When I have a child in my psychotherapy office, I spend the first session building rapport and getting to know my new client. I do this through games, art, a little bit of lollipop bribery, and a whole lot of questions. Along with inquiring about their preferred foods, friends, and hobbies, I almost always ask the young person’s favorite school subject, and nine times out of ten, the answer is recess.
While there’s a part of me that has to suppress an eye roll upon hearing this information—I mean, come on, recess is great but can it really be counted as a subject?—another part of me both understands the appeal of recess and sees it as worthy of being considered a course of its own.
Recess provides a time and place for children to laugh, play, rest, and rejuvenate. It’s also a training ground for social skills, conflict management, physical development, and creativity. But while every other area of school ties outcomes to tasks through the awarding of grades, recess doesn’t. On the playground, there is no pressure of evaluation. Learning, growing, socializing, and relaxing are ends unto themselves.
There is tremendous freedom in the separation of task from appraisal, and for people of faith, adults are fortunate enough to have their own version of recess: Sabbath rest.
The concept of Sabbath rest is one of the first codified social rules. It is even older than the Ten Commandments that codify the Sabbath; it stretches back to the time of creation. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day,” Exodus tells us (20:11). Based on the action of God, we, too, are told to rest. The previous paragraph states: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (20:8).
Sabbath rest is, quite literally, as old as creation. And yet it’s easy to forsake prioritizing this God-given gift in our busy world, not only neglecting to practice Sabbath rest but also forgetting its value in the first place.
So, let’s refresh ourselves. Let’s take our cues from kids, who don’t disregard the importance of recess. Let’s learn about Sabbath rest from kids’ approach to recess rest.
Rest is recreation
There is more to rest than taking a nap. Third-grader Gideon Smith told me that he likes recess because it “gets energy out.” Rest exercises our creativity and movement without making it into work. It doesn’t put profit—in the form of grades, money, or accomplishment—on our actions. Part of what children teach us about the beauty of rest is that it is a non-instrumental enterprise. It is play. It is activity for its own sake. It is movement and life without commodification or profit. Rest releases us.
Rest is positive
God saw that creation was good, and we align ourselves with God when we, too, see creation as good. One way to see the goodness of the created world is to delight in its peacefulness, fun, and meaningful nature. Recess seems to bring out delight in kids. I talked to my preschool-age daughter, Franny, about recess. All her thoughts centered on enjoyment: “Recess is nice because I get to run and roll down the hill. I like the see-saw and the swing, and sometimes me and Lachlan like to hide from zombies. Recess makes me happy.” Rest is meant to be enjoyed.
Rest is necessary
Rest isn’t just pleasant. It’s needed. Amy Kirk, a third grader, says, “If we didn’t have recess, we would just be sitting in the class all day, and our legs would get tired.” We are not meant for incessant work, and time apart is needed for the health of our bodies and our spirits. What’s more, rest enables us to do academic and employment work more fully. Rest nourishes us.
Rest is communal
Rest can be time apart, rest can be taken in solitude, but rest can also be communal. When I spoke with Owen Kirk, a fifth grader, he talked about the communal character of rest: “I always do stuff with friends at recess.” Rest, when taken communally, signals its value: We are doing this together; we think that it is important. “We play dragon sometimes, or rainbow hounds, which is magical creatures with powers, based on our stuffed animals,” Owen says.
Sharing in communal rest might be a chance to recharge, to fill one another up. Throughout our conversation, Owen repeated the phrase “with friends” and spoke of the ways in which we might buoy one another’s spirits in rest that is done together. Rest, for all of us, might be found in joyful community—from coffee hour at church to extended family dinners to going for a walk with friends. Just as God gave us creation, rest also came as a sacramental gift, an offering to be shared.
Rest is a gift
I asked Jonah Leighty, a second grader, how he would feel if recess ceased, and he minced no words: “I would feel like I didn’t have a good teacher, and I’d be grumpy and upset.” Good teachers know that children’s brains need breaks, and our good God knows that minds and bodies need respite from work. Rest rejuvenates our souls.
No one contests the integral role that recess plays in a child’s school day, and what is true for children is true for adults: Rest is recreation, rest is positive, rest is necessary, rest is communal, and rest is a gift. God has given it, but we must receive it. And why not? Why not receive that which is given, by taking time to pause from work, move your body, bask in the love of family and friends, enjoy your version of play, and be attuned to the present moment?
My last conversation with a child about the value of recess was with Owen Kirk, the wise fifth grader quoted above. I’m going to give him the final word on the value of recess, because it’s true for Sabbath rest: “It is just good to have.”
This article also appears in the September 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 90, No. 9, pages 15-16). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
Image: Unsplash/Jan Huber
Add comment