― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in
doing nothing.
What! Is it nothing to be happy?
Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day
long?
Never in his life will he be so
busy again.
~Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Emile, 1762
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I was lucky to grow up in a small town, very safe neighborhood where it was ok for a young girl to run around by herself without fear. I spent a lot of time in libraries and in local parks. My mother allowed us to play and explore our neighborhood with the other children pretty much at will. Because I had this experience, I keenly feel what my own children are missing out on by living in a big city. I feel like they don't have the opportunity to explore and imagine and run wild like I did, which I believe helped me grow into a confident, relaxed person.
To me play is, for that very reason, so much different. It is not safe for my daughter to wander around by herself - she can't walk to the library or walk around downtown and explore used bookshops or hop on a bus with her friends and go role play along the river front. I am sure there are children who do those things - but I am a mother who feels that in this big city environment that sort of freedom is too dangerous these days. So much of play has been relegated to indoor electronics - a huge contrast to when I grew up.
Play is and was an important part of childhood. It is the time when children begin to imagine ho they want to be without yet being told there are limits. It is the time where they get to express enthusiasm and hope and adventure. It is when they learn how to negotiate and interact with different personalities and adjust to disappointment (oh, the drama of childhood friendships!) Without play, children have a very limited theater in which to practice communication and social and problem solving skills they will need in adult life.
Hello Shahrazad,
ReplyDeleteChildhood memories, oh how I wish I could fall back to those days! But yeah play is a huge part of a child's life and should not be taken away. Children do indeed learn and practice communication, social and problem solving skills through play. Without play children will never learn how to get along with others and how to share. We learn a lot through play and it has made us who we are today. I am a recreational supervisor at the moment and without my playing skills of being outdoors socializing with my peers and playing sports I would not have the skills to help kids learn now. So I appreciate play and want to encourage it in the school systems.
I agree with Carlos. Children today are missing out on so much fun that not only will strenghten their minds, it will enable them to be risk takers with their learning. Children who were deprived of certain luxuries dug deep within their mental bag of tricks and created what they wanted to play with. Melt downs and depression was almost non-existent because children knew how to make due with what they had and appreciated it. Children interacted more with one another encouraging positive social relations and language development. Wow, who knew how significant play would really be...we did that's who! It should be encouraged in all early learning facilities and supported financially, socially, emotionally and physically. Imagine what the world would be like if the powers that be would simply recognize the value of play.
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