Middle Schoolers Need Play, Too!

We have held firmly to our Meadow Time despite schools across the country significantly slashing time for recess, if not eliminating it altogether. I can tell story after story about a middle school program with 20 minutes allotted to both lunch and recess. The students must scarf down their food, indoors, with no time for play, or even a break, before they head to their next academic class.

Middle school is a period of intense development. Hormone changes are well underway, and students’ brains are continually changing, particularly in the areas of social-emotional health and executive functioning skills. Research supports what we have known for a long time — breaks for unstructured play are crucial.

Dr. Nadia Ray, a child psychologist, noted, “Middle schoolers have longer attention spans than elementary students, but they still benefit tremendously from mental breaks. The concentrated focus required for subjects like algebra or essay writing depletes cognitive resources that need time to replenish. Unstructured play provides this restoration in ways that structured activities cannot match.”

Middle school is also a time of social-emotional growth. In her work, Dr. Ray stated that middle school students begin to experience peer pressure and intense, often fluctuating emotions. Play provides a safe outlet for students to process their feelings, reduce stress and anxiety levels, and navigate social dynamics. At High Meadows, when students collaborate and work through challenges alongside their peers during Meadow Time, they create healthy dialogue and stronger relationships, skills that help them become ethical leaders. Meadow Time also provides an avenue for our students to express their creativity. With more than 42 acres to explore, their natural creativity can function as they invent games and play across our woods, meadows, and forests.

Recently, our students took the annual standardized tests over two days.  We decided that in between these assessments, the only thing we would do was extended time outside. We already value our Meadow Time, and as many schools are seeking to add instructional time and therefore shrink recess/lunch time, we continue to do the opposite. To start the year, we added time to our Meadow/Lunch period compared to last year’s schedule. We know our students do hard things all the time, engaging in critical thinking and collaboration, which are taxing on them as adolescents.

While watching "Bonus Meadow" on the last day of testing, I was reminded that when left to their own devices, kids will be kids, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch unfold. They will invent games and play together, even as the rest of the world starts to perceive them as "grown."

When I read the mission, vision, and values of High Meadows, it is clear HMS is a place that values childhood. Middle schoolers are still kids, and kids need play time. We protect their Meadow Time because it is not a distraction from learning — it is essential to it.