The Need for Play: For Children and Adults
Folks, please read this article (twice):
Peter Gray suggests that while we blame screen time (and I’d add social media) for all that ails our children, we need to allow children (and I’d add adults) more free play. Yes, play is critical to our mental wellness.
I have written at length about the importance of play as an antidote to trauma; counterintuitive perhaps but joy and play and creativity are ameliorating strategies for trauma. See: Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door (TCPress 2017 and 2020, respectively).
I have discussed trauma tool boxes (which are play boxes) and play tables in both classrooms and offices. I have written about both. I have used both in my work. https://karengrosseducation.com/trauma-toolbox-a-how-to-guide/
In as divisive a world as ours, it is easy to blame screen time and social media for all that ails our children. Yes, they are contributory factors but banning cell phones and all social media will most assuredly NOT solve what ails our youth. Indeed, there are some positives to cell phones and social media when used in the right settings and with the right directives. Banning them is like banning candy; people want it more.
This leaves me to suggest (and I will write more on this) that we need to encourage free play — play that takes away structure and lets kids and adults use their creativity to engage with each other. Made up games, actually games, physical activity, hide and seek — these are all important for our healthy development. (Eliminate games like Red Rover and Musical Chairs). Engaging in play allows us to grow as people; it allows us to succeed and fail; it allows us to experience the mind/body connection.
Bottom line: listen to Peter Gray: Play is good and helpful and we need more of it. If I have said it once, I have said it a million times: education happens in many places and spaces of which the classroom is but one.
So, go play and watch for another post soon.
