I believe that those boys who take part in rough, hard play outside of school will not find any need for horse-play in school.
Theodore Roosevelt
American president
1858–1919
There is so much continued talk about an increase in children with diagnoses and "problem" children who can not sit and focus on their school work - and a whole variety of suggestions have been made as to why this is the case - including class size, standardised testing, not enough play or learning through play in school etc etc. This was as true back in 2012, when I first wrote a post with this title, as it is today - so why have we not come further? Why is play still valued so little? And why has control and “zero tolerance” become even more of a thing as a way to solve the “problem”?
I still believe that it is in part due to children not playing enough outside of school/preschool. That a lack of autonomy and trust, and not enough freedom to roam or engage in adventure, is having an impact on what they are doing in school.
Children's days being controlled by adults have got longer - often both parents are working so children are required to stay in preschool for longer days or go to after school care. When do they have the time to play freely with their friends? Because no matter how good preschool or after-school-care is, it is still an institution - hence the subtitle - play, play or play… is it it really play, or pedagogical play (where the agenda is the children learn, so not autonomous play) or institutional play (where the adult agenda decides what kind of play is allowed or not allowed and where the threshold of risk and adventure lies).
I remember in my childhood that we would play on the back fields together after school, without adults (in the back garden when we were younger - although my mother still did not participate - she stayed indoors with a window open - listening...). I remember playing in ditches and making mud-pies, making channels like a snake in the long grass, making “skiddy”-patches on the ice, building obstacle courses, dens and pretending to be a show-jumping horse devising all sorts of jumps with brooms and buckets and anything else we could get our hands on. We had free range of a whole neighbourhood. We played, we imagined, we interacted with each other.
Then in school we could sit and listen easier... our bodies satisfied with play, and with the knowledge that we would play again later on after school.
Do we trust our neighbourhoods now to allow our children to explore? Do our children get the freedom that I once had, and many others had in our own childhoods...? And if we don’t, what are we doing about that, so children can access play?
Does giving homework to children shorten further their chances to play?
Is society really more dangerous? Or have we become more afraid? Why?
I live centrally in Stockholm - free range, the way I experienced it, has not happened for my children - I have my own fears - but also where are the other children? Are they all at extra-curricular activities? Organised play/sports by adults. Its was always play-dates supervised by parents, not the freedom of play I had as a child. I have tried to give them free range - but of course society has given the car more rights in cities than children.
I am happy that we have a small house in the woods just outside the city - where my children could play freely, explore, imagine, interact. We took their friends out there so their interactions were not confined to siblings... Pockets of abandon.
Are we institutionalising childhood? Are we re-defining play? Have the adults hijacked play for pedagogical purposes? Is play colonised by adults seeking to subdue children? Is play being seen as something subversive? It would definitely explain why play is so little valued in the school system. It’s why I came up with Original Learning - a space where play, learning and teaching can be interwoven as equals - an intellectual reflection space for educators and policymakers and parents to consider just how important play is for children to evolve cognitively, socially, linguistically, emotionally, physically and spiritually - to be the best versions of themselves.
If children have more freedom to play - and I mean play in its truest form, would it be easier for them to concentrate in school? Was Theodore Roosevelt right? (although it should not be reserved for just boys!!!). Would there be a reduction in diagnoses and "problem" children? That finally the “problem” would be not the children but the circumstances - the lack of autonomy for one.
I do not believe in problem children - only in problem situations. We as teachers and parents need to address the situation - what can WE do to change the situation - then try that, reflect, adjust and try again until the situation improves...
I think it is time we addressed the situation of play - and evaluate whether there is adequate play sufficiency in the lives of the children in our care - both within school and without. This is not just a school problem, this is a whole society problem that needs to be solved together.