It has come to my attention, over the course of several years as a matter of fact, that children no longer play. Apparently, I’m not the only one thinking this since there was a New York Times article on the very subject. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, children spend on average seven (7) hours and 38 minutes a day in front of a screen. The computer geekly girly in me screams: “It’s not just computers and video games!” I imagine, though the article doesn’t break it down, that these seven hours include television and “educational games.” However, the point I want to get to is that children seem to have lost the ability, or no longer have the opportunity, to play; and what they would gain from playing again, according to Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a developmental psychologist at Temple University is, “…to learn to solve problems, negotiate, think creatively and work as a team when they dig together in a sandbox or build a fort with sofa cushions.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise (though it did break my heart a little) to find out that one little 5th grader last year looked at me with a bambi-like expression when I asked her and her classmates to pretend they were somewhere and become a character. They couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
What did shock me, and made me scream out loud inside my head, was to hear that schools officials are too worried about kids getting hurt and lost time from academic pursuits if children are allowed to play. Are ya kidding me?!? What kind of results are we really expecting by having kids sit at a desk for eight or more hours, following directions and guidelines or filling out standardized tests?
When I was a kid, a very fortunate kid, I had a chest full of clothes my mom didn’t wear, scraps of dresses and fabrics that I would use to play dress-up. I would spend hours, often by myself, playing pretend this or pretend that. When my friend Claudia would come over, she had a veritable treasure trove of idea for game play that included recurring characters, different scenarios – usually most involved her being Queen of the Jungle and me and other girls being fighters in her army – most of which would go on for days. My mom also taught me the “let’s put everything back” game; I didn’t enjoy it as much as the “let’s throw everything out on the floor game,” but I did it and it taught me many things. Thanks mom.
It rubs me the wrong way to hear that there are now initiatives and the US Play Coalition, a group of doctors, educators and parks and recreation officials who plan conferences on the benefits of play. Didn’t the parents of these kids play as children too? According to the article, one big part of the coalition’s objective is to teach children how to play. Have we come to this point? Is this what the “modern era” is all about?
Chew on the following:
“The average 3-year-old can pick up an iPhone and expertly scroll through the menu of apps, but how many 7-year-olds can organize a kickball game with the neighborhood kids?”