Artist and long-time educator Don Fels would begin lessons with his class of 4-year-olds by placing a range of interesting materials on the table in front of them and then stepping back. He trusted that if he opened space for the children to play they would enter it, and he did not want to interfere with their natural inclination to play. He watched carefully and might briefly help a student who needed a moment of his attention, but mostly he gave them room to explore, invent, create, to ask “what if?” and “what happens if I do this?” and to share what they found with each other. They were playing, and they were learning. Play is the work of children, and it is central to their academic, social, emotional and physical development.
Fels talks about watching kittens playing, under the close attention of their mother. They run, tumble, leap and stalk, practicing the skills and behaviors they will need as they mature into their independence, and their playing is full of purpose; it’s how they are learning what they need to learn. Play for humans is no different. The wide range of games we play growing up allows us to practice and develop the wide range of skills, physical, social, emotional and cognitive, that we need as we move into our own independence.
What is play?
The National Institute for Play recognizes that play is in many ways unique and personal to each of us which makes it difficult to define, but that it does share common elements no matter what form it takes.
They say that “Play is a biological state that arises when we are freely engaged, curious, and absorbed in an activity for its own sake. It is defined not by what we are doing, but by how and why we’re doing it. When we are playing, the experience itself becomes the reward — attention deepens, effort feels enlivening, and time may seem to recede.”
Play is essential to our academic learning as well as our physical, social and psychological development. Here are some of the ways that play enhances our development:
- Increased attention: We learn best when we take a break after intense focus, to process what we have learned. Play helps to stimulate our brains. It also helps us to be ready to focus on what comes next.
- Social-emotional development: When we are playing with others, we are doing what the kittens were doing: we are inventing, creating, trying out our physical strength, developing a range of skills that will serve us throughout our lives. We are practicing negotiating, arguing, creating, exploring, experimenting and being flexible as we also learn to deal with success and failure.
- Physical health and well-being: When we play we are developing our motor skills, we are providing oxygen to the brain, producing endorphins that help our mood and sense of possibility, and we become stronger, which gives us the stamina to do what needs to be done.
There are three essential elements to play. First, it must be the player’s choice to play; they are playing because they want to. Second, they are deciding what to play, how to play, and are free to make decisions along the way that could change how they play. There are no adults making choices for them or directing the play, which corresponds in the school setting to Don providing materials as an invitation and then stepping away; and third, there is no external consequence to the play; no reward, no trophy, no grade. The play’s the thing. There is often a fourth element: joy. Playing is fun.
Play at school
When I began teaching I recognized in my students a posture and look that I had “perfected” in my own schooling, holding the posture of a listener while being a million miles away. When the bell rang ending class, the entire building exploded with energy. The students came back to life, filling the hallways with animated interactions with friends, mini dramas and confrontations, the sharing of stories and plans for after school, the latest gossip while simultaneously slamming lockers shut, racing to their next class before the next bell.
Students were alive, were excited, were more fully themselves for those four minutes before they entered their next classroom, the curtain closed and their eyes glazed over. This is exactly backwards; I want the students alive, excited, fully themselves when they are in the classroom, when they are engaging in learning, in discovering, in creating. Offering them the opportunity to learn through play as much as possible is a key to having that happen. How can we make this happen?
Playful learning at school
Steve Goldenberg, an extraordinary teacher of young children said that he valued the learning that his students did, both in the classroom and outside the classroom. He does not regard recess time as a break from learning, rather, he sees it as an opportunity for his students to learn and process within a different context and setting. He structured his classroom so that students were able to direct their own learning as much as possible, with as little interference from him as possible. His focus was on their learning, growth and maturation, not on his teaching. His mission as a teacher was to help them gain the skills and confidence that allowed them to follow their own learning path.
My work with older students was really no different. I could talk about something, they could read text or articles about something and they might remember some of it, but they learned it much more deeply when they had time to play with the ideas, to explore and question the issues or topics, turning them this way and that, debating different points of view with classmates, preparing to teach a lesson on the topic or engaging with it creatively. When the students cared about what they were exploring and investigating, when they were working with each other, and when they were in charge of the work they were doing, the room was buzzing, the students were engaged in learning that mattered to them and they didn’t want to stop. There was content knowledge, but they were also learning to work with others, to plan and organize their time and research. They were learning to listen to each other, to disagree respectfully, to have their ideas accepted or rejected, and to appreciate the various skills and points of view their classmates brought to the conversation. My challenge as a teacher was to introduce an interesting and engaging offer, to provide a structure that was both supportive and flexible, and then to step back.
We would talk together as a whole group about what they were discovering, about the questions they had surfaced, and we problem-solved together how they could take their work deeper, and they would then get back to it, eager to continue.
Play is more important than ever
Due to pressures brought by the “back to basics” movement, including the emphasis on high stakes testing that came along with No Child Left Behind, there is less time for play in schools. Many schools have cut back on recess, and have their children, even kindergarteners, glued to their seats filling in workbook pages. In addition, there is less play happening in many communities because parents worry about whether children playing outside, without adult supervision are safe.
“We’re structuring children’s time so much that we’re taking necessary skills away from them,” Susan Rogers, an associate professor and academic director of an early childhood learning center said. “We’re limiting their critical thinking, creativity, self-expression, and confidence. Consequently, as they get older, they don’t have the ability to dig deep, manage stress, or problem-solve. We need to give them experiences to learn how to deal with conflict and to move away from being reliant on adults, and they learn these skills in play.”
All the more reason for more play at school, at recess and in the classroom. Rep. Marjorie Decker, D-Cambridge, has submitted a House Bill 543 requiring schools to offer at least 30 minutes a day of recess. That’s a good step. And there is room for more playful learning during class time, if we focus on who our children are and what they need as they develop into healthy, happy and productive adults.
Doug Selwyn taught at K-12 public schools from 1985 until 2000 and then at university as a professor of education until he retired in 2017. He is the chair of the Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution education task force. You can reach him at dougselwyn12@gmail.com.