#17: Recess is a show about six brave 4th graders who take on the social dynamics of the playground. Stef and Ariel discuss this beloved 90’s animated series, and how studies find that recess is an important part of a child’s social-emotional learning.

Resources for this episode:
1. Verywell Mind: Quality Recess Gives a Boost to Children’s Mental Health, Study Says
2. Journal of School Health: Recess Quality and Social and Behavioral Health in Elementary School Students
3. Photos of School Lunches From Around the World Will Make American Kids Want to Study Abroad

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Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the happiest pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stef, and we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that. Ariel here is a licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Ariel Landrum 0:24
And the lovely Stef is an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Stefanie Bautista 0:32
And here at Happiest Pod. It’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why do we do that? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. And so today, what Disney the media or experience are we dissecting and sharing on this episode?

Ariel Landrum 0:49
I think this is one that you are highly familiar with as an educator.

Stefanie Bautista 0:53
Yep. Yes, it totally is. And I’m really, really excited to talk about this. And we are talking today about recess.

Ariel Landrum 1:03
Recess!

Stefanie Bautista 1:05
And I’m sure all of you are like listening to that theme song from Recess in your head, because I loved it so much. I wish we could have it here on the podcast, but we probably need to license that. And there’s the gardener in my house. Low and behold gardeners are not part of recess, but we’re going to be talking about Recess the show, and also recess as it plays into how it works in our kids lives, lives of kids who we know if you don’t have any, and also the impact that it has in our lives growing up.

Ariel Landrum 1:39
Absolutely. So recently, I got to respond to some research in an article that talked about the importance of recess for students and their mental wellness. And some of the things that they identified was that recess offers an opportunity to support just the healthy development of children. So that they became come well, whole humans and entire experience of themselves. And that the biggest factor was quality recess; factors such as a safe play environment, sufficient play equipment, and even supportive adult engagement, along with student autonomy and minimal disruptive conflict. Would you agree with some of these findings?

Stefanie Bautista 2:24
Absolutely. I think recess as it has evolved over time, I know that us playing recess in the early 90’s looked a lot different than how recess is conducted today while I’m working at a school. But I remember recess being the time that you are your whole self. In the classroom, you’re in front of an adult, there’s expectations, academic expectations, mannerisms, that you kind of get used to as you’re going into school. But when you’re on the yard, you are really who you are outside, just without your family. And this is where interactions with your peers, interactions with different ages of kids, interactions with other adults who aren’t your teacher, those connections and those opportunities only happen on the recess play yard. And that’s why I think A. I love the show Recess, because it was such a fun way to describe that, obviously in a way more fantastical setting. I did not have a king Bob at my recess yard. But the sixth graders were hecka scary.

Ariel Landrum 3:24
They were.

Stefanie Bautista 3:24
Like I did not want to interact with them at all. But absolutely, recess is so integral in, you know, a child’s development socially. And I think this past year, having not had recess really had an impact. But I know we’ll talk a little bit about that later. I know for my school in particular, we do more of a structured recess where we have TAs leading different games, only because we do have limited space on my campus. But at the same time we realize that kids loved structured play. Recess doesn’t have to be a free for all, maybe in kindergarten, as we saw that there, you know, little unruly human beings in the beginning, not really knowing how to socialize yet. But definitely, as you see in the older upper grades, third, fourth and fifth grades, they’re longing for that structure, and they want to use those structured structures to learn more about play and evolve the way they play.

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Absolutely, absolutely. And research that was published in the Journal of School Health, titled Recess Quality and Social and Behavioral Health in Elementary School Students. And the article that featured my comments was in VerywellMind.com, and the title of the article is Quality Recess Gives a Boost to Children’s Mental Health Study Says. I’ll be sure to link both in the show notes. I agreed with some of the findings in regards to and and again, I think this might be something that you can talk to you because I believe this is maybe similar to your educational environment. But something new that when I came out here had not experienced; in the show Recess, they have a fixed building. And they have a fixed play yard. And there are a lot of schools here that the buildings are not fixed they’re not permanent fixtures.

Stefanie Bautista 5:11
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 5:11
Play yard is just asphalt there aren’t there is an equipment, there isn’t toys, there’s maybe just a chain Link fence that separates them from just the street. And it that disparity and access to just play is really disruptive to just the the mental wellness of youth and causes disengagement from adults. Though they’re finding that I definitely agreed with was when the anyone supervising the yard actually wanted to play with the youth and was very attentive, versus, you know, now, maybe on their phone when they shouldn’t be or talking to the other adults and not really paying attention, that that attentiveness created positive memories for for youth in regards to engaging with adults. That play is something important; its the way that they communicate and that it was a thing that was encouraged.

Stefanie Bautista 6:01
Absolutely, I think that there’s two really important things that you touched upon. The first part is that growing up here in the San Fernando Valley, and also other parts in LA, you have really old schools, and then you have schools within schools. That’s something that’s common here. Because we do have things like charter schools, private schools, and depending on which school you attend, sometimes they have a play apparatus. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, because they’re located on a school, there’s an apparatus there, but they can’t necessarily play with it. So you have to kind of be creative. And depending on the reso...