IPEMA on the NBC Nightly News
June 4, 2018What do you remember from your elementary school days on the playground? Perhaps innocent games of hopscotch or freeze tag, climbing on the monkey bars, or tapping into your imagination to see where the afternoon took you. These memories stay with us for a lifetime, yet some students today will be unaware of these pastimes due to certain school districts reducing or taking away recess.
Play shouldn’t be seen as extracurricular, or even optional. Rather, it’s an essential tool in every child’s development. Research shows that outdoor free play gives kids many valuable benefits, including the development of physical, emotional, social and cognitive skills.
And teachers agree.
The International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA) is the playground industry’s leading playground safety certification organization. Its Voice of Play initiative promotes growth in the quality and quantity of children’s free play and the use of playgrounds. This year, 500 teachers from across the U.S. were surveyed online by Wakefield Research to discover their attitudes on recess and its benefits. The result? Teachers want recess! In fact, each teacher surveyed – 100 percent – agreed that recess is essential for young students’ mental and physical development.
To read the rest of our cover story in the May issue of Parks and Rec Business, click here.