Jump rope, four square and tetherball. Merry-go-rounds, slides and swings.

Put together, these playground institutions add up to elementary students’ saving grace — recess.

Recess is a fun outlet for kids, but is it a waste of time?

That is what administrators at elementary schools in Atlanta are saying. Educators there think they can’t afford to allocate 30 minutes of their students’ precious learning time for recess.

Sure, the three Rs are important, but the fourth R — recess — provides needed balance in children’s school lives.

Let kids be kids.

Children build relationships and learn valuable lessons on the playground.

Kids experience everything from power struggles to puppy love during those brief periods of free time.

Outside the classroom, they have to solve their own conflicts instead of letting the teacher take control.

In some schools, students are assigned seats — even at lunch and on the bus. If they don’t have recess, will they be limited to associating with the students whose last names start with the same letter of the alphabet as theirs?

The people that decided to cut recess probably never taught first grade. If they had, they’d know that kids have a short attention span.

Even college students start to squirm after 45 minutes of class. How can we expect 7-year-olds to concentrate for hours at a time without a block of play time?

Also, with more and more overweight people in this country, we should be pushing recess as a fun way to exercise.

Think of all the girls chasing boys and boys chasing girls that happens during recess.

Physical education classes alone don’t provide the necessary dose of physical activity that kids need, according to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

About 40 percent of U.S. public schools have eliminated recess or are considering the move, according to an article in the Ames Tribune.

Implementing recess in high school would make more sense than foregoing recess in elementary school.

Elementary school children would probably learn more in less time with recess than they would with extra classroom time without recess.

Give the kids a break.