Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/of-toys-and-stuff/5009432/
We planned to keep your first toys,preserve them; one day,
when you are grown, lead you
to a secret closet, watch you
pull wide, amazed,
re-discover your treasures.
But we can't; you're eating them.
Michael Dennis Browne
Light Year 87
(Cleveland: Bit Press)
What is a toy? An object used in play. Great, what is play? What we do for pleasure - not work. But play is a child's work, right? So toys are the child's tools? In fact, tools with educational import. Serious business, futures are at stake here. And if it is serious, then, of course, play and toys are the subject of serious research: "the metacognitive effects of stacking rings on infants with crossed eyes." Even more important - if it is serious and this is America, there are fortunes to be made; toys are big ticket consumable objects: "Go plastic, young man," Horace Greely said to Benjamin Braddock, "and make it bright red."
Perhaps play and toys are serious, too serious to take seriously. Play is what children do when allowed to - self-initiated, spontaneous, and voluntary messing around; and the child is in control. Toys are all those things that ...