ways to motivate their students, as they clearly do not question the intrinsic value of recess time. Teachers expressed a need for support in developing alternatives to withholding recess. 

It is imperative for schools (and teacher education programs) to address this: to include recess as an integral part of a child’s learning, and to provide teachers with the time, the support and the skills to ensure recess time is a non-negotiable part of the day—right up there with reading and math. Read more in our article “Ready for Recess” published in American Educator.

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Dr. Cathy Ramstetter is the founder of Successful Healthy Children. Cathy is a Health Educator with experience in school health leadership, community-level health promotion, service learning and teaching. Cathy’s work focuses on community-engaged and school-based collaboration for communities to promote health-sustaining environments and to foster children’s healthy growth and development—intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically. She led Participatory Action Research with a local elementary school to promote health through the Coordinated School Health model and facilitated work with 12 municipal-community teams in local communities for the CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant. She co-authored the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy on Recess in collaboration with pediatricians in Ohio. DrR@SuccessfulHealthyChildren.org

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