|
|
|
Taking Play Seriously Robin Marantz Henig
New York Times Magazine, February 17, 2008
“[P]laying, though it might look silly and purposeless, warrants a place in every child’s day.”
According to Robin Marantz Henig’s piece in the New York Times Magazine, there is a growing “consensus view [among scientists who study play] that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories.” If play were indeed nothing more than exercise and stress relief, concern over its shrinking role in children’s lives would be justified. But play, as Ms. Henig’s article examines in depth, is “more than a frivolous luxury...it is a central part of neurological growth and development — one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains.”
Unfortunately, recess and other unstructured play time are falling victim to fear of lawsuits, the pressures of overtesting and overscheduling in schools, and obsessive safety regimes. Common Good is not alone in our concern that play is increasingly treated as an expendable part of a child's daily routine, even as it becomes more and more clear just how valuable play actually is. Ms. Henig recounts parents’ “anxious questions about what seemed to be the loss of play in their children’s lives.” She notes, “Educators fret that school officials are hacking away at recess to make room for an increasingly crammed curriculum. Psychologists complain that overscheduled kids have no time left for the real business of childhood: idle, creative, unstructured free play. Public health officials link insufficient playtime to a rise in childhood obesity.”
Dr. Stuart Brown, the psychiatrist and play expert, puts it best: “Look at life without play, and it’s not much of a life.” We can only hope that the people who structure children’s time – legislators, school administrators, and parents themselves – will take this message to heart, and take action to ensure that children’s right to play is protected. article »
Related: Play, Spirit, and Character website of NPR’s Speaking of Faith
| |
