In Defense of Recess: Why Chicago Public School Children Have a Right to Play

“They must not be hinder’d from being children, or from playing, or doing as children.” -John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693

In my research on the history of recess in Chicago Public Schools, I have become a proponent of recess as a right, not just a privilege, for every student, irrespective of age, race, or income. It is my personal belief that to withhold such a right is cruel and neglectful treatment of the young people that schools are intended to serve. Not only do we withhold benefits to the students’ physical health by shortening or eliminating recess, we do all of society a disservice. By removing recess we implicitly teach that students' social interactions with each other are not valued. We are saying that we don’t trust them to act independent of only the most direct and constant supervision they receive in school. We certainly don’t trust them to problem solve on their own. In fact, if disagreements arise on the playground we mistakenly take that as a sure sign that children can’t handle recess, rather than the possibility that these young individuals are experimenting in the lifelong art of interpersonal relationships.