I’m watching my two-year-old daughter running circles around my living room. She’s dressed herself in a leotard with stars on it, her tall puppy dog boots, and a pink silk square of fabric tied around her neck for a cape. As she runs, she looks over her shoulder, watching the cape swish out behind her. She looks for her reflection in the window, jumping as high as she can and then taking off again. I watch her in wonder. How do I keep her imagination alive in a world that wants to push her too hard too fast? How do I let her innate curiosity thrive, her creativity expand, her vibrant sense of original play develop, in a system that wants to test her, assess her, and label her before she’s even five years old? She had a playdate yesterday with a three-year-old child who had to go home early to do her “homework.” If you find it bizarre that a three year old would have homework, you’re not alone, but it’s becoming more and more common to push academics on very young children. Schools and society in general are putting so much pressure on children to regurgitate information adults find important, that natural curiosity– the foundation of learning–is being squelched before it even gets a chance to develop.
UNICEF released a study in February 2007 that researched the well-being of children in rich countries. Surprisingly, the United States and the U.K. ranked lowest in six different categories: material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, and behaviors and risks. It actually isn’t so surprising when you consider what children today have to deal with: ADHD, teen pregnancy, drugs, violence, and a society that is pushing children to achieve harder and faster than ever before.
“Play is the work of the child,” said Jean Piaget, the world-renowned developmental psychologist, famous for his work with children. According to Piaget and most child development experts, free play is as important to the positive development of children as food and air. The Alliance for Childhood, a group who advocates for children, has issued a call to action signed by more than 150 leading experts in the field of education that states (among other things): “We call for early education that emphasizes experiential, hands-on activities, open-ended creative play, and caring human relationships.” The three tenets of their mission are respecting children; alleviating childhood stress; and protecting childhood as a time of unhurried growth. In a press release entitled “School Failure May Be Linked to Lack of Play in Early Childhood,” the Alliance for Childhood writes that parents, teachers, and policy makers need to be educated on the importance of play as a vital component to human development.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is aiming to do just that. They recently issued a clinical report stating that the “importance of play cannot be overestimated in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds.” Play is how the young child learns to engage and interact with the world around them, how to cooperate and problem-solve with peers, to work within groups, to practice leadership and to promote social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Playing is active and healthy, while many of the ways children are being “entertained” these days are passive and unhealthy, namely watching television and working on computers. The AAP recommends that children under 3 watch no television at all, stating that it interferes with their cognitive development. The report also states that while media can be damaging to young children, there are other culprits, such as a hurried lifestyle and “increased attention to enrichment activities in schools at the expense of recess and free play.” The AAP presents a strong case that optimal child development requires that children have ample time for free play.
But so far, policy makers aren’t listening to the growing list of doctors, educators, and early childhood experts. With the creation of the well-meaning No Child Left Behind Act, many schools have been forced to cut recess out of their curriculum in order to fit in more worksheets and academic drills. The children may be able to pass standardized tests, but how well will they be able to relate to others, solve conflicts, or use their imagination and creativity, all things learned through play? Worst of all, the pressure put on schools by the NCLB Act may be causing more harm than good, even academically. A recent study of 5,000 children in England shows that kids who have play as an integral part of their school curriculum score better on tests and do better academically in the long run. Children who are forced to memorize and recite information, missing out on valuable free play, have a much better chance of being “left behind” than children who are allowed to play.
In response to the current anti-play climate, many parents and early education professors are turning to curriculum models that focus on developmentally appropriate practices that help to engage the children and support their learning through play. These include Reggio Emilia, Bank Street, Montessori, and Waldorf. Heidi Porter, a teacher at the Waldorf Hill School in New Orleans, says that when children come to her classroom from an electronic-focused background, they will wonder what to do with the open-ended toys specific to Waldorf classrooms. She says that she is able to support their transition into imaginative free play by creating a beautiful space and the right kind of toys. She says, “I try to surround children with beautiful things to play with, smell, taste, and touch. It’s healthy and therapeutic for the kids and the teacher. We all need magic and hope in our lives.”
I went to visit the Hill School and was taken aback by the rough neighborhood and warehouse-like building, but when I walked into Ms. Porter’s classroom, the beauty of it took my breath away. Words like cozy, soft, warm, inviting, relaxing, tranquil, and richly imaginative came to mind. There were beautiful mobiles of fairies hung from branches, textured wooden blocks, a richly colored nature table laden with rocks, flowers, candles, and photos. There was a wooden loft with a ladder and a large silk canopy hanging over it. Under the loft was a little “house” complete with a kitchen, cradles, soft lovable babies and baskets of pebbles. Everywhere I looked in the room was an invitation to play. My daughter’s face lit up when she walked into the room. She went straight to the baby area and proceeded to rock the babies and put them in their cradle, covering them up and rubbing their backs. Then she took a basket of pebbles and spent a long time carefully transferring them to another basket. I was pleased to see she came home and set up her own little village in her room, telling me a crooked stick was a river, a round piece of bark was a boat and a tiny acorn cup was for holding water for the fairies to drink. She was quietly engaged in this world of her creation for more than thirty minutes, before she came into my writing room with two play silks and asked me to help her dress as a marble.
How can I preserve her vibrant imagination? When its time for her to go to school, I will do my homework and send her to one that values play as an integral part of its curriculum. In the meantime, I’ll give her the space and the right kinds of toys and stay out of her way.
Written in 2007
