LESSON 3:
Physical activity supports student health and helps students focus on learning.

Physical activity supports student health and helps students focus on learning.

Parents’ rally for healthy schools, May 2006

Luis Soria faced some tough questions at the Local School Council candidates forum when he was interviewing for the position of principal at Chicago’s Mitchell School, but one of the toughest came from 8th-grader Abraham Villarreal, who was attending the meeting with his mother.

“If you’re our principal, how are you going to bring back recess?” Villareal asked.

Recess matters for health and development. Soria pledged that he would indeed find a way to bring recess back to the school, and laid out the specifics of his plan for doing so. Fortunately for Villareal and his classmates, Soria got the job and has since made good on his promise of reinstating recess—no easy task in an age when pressures to increase the minutes students spend on academics have pushed many schools to eliminate opportunities for free play. But the benefits of extra physical activity, Soria said, have been remarkable.

“The kids feel more energized and the incentive created by recess has led to improved behavior among the students,” he said. “I think the element of unstructured play is really important to child development. It gives kids a chance to gain experience in collaborating and compromising, which are necessary later in life in college and careers.”

Numerous studies demonstrate that breaks during the school day improve focus and the brain’s ability to encode information, the basis of building knowledge.

Blaine School, November 2006

Recess also gives children the opportunities for social-emotional development that are rarely available in classroom work. At recess, students can explore their own interests, and the less rigid setting enables children to collaborate and resolve conflicts on their own instead of following instructions as a teacher works out the problems. Something as simple as organizing their own game of tag and taking turns being “it” helps children develop the social skills that they will use for the rest of their life. The open structure also allows a chance for children to use their imagination or spend a moment reflecting quietly, a basis for the development of creativity and identity.

Physical activity boosts learning. Just as Soria and his colleagues around the city are recognizing the benefits of reinstating recess, education leaders are striving to integrate physical activity into classroom activities, fighting to provide physical education on a regular basis and finding other innovative ways to get kids moving. Research continues to accumulate documenting the connection between physical activity and learning.

Susan Kurland, recently retired principal of Chicago’s Nettlehorst School, explains that the wellness initiatives she put in place—including recess and increased physical activity in the classroom—led to tangible academic results. The efforts, she said, contributed to “drastically raised test scores including an award for five year gains as well as improved student and teacher attendance.”

One of the most important lessons learned in Chicago education in recent years is one of the most simple: children need to move. Physical activity helps students achieve academically and develop emotionally, just as it helps them live healthy lives free of obesity-related illnesses.

Policy implications to support physical activity

Wellness and physical activity are powerful contributors to children’s academic achievement and social development, and they offer promise in halting the alarming increases in childhood obesity and related illnesses that today’s children face at epidemic levels.

Support the FIT Kids Act. For these reasons, Healthy Schools Campaign encourages legislators to support the FIT Kids act, which will promote quality physical education and physical activity for school children by:

Holding schools accountable for offering regular physical education so that schools are able to make physical activity and education a priority.

Providing information to parents and the community about students’ access to physical education and activity at school, including the amount of time available for physical education, the amount of space available for activity and the percentage of teachers who are licensed or certified.

Ensuring that children get the support they need to make healthy choices by providing nutrition education and structured physical activity in communities as well as schools.

Supporting professional development for educators to promote children’s healthy lifestyles and physical activity so the educators can provide up-to-date information in a way that boosts students’ ability to learn.

Funding research on effective ways to combat childhood obesity and encourage healthy living for all children.