Shop by Topic
Shop by Product
ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues
<< Previous Issue
| View Past Issues | | Next Issue >> 
Advocating Play
May 4, 2011
The very existence of youth is due in part to the necessity for play; the animal does not play because he is young, he has a period of youth because he must play.
-Karl Groos, German evolutionary biologist, 1861–1946
-Karl Groos, German evolutionary biologist, 1861–1946
“The growing allocation of kindergarten time to academic content has firmly pushed play to the edges. What counts as play in many classrooms are highly controlled centers that focus on particular content labeled as ‘choice’ but that are really directed at capturing a specific content-based learning experience, such as number bingo or retelling a story exactly as the teacher told it on a flannel board….It means that in-depth project work that involves research into child-initiated questions just takes too much time….”
“What’s lost with this shift? Attention to anything but clearly defined cognitive aspects of development….”
“…It’s no longer enough to argue that play is the work of children; we’re now required to prove what children get from play. What they get must translate to increased achievement or reduced risk. So let’s nail the evidence base.”
Order now and save 25% on Online Out of the Box Kits!
(Sale ends 08/11/2011)
Run a professional development training class with our Out of the Box Training Kits. An article from Exchange magazine serves as the foundation for each Kit and is included as a handout. Each Kit includes step-by-step instructions to prepare, conduct, and evaluate your training session. They are also flexible enough to allow you to include your own ideas and exercises to meet any special needs of your staff.
Choose from over 65 Online Out of the Box Training Kits:
- Health and Safety (7 kits)
- Curriculum Development and Implementation (19 kits)
- Environments (7 kits)
- Family Partnerships (5 kits)
- Professionalism (1 kit)
- Early Care and Education (8 kits)
- Infants and Toddlers (3 kits)
- Observation, Assessment, and Documentation (4 kits)
- Positive Discipline (13 kits)
ExchangeEveryDay
Delivered five days a week containing news, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
What is ExchangeEveryDay?
ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
Why manage 40 separate bottles of sunscreen every day? Save time and money with Rocky Mountain Sunscreen’s quart and gallon pump dispensers.
Join 25,000 other child care centers just like yours that now operate more efficiently than ever before using our software & check-in solutions.
Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsECD Resource Center, IED, BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Advocating for play is very important issue for my country. Here, play is not valued to policy makers. As a result, children have been being deprived in their rights on play and recreation.
I have been trying to be a advocate for play as well as create a volunteer group for advocating play in Bangladesh. It is very essential for young children's holistic development. As we know, through play may accomplishes all domain of development.
Grassroots Playscapes
Honolulu, HI, United States
Writing to you from the island that inspired Joni Mitchell's song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot, the article today resonates profoundly on how our society functions in such an abstract manner, we lose the essence of our purpose.
Nearly three years ago I attended a "Nature Explore" workshop in Honolulu that was taking us through a slide show of examples of their work which was documenting the process of taking a chunk out of a forest, erecting a fence, and proceeding to inundate it with the products they sell in their catalog. It all sounds great to create enriched play spaces for children that are inspired by nature, but who exactly are these spaces built for? Whether it is a natural playscape or a synthetic fortress, it means little to children if they are not central to intent.
Much of the intent occurs out of self-interest from academicians, designers and CEO's (including nonprofits) whose closest contact with children is through text and images.
If people want to preserve play in our society they really need to step back and look at how we are institutionalizing children based upon a modern lifestyle that is based on immediate returns and shortsighted goals. In the interim, due to our given circumstance of an urban society gone mad, perhaps we should spend more time observing and playing with kids as well as listening to their caretakers who are stifled by an onslaught of best practice solutions.
United States
Amen!
United States
Amen!
Post a Comment