Following are a few reasons why school administrators should carefully consider the benefits of outdoor play before eliminating recess from their curriculum. Play is an active form of learning that unites the mind, body, and spirit. Until at least the age of nine, children's learning occurs best when the whole self is involved. Play reduces the tension that often comes with having to achieve or needing to learn. In play, adults do not interfere and children relax.
Children express and work out emotional aspects of everyday experiences through unstructured play.
The development of children's perceptual abilities may suffer when so much of their experience is through television, computers, books, work-sheets, and media that require only two senses. The senses of smell, touch, and taste, and the sense of motion through space are powerful modes of learning. Children who are less restricted in their access to the outdoors gain competence in moving through the larger world. Our society has become increasingly complex, but there remains a need for every child to feel the sun and wind on his cheek and engage in self-paced play. Ignoring the developmental functions of unstructured outdoor play denies children the opportunity to expand their imaginations beyond the constraints of the classroom.