very powerful commentary.

regarding the use of play in educational settings, my sense is that "progressive education" aims to incorporate play into the school day in order to lure students into learning. the idea is to "make learning fun". what do you think of this strategy? my guess is that play really is being introduced selectively into some schools. i think there's even an industry that caters to this by providing games. however, to the extent that the adult manipulation becomes too overt, it probably undermines the purpose of play.

Lou, thanks for your comment. I have mixed feelings about the attempts to bring play into the classroom as a teaching strategy. On the positive side, I do remember the occasionally truly playful teacher I had as a child who seemed naturally to make some aspects of the classroom experience fun. But for those teachers it wasn't so much a "device;" it was just part of their personality, which made them popular teachers. Where I have seen teachers deliberately try to bring play in as a device, it has in my experience not worked very well. The kids see it for what it is and tolerate it just as they tolerate the rest of school.

There are right now some researchers and some school systems experimenting with rather elaborate games,designed to capture the elements of popular computer games, in which children must, for example, solve mathematical problems in order to free themselves from monsters and move on to the next level. The reports from those researchers and teachers experimenting with these games are very positive, but I haven't seen this first hand, nor have I heard any reports from the kids who are the guinea pigs.

A basic problem with any didactic use of play is that as soon as you begin to put play to an outside purpose and attempt to control it, then for many it becomes no longer play. In my previous post (Nov. 19) defining play. I pointed out that play is first and foremost activity that is self-chosen and self-directed by the players. When games become mandatory in school, they may still be fun for some children, and some may even have the sense that they are choosing to play and having a hand in the form of the play, but others will feel coerced, and for them it certainly is not play. Once it is no longer play, the learning advantages go out the window. The students just doing it because feel compelled to will take the same attitude toward it as toward any other lessons. They'll do the minimal possible to get the desired grade.

I am convinced from my observations at Sudbury Valley School (see Aug. 13 post) that, given an appropriate age-mixed environment, children can and will learn what they need and want to know through their own, self-directed efforts, including their own real play. It is not necessary to try to trick them into it.

Peter,thanks for sharing your thought and research.

As a mum to a young houmeschooled child I can identify with the many observations and arguments in your articles. However, my child’s adventures and learning experiences shifted from the playground to the World Wide Web from a very young age.

My son is a precocious learner. He learned to read and started surfing the Web for fun and exploration by the age of 3. When he discovers the ease and freedom in learning with the use of computer, the Internet becomes his playground and the computer his vehicle that allows him access to explore. There is so much to explore right at his finger tips (literally) that he spends a good part of the day on his computer. He learned to use various computer programs (such as Microsoft Words, Excel and PowerPoint) at the age of 4 by experimenting and reading the web tutorials. He loves to explore and try out new application programs, reading up about malwares, malicious websites, computer viruses, and other subjects that interest him. He plays online multi-player games, designs his own games, learns about computer scripts and programming, creates his own 3D design using sharewares like SketchUp, creates presentations and movies using PowerPoints and MovieMaker, creates his own web page, watches You Tubes on topics that interest him, explores the gadgets and adds on that come with the various browsers and search engines, ... The lists of things that keep him occupied just go on.

He has total freedom to choose what he wants to explore and play on the computer. It is neither passive learning nor obsessed game playing. He fantasizes about creating a 'good' computer virus that targets all the malicious websites and protects computers against the other viruses, worms and Trojan horse after spending hours reading up relevant information on anti-virus websites, Wikipedia, and etc. He even 'messed up' his computer when he experimented on changing the root directories of some of the software files as he learns about how certain viruses or worms target files of a particular root directory. Of course he found out that was not the way to protect his computer from viruses and saw the metaphor in how his changing the root directories is similar to the real virus attacking and messing up the computer. He was 5-year-old then. He learned to use anti-virus software to checkout the safety rating of new websites and downloads. He was excited when one of the computers in the house got infected with worm and help looked up the information from the Internet to clean it up.

My son does not just play games or simply watch the You Tubes, he goes on to research on the games as well as create his own games and movies. He will talk at length about the glitches he found out from some games and the causes of those glitches. He sets up virtual shop in on-line games such as Neopets selling 'Junks' as he reasons that Pant Devil steals precious Items from players, if the Pant Devil visits and see that most are junk items then it will most likely leave the player alone. Therefore, there is a market for junk items if other players buy his argument. He also learned financial concepts through playing virtual stocks and shares, setting up bank accounts and running factory.

His latest interest in online multi-player games is Roblox - A 3D block game that does not have any pre-defined goals but encourage free exploration and creation of game settings, characters and rules. It also allows players to visit each others' creations, interact (online chat) and play the role of the characters. He discovers Roblox through his exploration of the internet and gets parent's consent to join after he found out that it is kid-safe. He learns scripting as he creates his game place and is fascinated by the 3D effects of the games, which keeps him wondering what software program Roblox uses.

We totally agree that freedom to learn is fun; the Internet and multimedia are precious resources for learning when used properly. My son learns and practices precaution on how to surf the WWW safely. He acknowledges that there are sites that are ‘inappropriate’ for him to visit and steer clear of them. His knowledge on computer viruses, malicious websites, etc., also helps him understands that ‘the WWW is not totally safe”.

I also observe that my son very often chooses to observe other children play and actually enjoys watching and cheering them on. He also prefers watching popular Nintendo games posted on You Tubes rather than playing those games. Adults often assume children has to actively participate in an activity to be considered as playing, but playing audience can be equally enjoyable and enriching for children as well. Very often my son is either deeply engaged in his own imagination or actively analyzing the games while watching others play. When my son just turned 6 we offered him vacation choices to either visit Disneyland or explore the glacier and snow capped mountain, he opted for the second and remarked: ‘The glacier of course, Disneyland is boring.’ It just goes to show how wrong we can be assuming all young children will prefer playing in theme parks.

He has just turned 7 and he knows what he wants and needs to do. Everyday he explores, plays, creates, reads and discovers through his own, self-directed effort (like your observations at Sudbury Valley School) and enjoys every single moment. My role is to facilitate his play and exploration, remind him of his responsibility and duty, listen to his discoveries and frustrations, enjoy his creations, share and participate in his imaginations when invited, offer helps when asked and comfort him when the need arises. I think we are doing just fine with no school.

Thank you for reading this awfully long post (guess I am having great fun playing and sharing when writing it).

I finally got around to reading the Eisen book, and found it very moving and fascinating. Only thing is, it was hard to find a theoretical perspective in the book about the nature of play. Mostly he was just reporting data, observations about children's play in that setting (really a variety of settings, the ghetto being very different from a concentration camp). There's almost as much in the book about how the adults viewed children's play - e.g., it was important to the adults to try to provide opportunities for "normal play" - playgrounds, parks, etc. - thereby, I suppose, preserving their own sense of "normalcy".

Another intriguing theme that appeared but wasn't so much developed was the idea of "corruption of youth". One extreme example was the prevalence of youth gangs fighting each other in the streets. The number of orphans skyrocketed in the ghettos, and even when the parents were alive, they were working long hours on work details and couldn't supervise the kids. I suppose there isn't much data on such youth gangs, since they wouldn't have left diaries.
Eisen also presents the intriguing idea that the children were often more flexible and better able to adapt to changing conditions than the adults.
Yet another theme presented at the end of the book was that that children who grew up in such strange circumstances couldn't adapt very well to a "normal" post-war world - ie, by playing with their children. The suggestion is made that it's because they didn't have the opportunity for normal play themselves.
All in all, a rich book, full of data, but not focused too much on the theory of play.

I am taking a creativity class this semester and stumbled upon your blog. I have learned from my studies that children often creatre elaborate worlds that they exist in during play. I found myself putting myself in the position of those children and realizing what a wonderful mechanism play is in society. As a future teacher of gifted children, I can see the importance of incorporating play into my chlassroom environment. The challange will be how to make it a meaningful learning experience centered around my cirriculum. But I think that it would be worth while to bridge the gap between learining and retention.

Peter:
Another great insightful article. It was interesting you noted that children paly games to mimic life. Remember "ring around the rosy pocket full of posies? A game invented by children durning the black plague of the middle ages in Europe. How true. Recently, last year my son was involved in a game that had to do with the president being guarded by the secret service. There was a "bad guy" the president and the secret service. The secret service was supposed to stop the bad guy from doing the president harm. (The game went awry though)
But apparently children do this all the time, and have been for at least as far back as the 1300's.
Thanks again for the insight, I've enjoyed the Play articles.