Playing More, Learn More

In our assignment this week we were supposed to consider the role of elementary education and its curriculum. In the reading and the TED Talk from Kiran Bir Sethi, I had some thoughts, but I went off on a tangent a bit as I believe this class encourages. I watched an additional TED Talk by Stuart Brown entitled "Play is More than Fun" that I believe ties directly into my thoughts on early childhood and elementary education.

Today's elementary curriculum is quite different from what I remember about kindergarten and the early grades. My kindergarten classroom was like a wonderland - we had an indoor plastic climbing gym, that in retrospect seems big as a house, in one corner of the classroom. There was another corner where we could play house. There was a sand and water table, a rug with a tape outline for circle time, an easel where we wrote letters and journals of the day, a reading corner, a sink where we made Stone Soup and Spaghetti Squash, a dress-up box, and various other exciting play opportunities I can still dimly recall. Kindergarten was FUN - we PLAYED - and from it, developed essential skills that Stuart Brown speaks to.

Kindergarten, as well as other levels of elementary education, today have evolved to be more difficult and less playful. I recently heard of one school whose kindergarten class got one recess a day, of only a mere fifteen minutes. When did we lose sight of the fact that kindergarten students are five years old? Who ever decided that little children can play less and yet learn more? To me this is an oxymoron.

From an evolutionary point of view, play has a vital purpose in social and cognitive development. From playing, we learn to take turns, work collaboratively, problem-solve, think, reason, and make informed decisions. I am writing this while watching my daughter "clean" her play kitchen. The fake tube of cookies is too big for where she stores the play food, so she is reasoning through various other decisions. Can she put it in a cabinet? Not if the plates are in there... maybe the plates can fit in the fridge. Now she moves on to making soup for her "babies." She is learning as she does this - and practicing organization, care-taking, and countless other skills that will benefit her for life.

Granted, my daughter is only three and a half, but I hate to think that in a year-and-a-half she'll become chained to a desk with only a brief respite for play. I watch her now, and she is learning more than my high school students often do in a given day because she is experiencing through play. I know the elementary teachers will do their best to provide a rich, exciting elementary curriculum, but with the demands placed on them today, I think time for play has been largely lost.

Stuart Brown has proposed studying play and its role in cognitive development. His proposals for grant funds have largely been turned down because as a people we see play as a frivolous thing - something only for children. However, he believes and I agree that a society that provides time for play for all ages would make great strides in morale, intelligence, creativity, and social development. As Kiran Bir Sethi showed in her video, Ahmedabad now shuts down periodically to show its appreciation for children and their play. This has led to innovations and improvements city-wide, led by children, and in return the children will grow into adults who give back to their city.

Mr. Brown studied play in various animals to see its effects. He told a particularly intriguing story about play in rats. One rat group was allowed to play during development, as rats do, while the other group was play-deprived. When presented with a predator scent, both groups hid, but the play group eventually came out to explore and resume activity. The play-deprived group however continued to hide, and they hid, and they hid until they eventually died. They never regained control of their environment, and this is directly linked to the lack of exploration during development as they were play-deprived.

Stuart Brown didn't originate in the theory of play. Initially, he worked on violent crimes and murders. What spurred his interest in play was the identification that many violent criminals have limited play histories. There seemed to be a strong correlation between anti-social behavior, including violent crime, and a lack of playing in development.

The TED Talk concludes with the statement that although many people believe the opposite of play is work, in truth the opposite of play is depression. Think of a world with no play activities - no sports, no movies, no playgrounds, no games... without play, we are a depressed society.

As we continue to reform education, I hope that we maintain focus on child development and remember the importance of being a child. Elementary years should include a major emphasis on play. Although I know we do not want to get "behind" in comparison to other countries, and so we have increased expectations for younger children, I think there is an inherent danger in depriving kids of time to play. What good is academic achievement in maladjusted individuals? In the beginning I mentioned that we had this idea of playing less and learning more. I believe the solution is, in actuality, play more, learn more.