It’s a sweltering August day at Copperview Elementary, and the fourth-grade students are a whirlwind of energy. They’re kicking balls, scaling ropes, and twirling on the playground. The school year is only a week in, and the kids are a flurry of motion, some engrossed in soccer while others create their own imaginative games. Even the recess monitors join in the fun, occasionally challenging the kids and sometimes offering gentle guidance.
At this elementary school playground in Midvale, Utah, disagreements, such as whether a ball went out of play, are resolved using “rock, paper, scissors.” Furthermore, no child is ever chosen last for teams. Instead, as the kids go outside, a staff member randomly assigns each one to either the blue or yellow team by pulling colored popsicle sticks from a container.
“When teams are evenly matched, everyone enjoys themselves more,” stated Meredith Dolny, who specializes in physical education and health within the Canyons School District.
Teri Davis, a physical education expert at the Utah State Board of Education, informed the Deseret News via email that recess is more than simply a good time.
She stated that exercise is essential to students’ mental, physical, and social health. Activities like recess and physical education contribute to a healthy equilibrium in these domains. Cutting back on or getting rid of these activities not only hurts students’ health and overall well-being, but it also has a detrimental impact on their learning and understanding.
What appears to be a fun extra is actually a crucial learning resource – one that is strongly defended at Copperview by Dolny, along with principal Daniel Ashbridge and assistant principal Raschell Davis, who are observing the children playing from the edge of the field. They understand that the total of 45 minutes each day that the kids spend wiggling, laughing, interacting, moving, pushing their physical limits, and using up energy will improve their concentration and learning abilities when they return to the classroom. Dolny stated that they are developing self-assurance, essential skills, and positive routines that will benefit them throughout their lives.
However, not all people recognize the importance of exercise at school. Because lawmakers, teachers, and other stakeholders are working to improve student performance in subjects like math, science, and English, many schools and districts across the country have been gradually reducing physical education for years, sacrificing time for “more academic subjects.”
David Barney, a Brigham Young University associate professor in the Teacher Education Department specializing in physical education, described it as the neglected and mistreated area that’s often cut. However, he argues that what some consider mere recreation is essential for both physical well-being and academic development.
Kids Need RecessStudies indicate that over the past twenty years, “the typical amount of weekly recess in American schools has decreased by an hour,” even though studies demonstrate its numerous advantages for pupils.
It’s worth asking whether the renewed emphasis on the Presidential Fitness Test will bring physical activity and its significance back into the spotlight in schools, especially now that academics have largely overshadowed it. The experts interviewed by Deseret News unanimously expressed their hope that it will.
The Presidential Fitness Test
President Donald Trump signed an executive orderBringing back the Presidential Fitness Test, initially created under President Eisenhower and modified over time, after the Obama administration discontinued it in favor of a broader health-focused approach.
Trump’s directive also brings back the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, and he has chosen athletes to be members.
What the fitness test itself will contain isn’t known yet, but traditionally students have done a one-mile run, push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups, among other exercises. Those who meet or exceed the 85th percentile on the test will earn a Presidential Fitness Award.
Andrea McMurtry, Ball State University undergrad coordinator of physical education and health, said she’s “excited that President Trump and Secretary (Robert F.) Kennedy (Jr.) are at least using this as a platform to recognize children are not getting enough fitness throughout the day. The only way to ensure they get critical parts of their lives is if we include them in school.”
Research links physical activity to improving memory, attention span and focus, as well as counteracting mental health challenges like anxiety and depression, she said.
McMurtry sees fitness and education as working together, rather than competing for resources. But she does hope that only honoring those at 85% level and above nationally will not discourage children from trying. In theory it should be motivating, she added.
There are also concerns that physical education will become a teach-to-the-test process where efforts focus exclusively on what will be measured to get the award.
Baltazar Villanueva of Broomfield, Colorado, hopes the fitness test will be less test and more an opportunity to develop skills and love for exercise and healthy living. He’s a personal trainer certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine and has spent years teaching children martial arts.
He mentioned observing kids develop abilities and self-assurance that extend beyond the specific activities. Additionally, as a father, he notices his 10-year-old daughter’s limited physical activity during school, a stark contrast to his own daily recess experiences. He’s pleased that the president’s announcement could improve this situation.
But he thinks the effort could fall short. “A test doesn’t make kids healthy — opportunities and practice do. Think of academics: Students take math, language arts or science daily, which gives them consistent practice. Gym is often rotated with music, art or other electives, meaning some kids may only get 30–60 minutes of structured physical activity twice a week. That’s not enough to build real fitness.”
He, too, worries that some will get discouraged by the 85% mark and feel destined to fail. “That could send the message that exercise is not for them, the opposite of what we want.”
Physical education a key to learning
John Gallucci, owner of JAG Physical Therapy in New York and New Jersey, sees it differently. A national push for fitness can’t help but be beneficial, he said.
The physical therapist works with children as young as 3 who are overweight and have stiff joints and musculoskeletal problems due to inactivity. He sees people of all ages who are sedentary and suffering consequences like type 2 diabetes and obesity. He believes the “decline in physical education programs in schools has been contributing to the sedentary lifestyle of children,” which carries into adulthood. ”I think bringing back the President’s Council and implementing programs and targets for children to exercise is amazing.”
He remembers — and laments loss of — when physical education was 45 minutes to an hour in every school day. “The most frustrating thing is children just are not taught the appropriate way to help themselves, and most people don’t realize that fitness, endurance, stretching and strengthening are the most important things, especially in ages 3 to 5 and 6 to 12. Plus it tells the child movement and exercise are important in our lives every day, and it’ll combat some of these childhood diseases that we’re seeing at an early age.”
If the Presidential Fitness Test isn’t well-thought out, though, McMurtry said it will be like a spelling bee. “Those really good at it will want to practice and then show off their skills, as they should. But if you see the goal as unachievable, you’re not going to try.”
She said she’d rather see kids work not toward an elite level, but toward a “healthy zone.” Everyone who can reach a healthy zone should be recognized. “I want them to love being healthy and want to exercise,” she said.
Time for recess
Deborah J. Rhea, professor of kinesiology and director of the LiiNK Center at Texas Christian University, answers whether the fitness test will bolster fitness efforts at school with “it depends. The reason I say that is too many people think as long as we put them in a structured setting around physical education, their fitness will go up, that everything will be better. But without the recess piece, physical education will not be better.”
Recess and free play provide opportunities for kinesthetic movement that helps lubricate limbs, prevents injury and strengthens brain-body connection, she said. “When they don’t have that, their gross and fine motor skills do not develop properly.”
Rhea said child-directed play for those reasons should come before PE, which itself is a positive result of their ability to play and run and do all those different jumping, dodging, climbing kinds of activities outside. If PE comes first, without a recess free-play component alongside it, musculoskeletal issues arise, weakening one side of the body or the other depending on the sport, which often focus on swinging or throwing with one arm or the other, she said. ”We lose the ability to use both sides of our body. That motor competency, that ability to develop the muscular strength that’s key to kids and recess” can be lost.
Kids need to climb trees and chase butterflies and dig in the dirt and chase something around and move in different ways, she said. Once in school, they need both PE and recess. That those have gone away at all is bad news for the U.S. She cites data showing Finland, which maintains time for a lot of physical activity for kids in school, soars on academic tests.
Creating opportunities for well-being
The Navajo Nation spans 27,000 square miles, and many of its young residents live in remote areas, without the opportunity to participate in traditional sports like basketball and football. For years, Amy Denet Deal and volunteers have tried to boost physical activity and other aspects of well-being through her nonprofit, 4KINSHIP. They chose a distinctly unique path: skateboards.
With help from donations, grants, the Tony Hawk’s Skatepark Project and singer Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation, Denet Deal’s group teamed with the Two Grey Hills community to build the Navajo Nation’s only skatepark; she said it won’t be the last.
The group has distributed 5,000 skateboards so far to youths and plans to deliver 2,000 more next week in Window Rock, Arizona. Under the banner of Indigenous Futures 4Ever, the nonprofit is planning major upgrades to the Diné Skate Garden in Two Grey Hills, said Denet Deal, a self-described Diné matriarch.
“Skateboarding is transformative,” she said. “They can do it anytime. With friends. By themselves. It’s awesome for physical health and mental health. It’s expressive. I get told ‘skateboarding saved my life.’”
Denet Deal said physical activity is a way to address diabetes, a high suicide rate and addiction issues. It’s about balance. “You fall down and get back up. It’s a life lesson for all of us.”
Healthy body, healthy mind
Copperview administrators Ashbridge and Davis agree that discipline problems and bad behavior decrease when students have periods of physical activity. Meanwhile, test scores are on the rise. Small bodies in motion enhance mental and physical health.
Zack Barnes, associate professor of special education and literacy at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, ties lack of physical activity in schools to “negative outcomes on student self-regulation and executive function. These are key cognitive functions that develop during early childhood that are critical for academics and behavior.”
He said research shows “keeping kids moving around the classroom during the day may also increase executive function skills. Physical activity and recess with unstructured play is a necessity in schools so that children can develop into well-rounded children.”
He added, “I am really concerned, both as a parent and researcher, on the lack of self-regulation development in our students. Physical activity is one way to help.”
While the assumption that children can play after school or participate in sports and be active at home may drive some of the chiseling away at physical activities in schools, Dolny knows from interactions with families that not all children have access to safe and accessible physical activity at home. “It becomes another socioeconomic divide if it’s not provided in school,” she said.
McMurtry finds it discouraging that schools view PE as a nice, but not needed add-on. She said some schools allow waivers and online PE credits. Recess has often been cut to 15 minutes or less daily.
She refutes the notion that PE is too expensive. Schools could do a lot. They could take advantage of community partnerships. They could start the school day with a 15-minute walk.
Teaching how matters, McMurtry said, noting many children during COVID didn’t learn how to play outside.
Her doctorate research was on the impact childhood PE experiences have on the adults they become. “People who have terrible memories of experiences in PE go on to hate exercise as an adult because it was forced on them or they felt shamed or embarrassed,” she said.
Withholding recess as punishment
Which brings up one last point when it comes to teaching kids both fitness and love for it.
Not one of these experts thinks recess should be withheld as a punishment, any more than a teacher would hold a kid back from math. “Don’t do that, please,” BYU’s Barney said.
Recess helps solve the very issues that create the urge to withhold recess, Ashbridge said.
It’s such a bad idea that some states have rules about it. New Jersey, for instance, mandates daily recess and requires that “recess cannot be withheld except for serious conduct violations, such as those involving harassment or bullying, and no student may be denied recess more than twice a week. If recess is withheld, students must instead participate in restorative justice activities aimed at improving social and emotional skills,” per The Boys Initiative.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also says no to using recess as punishment.
While the rules and duration vary, Kids Need Recess reported a recess mandate in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut , District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
Many other states, including Utah, Mississippi and Colorado, recommend recess or require general physical activity. But they stop short of mandates. Utah’s Board of Education has best-practice guidelines for recess, including advice to avoid using physical activity as a punishment.
