Cold weather means \

When winter hits in New York City, icy playgrounds and chilly temperatures mean no outdoor recess – sometimes for weeks at a time and plenty of restlessness in city schools. At most elementary schools, children are given just one 45-minute period of gym each week, and parents and teachers say that in the winter kids have virtually no opportunity to expend their energy—or get exercise—during the school day.

"Some parents are very frustrated and I think every single teacher in this school would agree that the children do better in the afternoon if they have recess," says Anne Murney, the parent coordinator at PS 87 on the Upper West Side, where kids sit in the auditorium after lunch on cold days. Schools decide on an individual basis how cold is too cold for kids to go outside and play, but when temperatures dip below 32 degrees, or if there is snow or ice on the schoolyard, most schools keep kids inside, according to an informal survey conducted by Insideschools. Many city schools don't have enough space to let kids run and play indoors, so most kids head to the auditorium to watch videos during the winter months.

Playing outside in the cold might not be an option for children with asthma and other health conditions, but many children's health experts say there are plenty of benefits to letting the majority of kids run around outside—even if it is cold out. With increasing concern about childhood obesity and type II diabetes, many doctors say that the extra 20 minutes of exercise a day makes a difference.

"There is a significant benefit to taking every opportunity to be active rather than passive," says Dr. Irwin Redlener, president of The Children's Health Fund, and professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "In addition to the physical benefits, it sends a good message to kids that physical activity is important." As long as kids are appropriately dressed, he says, the days when it is too cold to go outside "are very rare and should be the exception."

"Any exercise is beneficial," agrees Dr. Rudolph Leibel, professor of pediatrics and medicine at Columbia University and co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. "There's no counter argument to physical activity. There's no downside. The more vigorous physical activity the better," he says. "It's a no-brainer. For a healthy child, I would take my chance with the cold."

Still, at schools like PS 307 in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, kids often show up at school without warm enough clothing, and administrators say they have no choice but to keep the kids inside. "The children are not all properly clothed," said Olivia Bereal, the school's math coach. "If parents haven’t dressed them well, they'll get cold."

And while schools sometimes keep kids inside because of cold weather, the problem more often has to do with ice on the playground than dipping temperatures, administrators say. "They want to run around outside but we can't let them," said a school aide at PS 63 on the Lower East Side last week, as she monitored an auditorium full of squirming kids. "It's not even that cold out. It's the ice. They could slip and get hurt."

In many schools the task of supervising kids during recess—particularly in cold or snowy conditions—is more difficult this year because there are fewer grownups to help. "It's also a matter of personnel," says Murney, the parent coordinator at PS 87. "If we had more school aide hours then maybe we could subdivide the children, and have them doing different activities." But budget cuts have whittled the number of school aides throughout the city. At PS 87, there are only five aides this year, down from eight last year.

The lack of recess is all the more significant because of the sorry state of physical education in city schools. State education regulations require that all children in grades K-3 receive daily physical education, while those in grades 4-6 receive physical education three times a week. Despite these state requirements, as many as 41 percent of elementary schools in New York City do not provide regular physical education classes to all their students, according to "Hit or Miss," a 2000 report by the non-profit Educational Frameworks. The report said elementary schools students typically have less than 1 ½ hours of physical education a week. New Visions for Public Schools, the non-profit organizations that distributed the report, has made recommendations for improving physical education services in the city schools.

Melissa Atkinson, the parent of a first grader at PS 75 in Manhattan, says it is important that kids get some time to exercise during the day, not only for the sake of kids and teachers, but for the sanity of parents as well.

"If they come home and they haven't gotten that energy out, they're nuts," she said. "You come home tired and you want them to come home tired. If they don't go out and play, they're not going to concentrate on their homework or go to sleep."

Deborah Apsel, February 3, 2004