History of Play

05/29/2008

We can do no great things, only small things with great love.
Mother Teresa

According to Joe Frost, there is a rich heritage of children's play dating back to antiquity. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle recognized the importance of play for children and promoted its role in education and development. For centuries, play has been at the center of children's lives. Then, Frost observes in Where Do The Children Play?, a guidebook for the PBS documentary by the same name, at the end of the twentieth century, children's play began to change in profound ways...

"Children were staying indoors to play with their tech toys, while all the time making regular trips to the refrigerator for junk food. Kept informed about predators waiting just outside the door, and wall-to-wall coverage of child kidnappings and abuse by the media, parents became increasingly fearful, even paranoid, and warned their children to stay inside... [and] By the turn of the twenty-first century, threat of lawsuits had become so pervasive that all parties involved with the development or use of playgrounds were at risk."

The final blow against play, observes Frost, was the No Child Left Behind Act and its high-stakes testing. The content of the tests became essentially a national curriculum and children's play was not included. "The results of the testing mania were widespread and punishing to children.... Recess was abandoned by a growing number of schools to make more time for teaching the tests. Some schools were built without playgrounds, ostensibly to avoid injuries and lawsuits, or closer to reality, because many adults failed to understand the developmental values of children's free play in outdoor playgrounds or were fearful that their schools and children might be designated 'low performing.'"

Frost concludes that all these factors "collectively unraveled centuries of openness to challenging play and play environments, both natural and built, and now threaten the health and welfare of American children and growing numbers in other countries."

Reverse the Trend — Resources for Promoting Play

We have bundled together a variety of practical resources on play and are selling them at a discounted package price. Our Play Tool Kit contains the following items:

Play: A Beginnings Workshop Book
The Power of Play: How spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children by David Elkind
Exchange Article Collection #8 – Play CD

Plus three Out of the Box Training Kits:

"Play and the Outdoors"
"But They're Only Playing"
"Supporting Constructive Play in the Wild"

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For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.