PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Portland Public Schools students in kindergarten through fifth grade will have a minimum of 30 minutes of recess after a unanimous board resolution passed Tuesday, April 12.
The resolution mandates a 15-minute recess in addition to the 15 minutes expected during a lunch break outside of the time needed to consume food.
The resolution had support from the Portland Association of Teachers union, whose vice president said the breaks are vital to child wellbeing, as well as teacher workloads.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from educators that they are concerned about lack of recess,” Suzanne Cohen said, claiming that ratios of structured time to free play has changed dramatically and unequally across the district recently.
PAT President Gwen Sullivan said union members from a handful of predominantly high-poverty and racially diverse schools began complaining about three years ago that their kids didn’t have any recess due to the pressure of more instructional time.
“To be able to teach, we need to be able to give kids a break,” Sullivan said, adding that researchers have proven that people need time to process what they’ve learned or time to gain a new perspective. “They actually say that you are more productive if you take a break for lunch instead (of eating at your desk.) In order to see things a different way, you need to get away from it.”
The Oregon Department of Education does not require districts to have a certain amount of recess.
“There are no state rules requiring breaks, but there are rules that set the minimum … and maximum hours per day,” said ODE Interim Communications Director Amy Wojcicki. “After those requirements, school districts may design their school days however they like.”
The state says kindergarten to eighth graders can have up to eight hours of instructional time per day with a minimum of 900 hours per school year.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Oregon schools have an average of 6.57 hours of learning time per day and 172 school days per year.
Kids’ way
The resolution was proposed by the board’s Committee on Teaching and Learning, which includes board member Julie Esparza Brown. Brown, a professor at Portland State University’s Graduate School of Education, said recess is an important time for children to learn independence and interpersonal skills.
“It’s important that we don’t overthink it by structuring it too much in our adult way,” she said.
PPS parent Stephanie Gabriel said she believes recess is important to students’ physical, emotional and cognitive development. She says her 9-year-old son gets recess every day, but it can get taken away for undesirable behavior.
“I do not believe recess should be used as a carrot or a stick for elementary students,” Gabriel said.
She said that she would even like to see a total of one hour of recess during the day, with a lot of it as unstructured time in the fresh air.
Free teacher time amendment fails
The board added an amendment to the original proposal to define recess as possibly including structured play like Playworks, a Portland-area nonprofit that teaches safe, healthy play during recess.
Board member Steve Buel, who is a retired teacher, said the failed amendment would have signaled to teachers that they are being treated as “professionals” who have the freedom to decide for themselves what the time is best used for.
But other board members felt like that would be adding another mandate to schools instead of trusting them to implement the board’s desire for more recess appropriately.
“I think we can anticipate that everybody will have the best interest in doing what’s best for their community,” Brown said.
“That would be nice,” Buel replied.
“It’s a place to start,” she said.