The Connection between Recess......and our Military Recruitment

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy;
All play and no work make Jack a mere toy.
--Maria Edgeworth

It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of
study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into
courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.
--Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University
 
Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

--Kay Redfield Jamison, Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.

--O. Fred Donaldson, Contemporary American martial arts master

If animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices and so perfects the skills needed in adult life.

--Susanna Miller

I saw a segment of Good Morning America which focused on the decrease in the amount of recess in some schools, in an effort to deal with the pressures of producing better test results on mandatory standardized tests, and as a result of budget constraints.  Although somewhat counter intuitive, it turns out that recess actually helps learning rather thank taking time away from it, as well as helping battle the problem of childhood obesity.  The numerous studies in support of recess were impressive.

This intrigued me after having heard a segment on NPR ten days ago, on a Sunday about the national security issue that we have too few potential military recruits who have sufficient education, or who are in adequate physical condition.

Nearly one of every four high school graduates can't pass the basic military entrance exam, a new report shows.
Combine that with high obesity rates and a rise in criminal records, and the pool of potential military recruits is getting very shallow.

Every branch of the military is still reaching its recruitment goals, but the Pentagon's recruiting chief says he's worried. And a group of former military leaders is calling for significant changes in the educational system, calling the ineligibility rates a matter of national security.  

Not Academically Ready To Serve
The military's Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery exam — known as ASVAB — is the world's most frequently used aptitude test. It includes 99 questions each potential recruit must answer. One sample: "If three plus X equals six, what is the value of X?"
The minimum passing score is 31. According to the new report by the nonprofit Education Trust, called "Shut Out of the Military," almost 25 percent of potential recruits can't reach that level.

The benefits of kids enjoying a healthy daily dose of recess is that they have better academic focus and concentration; they have better cooperation and social relationships with their peers, and markedly fewer disciplinary problems; and they are physically healthier for having had the exercise.  This would seem to track well as a response to the three-part problems of the military recruiting population - better education, better physical condition, and hopefully with better social skills, fewer people needing a waiver for criminal acts.

Recess benefits are maximized with safe, well supervised play areas.  An organization which has a lengthy success in creating exactly that kind of supervision is the non-profit, Playworks.  After seeing Playworks profiled on GMA this morning, I was pleased to see that we here in Minnesota are trying this in five St. Paul, Minnesota Schools. 

One of the qualities that has been described as a result of quality recess time under this program has been engagement.  I believe that actively engaging students is an essential part of those students doing well, in keeping them in school rather than having them drop out, and hopefully will be reflected in improved rates of graduation as well, (the opposite of schools as baby-sitting warehouses).

I always enjoyed school, and I tended to engage very actively with my teachers, continuing my relationship with many of them even after I had moved on from their classes, staying in touch with some of them.  When some of my favorite teachers, teachers who I had considered gifted and dedicated educators, chose to retire early, I had to ask them why.  The reason they gave me, all of them, was that they were no longer getting the responses they sought, the quality of engagement from their students.  Students sat there passively, as if what the teacher was doing was nothing more than something they were watching on television.  So, I can only hope that by the appropriate grades revisiting quality recess, this will produce not only more successful students, but hopefully more satisfied and involved teachers to teach them.  Teachers who can focus on their subjects, rather than on problem behaviors, producing a higher quality education.

If this works, as presented, it should be a triple-win solution.  I can certainly speak to the last quotation at the beginning of this post, about animals and play.  When I train animals, especially for example puppy training classes for dogs up to a 18 months old, beginning with 'recess' where they all play together, with another adult dog that I have trained who makes a good 'play ground monitor', they have the energy edge and curiosity blunted, and they are just tired enough after about 10 minutes or so, to train much more effectively.  The dogs have more fun, coming into class eagerly, and their humans do too.  As important as anything I teach, my canine partners who I laughingly refer to as the "playground enforcer" provides the dog-to-dog socialization teaching that most dogs don't otherwise get from their dam and littermates or a social pack of dogs.

So it makes perfect sense to me that children would enjoy similar results - and their parents and teachers too.  But that means we have to find the money to pay for recess as part of a good, healthy education.  While I don't feel too optimistic that the political right, anxious to do away with the Department of Education, is likely to appreciate the value of recess, perhaps if it is presented to them as an aspect of national security, they might support it.