My Connections to Play

 

 

Two quotes that represent/summarizes what play represented for you in your childhood:

Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural senses of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities—Stuart Brown MD, Contemporary American Psychiatrist

Pausing to listen to an airplane in the sky, stooping to watch a ladybug on a plant, and sitting on a rock to watch the waves crash over the quayside — children have their own agendas and time scales. As they find out more about the world and their place in it; they work hard not to let adults hurry them.   We need to hear their voices—Cathy Nutbrown, Contemporary British Educational Theorist

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The first quote ideally summarizes what play represented to my childhood and the second is more of a reflection of what I believe play should represent for the 21^st century child. When looking back on my childhood, play was an opportunity for me to escape into a world where I was capable, fierce and free from the demands of school and life in general. Growing up poor, I think play takes on a different meaning from that of children who come from affluent backgrounds. For the poor child play really is something that lifts burdens, renews and create a sense of optimism for new possibilities, at least this what play did for me for me.

Given the hurried lives that many children in the 21^st century experience, now more than ever children need the opportunity to return to the simplicity of play. For example, American children run from one sport league activity to the next, never pausing to experience the simple pleasures of frolicking in a pool of water after a fresh down poor of rain, or building and flying a kite in their neighborhood park. This form of play isn’t just good for the soul but for the brains of growing children. Such play builds connections across the brain pathways helping to build a solid foundation for learning during the school years. I think the second quote says it best about the need for uninterrupted, child centered play, “children have their own agenda and time scales. As they find out more about the world and their place in it; they work hard not to let adults hurry them. We need to hear their voices” (Nutbrown, 2014).

Describe how people supported paly when you where younger and/or the role of play in your childhood:

 

                                        

When thinking of a setting for my younger self it would be the beach.   I don’t remember going to the beach during my pre-school years but what I do remember is always having the desire to go, especially since I live in the beach capital of the world—California! I think the first time I went to the breach was when I as in middle school and I absolutely loved my time playing in the water! My play setting would include some handy beach items that my mom would have packed the day before our trip to Ocean City, New Jersey ( one of my favorite all times beaches). I would invite my best friends Susanna and Taiye, who happens to be my twin sister. We would use the pale to collect at least five gallons of sand, which I would know because my mom packed measuring cups and showed me and my friends how to measure one gallon of sand for our princess castle we were eager to build that day at the beach. Oh, and of course our castle would have to have a mote filled with terrible creatures such as the star fish we discovered awash on the beach. Mom would, however, tell us that the star fish wasn’t at all a terrible creature but a beautiful creation that lived in the sea. Her science lesson wouldn’t convince us any differently. My friends and I would pretend that we were being held in our castle against our will by the mean wicket witch of the west of the Kingdom of Loma land. We would cry “help, help” day and night until one day three Knights of Loma land arrived to save us. They would arrive in the night and throw pebbles outside of our dudgeon’s window. Upon seeing them we would take the goggles that mom told us was for seeing underneath the water, and throw them down to them so that they would be able to see as they swam across the mote to save us! Once they slayed the hideous star fish monster they would then sword the wicket witch and whisk us off to live happily ever after, never to hear or see the wicket witch of the west ever again!

Entry on how you feel play today is similar or different from play in which you engaged in as a child and what your hope now with regard to play:

Today, childhood play looks a lot different from the one depicted above. Most children spend very little time outside playing. I remember the first time I visited a suburb as a child and thinking to myself, “where are all the children?” In my neighborhood, in the intercity of DC, children were always outside playing. On any given day one could looked outside their window and see at least 20 neighborhood children playing basketball in the back alley of my apartment complex, or hide and go seek and one of my favorites, a game of baseball in the park across from my home. Unfortunately, in that same neighborhood that I grew up in, today very few children are seen outside playing. There are numerous reasons why this is. The most obvious might be safety. Parents are less and less incline to allow their children to go out and play anymore because it simply isn’t safe to do so. Another reason is due to the invention of the video game TV and the internet. Today, children as young as 3 years old can be found spending hours on a Dora Explorer game on a tablet or computer. Such play, in my opinion, has stolen the imagination of countless children all over the world, but especially here in the United States!  Almon, (2002) confirms this when she wrote:

I have observed the steady decline of play over the past 30 years, but even I was astonished by a recent call from a        counselor in an elementary school in Virginia. She had been talking with a first grade class and used the word “imagination.” When they stared blankly at her, she explained its meaning, but the children continued to look puzzled. “You know,” she said, “it’s when you pretend to be someone you’re not,” and she gave an example from her own childhood when she loved to play Wonder Woman. She would put on a cape and fly down the hill near her house with arms outstretched, pretending to be aloft. “That’s imagination,” she explained. “But we don’t know how to do that,” said one child, and all the others nodded their heads in agreement.

 Thoughts on play throughout my childhood and childhood general:

My hope is that we can somehow bring back the play of old. Given the complexity of our new global economy, we need workers who are innovative enough to solve the world’s most perplexing issues. The building blocks for such innovation start in early childhood as children sit, in uninterrupted play that cultivates there imagination and allows their thoughts to run free to discover the world’s next cure, invention or cause. This is the role play took on for me as a child and even today as an adult. Children nor adults should never stop play in doing so we lose our apart of our purpose and to some degree joy of life.

 

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf

Brown, S. (2014) Quotes on Play. Retrieved from http: http://www.thestrong.org

Nutbrown,  C. (2014) Quotes on Play. Retrieved from http: http://www.thestrong.org