I just figured it out! Blame smoke/tobacco free campuses for less recess.
In 1972 I was a first grader in a small school. We had a snack/play break in the morning (grades 1-3) and as soon as we went back inside grades 4-6 came out. We pulled one item out of our lunch, inhaled it and ran out to play.
We had similar at lunch (ate in our classroom as fast as we could) ran out to play for a half hour.
PE every day!
2 days of Art, 2 days of Music, one in library ....
And an Afternoon recess too for grades 1-3.
Why? Because the teachers needed to smoke in the teachers lounge several times throughout the day.
