September 23, 2016 - 11:57
Play is any free activity that brings joy to someone. For children this could be playing on the playground, pretend house, wrestling, or caring for baby dolls. Now adults on the other hand may enjoy reading a good book, going shopping, or spending time with kids. While play varies among all ages, it is essential to the development of the brain to play. As Stuart Brown states in his interview, “Play, Spirit, and Character,” a child could learn more by playing at recess than by being in a classroom setting (Brown). This gives children the opportunity to find their own fun exploring. Kids needs to be given the freedom to figure out play and games on their own, without structure, in order to develop and grow as human beings.
Serendip user “amanda.simone” describes her childhood play as always taking place on the playground. Even in her toddler years she spent most her time with her friends at her neighborhood playground. Playgrounds provide structure to children’s play because all of the equipment has a specific purpose and use. However, Amanda describes the games that she played which used the equipment in many different ways. Even in the setting of a playground, children can use their imagination to explore new realms of play. In chapter four of “Urban Wildscapes,” play is described in a less conventional way. “However ordered, or unordered those streets may be, children (and adults engaged in playful activity) are able to disorder the street as adult space when they transgress and/or temporal boundaries and thereby enter a more liminal, hybrid, inbetween world” (2005: 312 p. 76). People are able to distort the purpose of different settings to create play for themselves. Children have the ability to create fun without the help from adults and other structured situations. As it says in the article, ruins are a great example of a setting that encourages people to use their imagination to find play. At the same time, a playground, a place meant for play, can be used in a similar way. Many adults believe that they have to closely monitor the play of children because the kids may need help creating games, but that is never the case. It is extremely important for children to be able to have the freedom to explore and find their own play. That creates a situation where they can learn to their maximum potential, without the assistance from adults and without a structured environment.
Amanda also describes her mother’s reaction to the way she and her friends decided to use the playground equipment. She explains, “Plastic roofs of little play huts became slides and jumping platforms. My mom was not happy, but we were” (amanda.simone). The creative, new ways to play on the equipment was discovered due to the fact that even though the mother recognized the danger in the game, she still let this type of play continue. She states that her “mom was not happy” because she was worried about the danger of climbing on top of the equipment. This freedom is crucial in the development of a child’s brain. They must try new things, maybe fail a couple times in order to learn and draw new conclusions. Parents need to step back and realize that this type of creative play, may be a little dangerous, but it will probably help them grow in the long run. “Dr. Stuart Brown suggests that the rough-and-tumble play of children actually prevents violent behavior, and that play can grow human talents and character across a lifetime” (Tippett). It is essential for children to have little to no guidance in play, because this gives children the freedom to explore and learn new things. They do not need constant parental surveillance and assistance. In fact, they are better without it.
Children do not always recognize the danger in a situation in the same way that adults do. In Amanda’s experience she and her friends feel no reason not to climb on top of all of the playground equipment, while her mother clearly sees the danger in this activity. This idea opposes a point made in the article “Kid Stuff” by Molly Knefel. She describes the way in which some children think, “For some children, that struggle is set against the backdrop of segregated housing, closing schools, economic insecurity, and the looming threat of incarceration” (Knefel). She believes that children, just like adults, have many worries. They do not live care-free, happy lives all of the time. This idea of the worries that children have is not recognizable in Amanda’s childhood. She lives a very different life than her mother. Her mother constantly has worries about the safety of the situation her kids are in, or how they are feeling. On the other hand, Amanda has no sense of the danger in her play and she is free to do whatever she wants without recognizing the consequences. This is a stereotypical way of looking at a child at play, especially on a playground.
The imaginative play that Amanda creates for herself is a great way for her to explore and learn. When children are creative and make-up games on their own, their potential to learn from this type of play is higher than if they were to play in a very structured environment. A classroom setting can only teach a child to a certain extent, making it essential for the children to play independently of adults. Without play, children would not flourish and have real life experiences. It is important that parents learn to relax while their children are playing, even if it may seem a little risky, because it has been proven that they will learn from mess-ups. Even in an outdoor setting without the structure from parents or classrooms, there are still other things that act in a way to create structure (Urban Wildscapes). An example of this is a playground because all of the equipment has a specific use. However, most of the time children will figure out new ways to use a playground and create new, more exciting fun!
References
Amanda.simone. "Play Next Door." Serendip.
Brown, Stuart. "Play, Spirit, and Character." Interview by Krista Tippett. On Being Studios.
Edensor, Tim. Chapter Four: Playing in Industrial Ruins.
Kid Stuff. thenewinquiry.com.