The Loss of Play

[Anna Billings]

Revisiting this important topic, here is an associated press article by David Crary, covering the 92nd Street Y Wonderplay Early Childhood Conference: The Importance of Play, Imagination and Creative Thinking, November 14, 2008 in New York.

The premise: "America's children need more time for freewheeling play at home and in their schools."
and "Creative, spontaneous play is both vital and endangered."

Here are some excerpts from the conference:

"Lack of play in early childhood education could be the next global warming — without ample opportunity for forms of play that foster innovation and creative thinking, America's children will be at a disadvantage in the global economy."

"Play equals learning. For too long we have divorced the two."

There are "eight to twelve fewer hours of free play time per week for the average American child since the 1980s."

Possible reasons for the diminished playtime: 1. Parental fears about letting children play outside on their own. 2. Schools cutting back on recess. 3. More emphasis on organized sports and other structured extracurricular activities. 4. More time spent by kids watching TV, playing video games, using cell phones. 5. More emphasis by schools and parents on improving kids' academic skills.

Some of the many consequences: Higher rates of obesity, stress and attention disorders, less contact with nature, social ineptness.

Here are some related discussions on Fireside posted previously:

Posted by Connie Weber on 12/18/07, American Academy of Pediatrics — The Importance of Play.

Posted by Barb Grabbe on 01/27/08, The Importance of Play.

Posted by Mike on 11/06/08, The Importance of Fun and Play.

Any thoughts on this topic? Is recess really being cut out in our schools? Is play still alive in our schools and in our children's lives in general? How can we bring play back?

[Anna Billings]

Here's a good book on the topic of play. Diane Ackerman's Deep Play. Similar thoughts as Csikszintmihali's Flow. That transcendent state of optimal creative capacity, "a state of unselfconscious engagement with our surroundings that draws from us our finest performances and taps into the faculties that make us feel most fully alive." Playfulness, play, good fun, and creative flow. Essential qualities to cultivate throughout our life, all ages, in a wide range of experiences.

[Skip Zilla]

Thanks once again, Anna, for pointing out a great resource and for being a voice of reasonableness and psychological insight. There is a significant difference between the creative tension of playful, engaging activity and the anxious uncertainty of battle and its threats to personal safety. Perhaps it's an underlying awareness that one's fully alive or that one's merely an object subjected to the power of death. This is more than a matter of outcomes which emerge in time: a proceeding enjoyably from excitement to satisfaction is essentially different from eliminating an existential threat--even when that threat is more illusory than real. Relief is not joy. In the context of education, there is a great difference between learning to release ourselves from perceived dangers of loss and learning to enjoy the gain of connection to a world wider than self-regard. You've got me contemplating again, Anna. That's a wonderful result of encountering your gift for friendship.

[Anna Billings]

Hi Skip,

Interesting that the uncertainty and insecurity of life turns out to be the realm in which creativity thrives. Our human urge to control life, make it go our way (the "right" way), and nail down some semblance of security, certainty, and agreement move us out of that creative realm and into a kind of prison of our mind, driving us into fear, anger, conflict. But when we allow the flow and open to it, go with it, then we are granted the gift of being fully alive with awareness, in all its scariness and uncertainty and outrageousness — and connectedness.

The human mind is another paradox — offering us the opportunity and faculty for true liberation, clarity, and unbounded discoveries while at the same time containing myriad traps to grab our attention, invest our energy (and identity) and limit our perception as well as our enjoyment of life and one another.

Ah, much to ponder. The joys and challenges of our being human.

[Connie Weber]

Here's an article that goes with the conversation:
from edweek: "Children's Lack of Playtime Seen as Troubling Health, School Issue."

You'll have to signin, but can get free content after doing so (for four weeks, I believe). It's an excellent article, filled with examples, issues, and resources.

[Rosemarie Hester]

Hello. There is an important film you may or may not know about called "Where do the Children Play?"

You can access information about it through www.wfum.org/childrenplay/index.html

If you need a copy and have trouble getting one, pls contact me.

Rosemarie

[Anna Billings]

Thank you so much for this, Rosemarie. Looks like a wonderful film and well worth the investment! So glad this topic is being addressed. Love these words in the trailer:

"For many children, the first window to wonder is nature."

"Play is the work of childhood."

"Play is a really core, essential element of human life."

[Rosemarie Hester]

Hi, Anna. I can send you a DVD if that would be useful. Your optimistic voice on this site is contagious!! Thanks.

Rosemarie

[Anna Billings]

I would LOVE that. Thanks! :-)

[Ryan Grunke]

As a college student who is about to become a PE teacher I agree and am also concerned. I believe young americans are putting their health at risk by becoming obese. A healthy level of daily activity or play would go a long way.

[Rosemarie Hester]

Hi, Ryan. Great to hear from you! There's something called the Green Hour encouraged by the national Wildlife Federation, I believe. You can probably google it. Anyway, it suggests families unplug everything electric and get outside for an hour each day. That's a good start. Thanks for joining the profession! Let us know, step-by-step, how it goes! I'll be waiting to hear! Rosemarie

[Anna Billings]

Thanks, Ryan, for adding your voice. So great to have your comments and support on this topic. Here's another article I posted awhile back on the topic, Bringing Play Back. I agree there are health issues on all fronts, physical well-being, fitness, weight, as well as emotional, social, mental, keeping the creative muscles exercised and also cultivating the ability to have fun, let go, interact, not take ourselves so seriously. All of these become even bigger issues in adulthood as evidenced by a general cultural bent towards overwork, work addiction, an inability to relax and have fun, and the crisis that can hit at retirement age.

[Ian Carmichael]

Here's a current Scientific American link to an article on play and its vital importance. "The Serious Need for Play".
Their RSS summary goes like this
On August 1, 1966, the day psychiatrist Stuart Brown started his assistant professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 25-year-old Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower on the Austin campus and shot 46 people. Whitman, an engineering student and a former U.S. Marine sharpshooter, was the last person anyone expected to go on a killing spree. After Brown was assigned as the state’s consulting psychiatrist to investigate the incident and later, when he interviewed 26 convicted Texas murderers for a small pilot study, he discovered that most of the killers, including Whitman, shared two things in common: they were from abusive families, and they never played as kids.

Brown did not know which factor was more important. But in the 42 years since, he has interviewed some 6,000 people about their childhoods, and his data suggest that a lack of opportunities for unstructured, imaginative play can keep children from growing into happy, well-adjusted adults. “Free play,” as scientists call it, is critical for becoming socially adept, coping with stress and building cognitive skills such as problem solving. Research into animal behavior confirms play’s benefits and establishes its evolutionary importance: ultimately, play may provide animals (including humans) with skills that will help them survive and reproduce.