It Is Playtime

It seems kids today aren't so lucky to have playtime. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, recess is the time for learning creativity, social skills, conflict resolution, negotiation and even leadership. Trouble is, thanks to government testing requirements and concern about lawsuits, recess has dwindled to almost nothing for kids in public schools. The Department of Education says between 21 and 30 percent of children in first through sixth grades get 15 minutes or less of recess each day.

Some schools actually cut free playtime to spend more of the school day on reading and math—two subjects closely monitored by government tests. In typical government style, to compensate for the loss of unstructured running-around time, some states are passing laws mandating physical activity in light of the child obesity problem. And even the United Nations is getting in on the action with its affiliated group the American Association for the Child's Right to Play. (Oh, please! Yes, kids need time to play, but we should be able to figure that out without the aid of the UN).

Whatever the outcome of the debate about how much free play is enough, one thing is certain; it's not just little kids who need it. A few years ago, journalist David Brooks wrote "The Organization Kid" for The Atlantic, an article about the overscheduled college kids at Princeton who become "the young men and women of America's future elite [who] work their laptops to the bone, rarely question authority, and happily accept their positions at the top of the heap as part of the natural order of life." Trouble is, all that activity comes at the expense of their character, according to Brooks.

I know from my own hectic schedule that without down time, or margin, as Richard Swenson put it in his book by the same name, I'm less likely to be creative, thoughtful and in touch with what God's trying to say to me. I think that's why some of my best ideas come to me in when journaling, painting, or out on a run. Those activities are among the few that I do daily and without interruption.

Writer and speaker Peggy Noonan talks in her book, On Speaking Well, about the power of the nap to help break loose a mental log jam. I remember her writing that sometimes, when an idea's stuck, the best thing one can do is simply walk away from the computer and lay down for a nap. It's the mental downtime that often gets the creative juices flowing again.

I'm not saying we need to shirk responsibilities and take up extreme sports. But a little mental R N’ R, along with some physical exertion, can be good for the body, mind, and spirit—young and old alike.