October 1, 2016 - 21:43
Last class, we performed skits for the class of what we interpreted as play. In one skit, there were four children who were going to play a make believe game. However, they argued on who got to be who and changed their minds about which character they wanted to be. Similarly, in another skit, there were three children who pretended to Beyoncé, Joan of Arc, and a princess. These make believe games made up most of playing for many children, including me.
We read Kid Stuff by Molly Knefel, and afterward, I looked at the various short postings by my classmates to try to see them through Knefel’s argument. In my opinion, her argument is: “But in order for childhood to be carefree, it would have to exist in an entirely separate world from the adult one, full as it is of cares, some more immediately consequential than others” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). Which leads me to my thinking that playing, and as Knefel says, “childhood is not carefree” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). It is impossible for children to have a carefree childhood not because they are in the same world as adults but because children can never be completely separate from adult problems. No matter how hard adults may try to protect children from discovering problems, children are aware of the issues affecting their families and their communities.
This argument changes the lens by which I looked at play during my own childhood as well as the short posting and the skits in class. It makes me question if the play and fantasy games were really effortless. After reading this article, I look back at playing make believe games and I wonder how much they were impacted by the adult world and other problems. In our previous assignment, I was instructed to write about a post from one of my classmates. However, after conferencing and re-reading the posts, I noticed that there weren't any posts that specifically addressed economic, classist, and racial issues and how they related to play. I found it striking that none of my classmates chose to write about these social issues that affect many families. Bryn Mawr prides itself on being a very diverse school, both in terms of race and also economic status. I was surprised at the lack of posting about these issues disrupting play. While these issues are definitely hard to write about and probably even harder to write about for someone who has personally experienced them, it would have been so enlightening to read about about someone’s experience.
In Kid Stuff, her topics shift to the underprivileged children and her teaching moments and interactions with them. She describes how, “They’re not carefree, but they sometimes laugh like they are” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). It doesn’t matter how carefree children are when they play, its when they play, how do they make the most of it. Children who have so much to worry about can still have fun and make the most of their play, it’s just harder. I really grasped her argument and her evidence when she wrote, “all kids have to worry about tests, but not all kids have to worry about poverty and policing” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). This was what made me actually stop looking at the skits we did in class, the playing that I did as a child, and the posting and begin to think of other kids, the ones that Knefel refers to as “at risk” kids. I can only imagine what kinds of thoughts go through their heads every day as they try to play and have fun. This point in the article was when I turned my argument and realized that it wasn’t meant for someone, such as myself. Looking back again to Knefel’s description of having the kids in her class write plays. I had a similar assignment in fifth grade. But my play was about friendship and playing with no worries. The plays in the article, for example, one where a girl chooses to study for her test all the time rather than have fun to “ensure her future success” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). I would never even be considering this during my childhood. A test designed to “hold other kids back, fire their teachers, and close their schools” (Knefel, Kid Stuff). Children that have this view of the world and have the self awareness and awareness of their surroundings to write plays about issues of losing their education cannot be experiencing a carefree childhood. Knefel also wrote about a boy who wrote a play about asking to borrow money from a friend. When the friend refuses, then the boy steals the money and both boys are arrested. “It’s a pretty devastating portrayal of the cyclical criminalization of poverty” (Knefel, Kid Stuff).
I don’t think that children will ever cease to have a relationship or connection to adults and therefore, will probably never have carefree play. However, I only consider that to be part of the problem. The underprivileged children that Knefel describes don’t seem to be getting all of their worries from the adults in their lives. They seem to be generating a few of these ideas on their own, for example the girl who wrote the play. It is just so important to realize that this problem goes beyond this article. There are children everywhere who struggle economically and are then shown as tragic children. I believe that that portrayal and stigma can be avoided if this problem as a whole of giving children anxiety and stress could be addressed. How it could be addressed is another question. Especially because it is impossible to cut off children completely from the adult world. Children will always witness adult behavior and while they may not fully understand adult problems and stress, they do notice and it affects they play and their ability to be carefree.
Works Cited
Knefel, M. (2015, July 16). Kid Stuff. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/kid-stuff/
Kismet, Operation. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from www.serendip.brynmar.edu