The Importance of Play.
May 29, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Boys & Girls, Children, Happy Living Tip, Health, How To, Humor, Misc., Psychology
“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do“(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain)
Play is essential to a child’s social, emotional, and academic life.
So why are schools shunning recesses and physical education for structured academics and testing?
And why does it seem that parents are turning play from something fun and frivolous into something that must be productive and controlled?
These are some of the questions that the latest issue of Greater Good magazine tries to answer. They have put together an interesting and thought provoking series of articles examining the past and present culture of play and why it seems to be vanishing.
Can We Play? looks at the disappearing culture of play finding that “the decline of children’s free, self-intiated play is the result of a perfect storm of technological innovation, rapid social change, and economic globalization.”
The Confession of An Anxious Parent asks why today’s parents are afraid to let their kids play on their own.
Playing the Blame Game examines the effects that video games have on children.
With Friends Like These addresses the importance of imaginary friends for some children.
You’re It reminds us that play isn’t just for children.
And Patch Adams, aka the humor doctor, is interviewed.
Happy Reading…
before I became a mama I read EVERYTHING.
Including a book titled PLAYFUL PARENTING. when I finished it my conclusion was:
REALLY? WE NEED TO BE TOLD TO PLAY MORE?! AND WITH OUR CHILDREN?
after that I walked around viewing my world through that lens…through the DONCHA PLAY ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE?! and saw that they dont.
we dont.
as a society.
it’s so SAD. we all need more FUN and PLAY in our lives as EVERYTHING looks better afterwards.
sorry to ramble
Im passionate about this I guess.
off to hulahoop with my Toddler Tornado.
Hi MizFit, it’s bizarre that we actually need books to tell us to go play but that seems to be the nature of society these days…play for play sake seems to have been dimenished for some reason…we need to get it back!!!
It seems that these days almost all of a child’s day is structured. After school, their activities are also structured. When we grew up we ‘played’ soccer in the yard. My kids go to Soccatots or Brazilian soccer school. We had a big old suitcase of Lego that we played with. These days you can go to Lego classes and ‘play’ or rather be instructed in what to do with Lego.
So much of what kids worked out for themselves in play (playing fair, winning and losing, being nice or not) is now taken over and adult supervised. No wonder social skills are at an all time low.
I, too, remember the days when games of soccer and baseball were spontaneously played in the backyard or the park down the street. As kids, we were encouraged to play with others in the neighborhood. Yes, there was organized sports as well but not of the degree there is now…
Kids are definitely losing out here!!!