WICHITA, Kansas — The scene at Wichita’s Allen Elementary School is pretty typical for a school playground at recess — lots of running, jumping, climbing and screaming.
But there’s something different that you might not notice right away.
One example is a first-grader on the swings. Under the old rules of recess, students had to have their backsides on the seat and swing only forward and back — no twisting, no crowding, and no jumping off.
This girl has her torso on the swing, facing the ground and twisting the chains into a tight coil. She giggles as she lets go and spins.
“If you want to swing on your stomach, go for it,” Principal Alison Renner explained. “If you want to twist, go for it. And if you get dizzy afterward, that’s the natural consequence of it.”
Allen is one of three Wichita elementary schools experimenting with a new kind of recess that eases up on rules and lets kids play more freely.
The approach, sometimes called “risky play,” follows research that shows children benefit from climbing high, running fast and testing their physical limits. Wichita decided to try it after some physical education teachers complained that students weren’t getting enough unstructured play time.
Over the past few decades, even recess — the mandatory 20 minutes of free time before or after lunch — has become chock full of rigid rules: No playing tag. No going head-first down the slide. No climbing on top of monkey bars. No roughhousing.
The rules are intended to prevent injuries, Renner said.
“But it ended up being like a lot of corrections and … micromanaging, and it also kind of puts a damper on creative play for kids,” she said. “It also restricts some of their social interactions.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 200,000 children aged 14 and younger are treated in emergency rooms each year for playground-related injuries. Most are minor, like cuts and sprains, but a significant portion involve broken bones, concussions or traumatic brain injuries.
Families sometimes sue school districts if they think an injury could have been prevented with safer equipment or better supervision. So schools try to balance playground safety with children’s need to horse around.
Stuart Brown, a psychiatrist and founder of the California-based National Institute for Play, tracks research on play and advocates for child-friendly policies in schools and elsewhere.
“Risky play is a really necessary and important part of growing up and being a child,” Brown said.
“The skills you develop, like resilience and optimism and innovative thinking — it’s a little like language. It’s not something that happens overnight. It’s something that’s gradually learned.”
During his early research, Brown studied the childhoods and backgrounds of dozens of people convicted of violent crimes. One was Charles Whitman, who killed 15 people when he opened fire from an observation tower at the University of Texas in 1966.
Brown’s team discovered that many perpetrators had violent or overbearing parents who did not encourage or even allow regular, rough-and-tumble playground play.
“With free play, you learn how to lose, you learn how to win. … You learn how to handle all the complexities of socialization that are the foundation for being fully alive and fully human,” he said.
The Canadian Pediatric Society released a position statement last year saying that outdoor play is critical for a child’s physical and mental health and that risky play, in particular, helps prevent anxiety and behavior problems.
Michele Ingenthron, Wichita’s assistant superintendent for elementary schools, said easing up on playground rules makes sense.
“When I played as a kid, we just played, and if something went wrong, we talked to each other about it,” she said.
“We just kind of came to the idea of: If we let kids be kids, maybe there won’t be as many conflicts. And we can then teach them some social skills to fix a conflict when it happens.”
Risky play doesn’t mean dangerous play. Experts say children should be encouraged to test their motor skills at appropriate ages and with adequate supervision.
Conquering a fear offers children a sense of accomplishment. And minor setbacks, like falling, teach muscle control and resilience.
Renner, the Allen Elementary principal, said the more relaxed approach to recess has improved the experience for kids and adults. District leaders say the pilot project has been a success so far at three schools and could be adopted districtwide.
“We can enjoy the time interacting with kids and celebrating the joy of kids playing, instead of constantly telling kids to, ‘Stop, stop, let’s do this instead,’” Renner said.
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on BlueSky @suzanneperez.bsky.social.
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