Published in the Richmond Times Dispatch Op-ed August 22, 2021

As kids go back to school, educators are concerned about academic learning losses that may have occurred during virtual school. The first reaction might be to power through as much curriculum content as possible to bridge any gaps. But is that the right answer? I would argue emphatically, no.

The brain is like a sponge. Once it is full, it cannot continue to absorb until it has been wrung out. As adults, we instinctively take breaks by grabbing a coffee or looking at social media, giving the brain time to wring itself out.

Play is the way kids wring out their brains, resetting and relaxing their focus so their brains are more alert when they return to their desk. Student play was already on the decline before the pandemic, with many administrators reducing PE and recess to find more time for academics. But more time in physical play – both structured and unstructured –  leads to big gains in the classroom.

Consider what structured play can do for classroom success. In 2009, the PE teacher at Orchard Grove Elementary School in Frederick, Maryland started a running club to address an increase in verbal and physical fights on the playground. Quickly, 99% of the kids joined, along with many teachers and even the principal. Unsurprisingly, there was an improvement in the children’s fitness levels. But that was only the beginning. After implementation of the running club, there was a 10 percentage point improvement in math and reading pass rates, even though the academic curriculum didn’t change. And, the principal went from addressing recess behavior issues from an average of 7 children a day, to only 3 a week.

In Texas, the principal at Eagle Mountain Elementary School in Fort Worth decided a few years ago to triple recess each day, going from 20 minutes of unstructured play to 1 hour a day. Teachers were concerned that less time in the classroom would put the children behind. But once they saw the effects of the expanded play time, teachers quickly warmed to the change. In the first month of school, they noticed less fidgeting among the children, less tattling, and more eye contact with adults. And by Winter Break, every single class at Eagle Mountain was ahead of their academic schedule, not behind.

So what was happening to these lucky students in Maryland and Texas? They were moving, which is just what their developing bodies and brains needed. The increased physical activity helped them develop an understanding of force, where their bodies are in the world, and what their appendages are doing. They built core, upper body, and grip strength by climbing, swinging and jumping. They developed rhythm, timing, sequencing, and patterning by skipping, cartwheeling and throwing. By spinning and hanging upside down, their eyes learned to track and focus, while their brains learned to manage incoming sensory information. Ultimately all this structured and unstructured play built the essential skills and strengths they needed to be able to sit comfortably in a chair, track words on a page, hold a pencil, understand the patterns in math and reading, and filter extraneous information. Because they did all that physical work outside, they didn’t need to fidget and wiggle when they got back to the classroom. Instead, they were ready to listen and learn.

Prior to the pandemic shutdown, veteran teachers were already reporting a rise in the number of children who struggled to sit still and stay on task. These skills are elementary school basics and without them, learning is much harder. After a year of being away from school, with limited play time with friends, we should be concerned that these physical skills are where learning loss has taken place. If we don’t address these losses, then any academic losses will be much more challenging to remediate. Sitting even more and moving even less is going to make everyone’s day more frustrating and less productive. Instead, we must expand physical play to help kids build strengths and skills needed for classroom success and ultimately, lifetime success. Put more physical play into the school day and the return on that investment will be stronger, more capable, happier students who are ready to learn.