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History of Play
May 29, 2008
We can do no great things, only small things with great love.
-Mother Teresa
-Mother Teresa
"Children were staying indoors to play with their tech toys, while all the time making regular trips to the refrigerator for junk food. Kept informed about predators waiting just outside the door, and wall-to-wall coverage of child kidnappings and abuse by the media, parents became increasingly fearful, even paranoid, and warned their children to stay inside... [and] By the turn of the twenty-first century, threat of lawsuits had become so pervasive that all parties involved with the development or use of playgrounds were at risk."
The final blow against play, observes Frost, was the No Child Left Behind Act and its high-stakes testing. The content of the tests became essentially a national curriculum and children's play was not included. "The results of the testing mania were widespread and punishing to children.... Recess was abandoned by a growing number of schools to make more time for teaching the tests. Some schools were built without playgrounds, ostensibly to avoid injuries and lawsuits, or closer to reality, because many adults failed to understand the developmental values of children's free play in outdoor playgrounds or were fearful that their schools and children might be designated 'low performing.'"
Frost concludes that all these factors "collectively unraveled centuries of openness to challenging play and play environments, both natural and built, and now threaten the health and welfare of American children and growing numbers in other countries."
We have bundled together a variety of practical resources on play and are selling them at a discounted package price. Our Play Tool Kit contains the following items:
- Play: A Beginnings Workshop Book
- The Power of Play: How spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children by David Elkind
- Exchange Article Collection #8 – Play CD
- "Play and the Outdoors"
- "But They're Only Playing"
- "Supporting Constructive Play in the Wild"
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Comments (5)
Displaying All 5 Commentsinnovations in EducationLLC Creating Special Places for Childr
Shrewsbury, New Jersey, United States
Early childhood educators should take a strong advocacy role- not only providing a valued place for play in their programs but by enlisting parents as partners to push this issue in the public schools their children will be going to after the preschool. In our parent meetings we urged this and a group of parents , well armed with research we provided mounted a successful campaign to re instate recess and are part of group supporting a bill in the state legislature to make outdoor recess mandatory in NJ public schools.Don't underestimate the power of your position when you partner with parents.
NonViolence in the Lives of Children Project Inc.
Watsonville, CA, United States
We viewed the DVD last week at our last project meeting. There were about 10 of us glued to the TV (a very unusual sight). We were all so moved by the program that most of us have requested copies to use in our college classes and parent groups. This is a beautifully done film with the level of research and personal stories unequaled in anything I have seen recently. I can't recommend it highly enough! Every parent and educator should see it SOON!
County of Head Start
Yorktown, Virginia, United States
I appreciate Frost's observations and I have been saddened by the general loss of childhood and innocence in the United States. Here's the real irony in all this: The very people...mostly baby boomers...who have raised this paranoia about outdoor dangers and raised the bar on instructional practices vs. play are the same people who grew up in a "village." How many policy makers spent much of their childhood in play, mostly outdoors? How many of them can recall the joy and stimulation of recess? Did they not turn-out good enough to become lawyers and businessmen/women and educators and policy makers? If not, perhaps they should step down and allow some of us make the policies. If so, then perhaps they should be affording rather than restricting subsequent generations the same opportunities in life.
South Burlington, Vermont, United States
In response to the article I would like to share a poem I wrote several years ago while a student with Pacific Oaks College, where I am now an Adjunct Instructor through their Distance Learning Program.
The class was titled ‘Play in Childhood’. On the first day we sat in a circle and introduced ourselves by sharing stories about the play of our childhood. As people spoke, I took notes. The descriptions were rich and the poem seemed to write itself, including the very genuine concern for the lack of play in children’s lives today. It frightens for me to think of a reality where play is no longer the free and meaningful expression of childhood. May it never happen!
Play in Childhood
As I listened on the circle I heard the call to defend play in childhood
Like a poem the stories gathered rhythm ‘round the room:
My world was snow
It made me as tall as the clothesline
Swingin’ and singin’
Alone and aloud
Up in the trees
In the bramble bushes
And box houses
At the ocean…camping
I felt free
In the Little School
I was Mrs. Evans to all the kids
I am a child-life specialist
doodling, swirling, writing
Searching for the right jacks
The Spaulding ball
and
Puppets
Barbie, dolls, and Tammy
Foundation tag
Climbing the monkey trees
The higher I could get the more powerful I felt
On the stairs with my grandmother’s buttons
Just kickin’ with the boys
We played hide and seek in the woods
Red light green light and War games
In my childhood
And
OUT of the house
Sailing
Digging holes
Mud
Water
Kick the can
Ice blocking
Bumpin’ baskets and racing home
to the
Gong, gong, gong
We were
Pioneers having babies
The Pecos Street Gang
And I grew nervous
As I listened in the circle
Because
I heard the call to defend
As if playing in childhood were vulnerable?
Thank you,
Liz Rogers
United States
As all ECE know, children learn through play. Children have been shown to do better academically when allowed to have playtime.
The government/licensing has hindered outdoor play with a ton of regulations/laws and rules. If teachers want to keep their children off of playground structures they need to offer games, etc. for the children do do outside.
It is a terrible shame that public schools are doing away with gym as well as other subjects such as music, art, languages, etc.
United States has always been behind academically and I for one do not see it going forward. To many hinderances that educators have to overcome.
At least Early Childhood Education is slowly being acknowledged as important.
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