18,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Harness the power of play in building learning environments that help students thrive In Why Play Works, expert educator and author Jill Vialet shares her insights from a career of promoting play. Designed to support schools, education professionals and parents in promoting play as an essential tool for increasing social connection amongst their students, you'll find out why playing is a behavior that's helped children learn to navigate the demands of social interaction for eons, and how we can keep it central to their school experience even as we return from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this book, you'll discover: * Why it's important to intentionally integrate play into day-to-day school operations because of its ability to help students learn to manage risks, develop greater self awareness, and build confidence * Ways of incorporating play into space - both in-person and remote - that contribute to responsive, flexible and sustainable teaching and learning environments * Real examples of schools leveraging play to promote youth leadership and student agency * How to incorporate play in co-creating new approaches to education, building off the insight that big changes start small Perfect for educators, school administrators, parents of school-age children, and anyone who is simply play-curious, Why Play Works is intended to prompt your thinking about all the ways in which play can be a tool for helping to bring out the best in our kids.. The book stands out as a thoughtful, playful and effective guide for supporting the learning and well-being of students everywhere.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 293
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Ähnliche
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
Recess
Class Gametime
Junior Coach Leadership Program
The Leagues
How to Use this Book
Notes
Play, Seriously: The Theory and Science Behind Play
What's in a Name?
Defining
Play
A Brief Tour of Play Theory
Time‐Out: Structured Versus Unstructured Play
Play Science
Notes
Twenty Big Changes That Start with Play
1 Relationships, Relationships, Relationships
2 Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3
3 Fire in Your Belly
4 What Is Normal?
5 Anyone Can Play
6 If at First You Don't Succeed …
7 Follow the Leader
8 Emotional Rescue
9 I Disagree!
10 Who Says “Winner Takes All”?
11 Risky Business
12 It's a Family Affair
13 Let's Get Physical
14 Here, There, and Everywhere
15 Chaos by Design
16 Ch‐Ch‐Ch‐ Changes
17 Driven to Distraction
18 Throw Like a Girl
19 Leveling the Playing Field
20 Getting Better
Notes
We Can Do This
Play Yourself
Silly as a Superpower
Infuse Play
Protect Play
Advocate Play
Notes
Game Guide
Animal Farm
Band Aid Tag
Blob Tag
Bob the Bunny
Cookie Jar
Elbow Tag
Four Square
Gaga Ball
Giants, Wizards, and Elves
Hula Hoop Challenge
Hungry Fox
I Love My Neighbor
Knockout
Land, Sea, Air
Mountains and Valleys
Night at the Museum
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Over Under
Poop Deck
Ro‐Sham‐Bo Rockstar
Sequence Touch
Shipwreck
Sprout Ball
Steal the Bacon
Superstar
Switch
Three Lines Basketball
Toxic Waste Dump
Triangle Tag
Ultimate Kickball
Whistle Mixer
Who Stole the Cookies?
Wolves and Bunnies
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
Pages
i
ii
iii
iv
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
“Why Play Works is an inspiring literary game changer for community leaders + educators. Jill generously shares a plethora of insights + wisdom + a game plan to maximize the power, value & positive impact that recess can offer. GameON!” #amazing #unlock #cheatcode #gratitude
—Kevin Carroll, author + katalyst
“WOW. In why play works, Vialet offers a well written, fast moving and compelling case for why play — that seemingly frivolous childhood obsession — holds the seeds to social connectedness, civility and democracy itself. A must read for anyone who cares about children and the future of society and for all who can use a little more recess in their lives.”
—Kathy Hirsh‐Pasek, Professor of Psychology, Temple University; senior fellow Brookings Institution; author Becoming Brilliant and Einstein Never Used Flashcards
“What this book, celebrating 25 years of Playworks leadership and its proven accomplishments does, is…on close scrutiny, provide a compelling science‐based workable narrative and methods for resolving seeming insoluble problems with which our inner city schools (and society) struggle. Problems which historically explode regularly in recess settings that then continue to disrupt the overall school settings, and reflect unsolved broad societal dysfunctions. However, the solutions described in this book work “magically” in many varied and highly challenging settings., But beyond this book are also play based solutions broadly applicable to transforming our polarized society itself. Jill's leadership and Playworks track record and the details within this book provide the keys to providing an antidote to “connection, isolation, fear, distrust and despair, replacing it with joyfulness, resiliency changemaking skills,…and more.”
—Stuart Brown, MD Founder, National Institute for Play
Why Play Works makes the case for play equity in a moment when we need it more than ever. Vialet has brought together stories, insights and playfulness in a useful, readable format that we hope will shift the thinking of educators, activists and families of the important role of play to physical and mental wellbeing."
—Renata Simril, President and CEO, LA84 & President, Play Equity Fund.
WHY PLAY WORKS
Big Changes Start Small
JILL VIALET
Copyright © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762‐2974, outside the United States at (317) 572‐3993 or fax (317) 572‐4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Vialet, Jill, author.
Title: Why play works : big changes start small / Jill Vialet.
Description: [San Francisco] : Jossey‐Bass, [2021] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021027139 (print) | LCCN 2021027140 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119774549 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119779124 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119775508 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Play. | Socialization. | School recess breaks.
Classification: LCC LB1137 .V53 2021 (print) | LCC LB1137 (ebook) | DDC 306.4/81—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027139
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027140
Cover image: © Getty Images | PassionartistCover design: Paul McCarthy
Introduction
In 1995 I was running a small local nonprofit organization called the Museum of Children's Art (mocha) in Oakland, California. We had a number of partnerships with schools—basically artist residencies—and one of them was with a local school named Santa Fe Elementary where Mrs. Peyton was the principal.
Although much of the world has changed since I was a kid, school offices have not. They are typically busy hives of activity, with a counter that keeps visitors from coming in too deep, two desks for the school secretary and another administrative helper, and an inner sanctum—the principal's office—just off to one side. The Santa Fe office was set up just like this, and I recall sitting in one of the chairs generally reserved for students anticipating punishment up against the front wall, waiting for Mrs. Peyton.
The meeting had been scheduled for just after the lunch hour, and Mrs. Peyton was running late. After about 20 minutes, Mrs. Peyton emerged followed by three little boys. The young men seemed about nine or ten years old, and they all looked absolutely miserable. Mrs. Peyton, in turn, was furious. She ushered the boys to the school secretary, conveyed some instructions about contacting their families and then marched back into her office, stopping briefly to signal that I should follow.
Once in the office, I sat in the chair opposite hers and, before I had fully settled in, Mrs. Peyton launched into the litany of reasons that, basically, recess was hell. The teachers found every reason to be anywhere but the playground, the students didn't know how to get a game going or to keep a game going, the conflicts that arose on the playground followed the students back into the classroom, and, most frustratingly, these same three boys kept getting into trouble. She was building up steam as she went, and the description of the scene that she painted sounded hopeless. But the thing I remember most clearly was when she said, “And the worst part is that, because of recess, these boys are starting to believe that they're bad kids. These are not bad kids.”
I hadn't said anything yet, but I must have nodded or signaled some sort of understanding because Mrs. Peyton took a breath and asked, “Can't you do something? Can you help fix recess?”
Initially, I was taken aback by the question. After all, I was there in her office to talk about the artist residency program. But the question got me thinking, and I immediately flashed on my own childhood growing up in Washington, DC, and afternoons spent at the Macomb Street playground. There was a guy who worked for the DC Parks and Rec Department named Clarence who was responsible for all the assorted activities that happened at the park. Mostly I remember him keeping the center open and coaching various teams—basketball and flag football most distinctly. There was the occasional DC Metro spelling bee that some of the kids participated in, and I think there must have been arts and crafts, but generally speaking we just hung out until it was time to go home for dinner.
It's not insignificant that I so vividly recall the basketball and football. This was the 1970s and Title IX had passed in 1972, so although there was a growing shift in attitudes about making opportunities available to women and girls, from my young perspective, it largely meant that I got to play with the boys.
When Mrs. Peyton asked if I might “do something,” my immediate thought was how Clarence had always made sure that I got in the game. I was a good athlete and although Clarence didn't make it a big deal, I had a vague sense that he had preemptively squashed any resistance that might have arisen to my participation as a girl. And so, when Mrs. Peyton asked, “Can't you do something? Can you help fix recess?” the first thing I thought was: I could make it possible for every kid to have a Clarence.
That was 25 years ago. Since then I've learned a lot about how to make it possible for kids “to have a Clarence.” I've also learned a lot about the power of play, especially when someone like Clarence is making it accessible. The organization I founded back in 1996, originally called Sports4Kids and now called Playworks, works through direct service and more indirectly through training and online support. Our original model, which we now refer to as Coach, involves a full‐time staffperson (the Clarence) placed at an elementary school and overseeing four main components: Recess, Class Gametime, the Junior Coach Leadership Program, and Leagues. We'll go a little more into each of these, but here's a little context.
Recess
This is why schools typically ask for Playworks’ help. Our staffperson is out at all the recesses being the grown‐up “in charge.”
Class Gametime
At schools where timing allows, our coaches makes themselves available to support classroom teachers running games and physical activities either out on the playground or in the classroom. These smaller groups allow for students to learn the rules to new games, reinforce behavioral norms, and enjoy additional minutes of physical activity. In some cases, the classroom teachers and the coach are able to coordinate ways that Classroom Gametime reinforces classroom lessons, such as a collective running activity tied to mapping distances.
Junior Coach Leadership Program
This is our effort to ensure that kids really own recess. Ten to 12 students—usually fourth and fifth graders—are identified to work in teams supporting the flow of activities out at recess. This includes everything from distributing equipment to introducing new games, from providing oversight at different game stations to helping resolve conflicts when they arise. One thing about this program worth mentioning is that we make a concerted effort to ensure that it doesn't fall into the trap of just involving the “usual” leadership suspects. As you will see, part of the program's success has always stemmed from the diversity of its participants.
The Leagues
The Playworks sports leagues were initially launched to prompt greater involvement among girls, but it has evolved over the years to include an assortment of sports available for all students. We also expanded the offerings to include ongoing leagues in the traditional sense, along with weekend extravaganzas that allowed for short‐term competitions. The leagues are also the primary way we involve families and intentionally introduce competition into our programming.
* * *
The results of these efforts when taken together are really quite extraordinary. A randomized control trial—the gold standard of evaluations in which schools were randomized to receive Playworks and the outcomes were measured against comparable schools not engaged with us—found that students at Playworks schools felt safer (according to their teachers), engaged in more vigorous physical activity, were less likely to engage in bullying behaviors, and recovered instructional time with quicker, less fraught transitions.1 Outcomes, it should be noted, that feel particularly relevant to this moment.
Playworks has weathered many storms since its inception, but recent events have left many of us reeling. As of this writing, kids, families and schools across the US are facing incredible challenges: a global pandemic that has closed many of our schools and a social reckoning that has exposed the institutional racism that our country is built on. In summer 2020, in response to school closings, I worked with staff to write The Playworks School Re‐Opening Workbook, which we made available as a free ebook.2 Summer 2020 was also a time of tremendous racial upheaval in the United States, sparked by the murders of George Floyd and others. On the surface, the Re‐Opening Workbook was an effort to offer some tools and a framework for educators to think about how they wanted to come back; however, the writing of it raised a deeper question. Specifically, what might play teach us about doing things differently after schools reopen?
Although play may be the furthest things from our minds when our children's basic education feels threatened, I'm here to say that it is essential for growing kids who are kind and compassionate, able to solve problems, and community oriented. Prioritizing play is critical because these are the very attributes we need for turning things around now and navigating our increasingly complex world.
Play is uniquely well suited to encourage and support human connection. Play has, in fact, survived evolution despite being a “risky” behavior, precisely because it teaches us how to navigate the kind of social connection that is needed right now.
Play also creates many opportunities for redesigning what we want our schools to look like. Considering this moment as a global transition, play offers tremendous lessons for promoting inclusion and belonging. It also makes plain the importance of agency, trust, and their connection to the processes of establishing rules, rituals, and ways of gracefully resolving disagreements. Play teaches us that it matters how it feels, and that focusing on that in school reopenings—for everyone involved—will be critical to our ultimate success.
Writing the Re‐Opening Workbook also reminded me of all the many different people who have been part of the Playworks story. So, in writing this book, I reached out to lots and lots of people: folks who had worked at Sports4Kids in the early days, as well as people who had joined when we had already made the shift to calling ourselves Playworks. I talked with principals who had had our program, to researchers who had studied our program, and to funders who had supported our program. My hope was that in talking to the people who knew us best, I could come to better understand why play works.
This book is the result. The stories and lessons learned from 25 years of bringing play to schools all across the country (and in Ireland as you will read) provide the backbone of this effort to share one profound insight: play has the power to bring out the best in people. This book is not intended to be a history of Playworks, but rather a collection of insights about play that I hope will be inspiring and helpful for anyone who has power or influence over children's access to safe and healthy daily play. My hope is that in reading this book you will come to understand why prioritizing play is so important, not only to the individual child but also to our collective well‐being.
Why Play Works looks at play through our experience as an organization and through our observations as facilitators of play. This book also asks us to reconsider how we have been doing things, and how we might do these things better. The future is uncertain. This book is an effort to inspire and support a shift in our educational system to focus more deeply on teaching the skills that are essential to thriving in a democracy—the abilities to navigate social connection, to have respectful conflict, to learn from mistakes, and to win graciously. It is also a declaration that play is critical to achieving this seismic shift and that big changes start small.
How to Use this Book
I imagine that if you're reading this book, it's because you already have an intuition that play is far more influential than we usually acknowledge. Maybe you've had a striking play experience with your own kids—or your students or the young athletes you coach—and now you're trying to make sense of it. Maybe you're hoping to figure out how you might intentionally tap the power of play—or to convince other grown‐ups of what you've discovered. In any and all of these situations, Why Play Works is for you.
Why Play Works is organized into three main sections. It starts out with a brief exploration of the theory and the science behind the power of play and the surprisingly challenging task of actually defining play. I can imagine that some of you might be tempted to skip over this seemingly academic opening, but I'd encourage you to at least skim it. This section is really the foundation of understanding why you should care about play and provides some persuasive ideas for anyone who is trying to convince others of play's importance.
The second section, and really the heart of the book, is made up of Twenty Big Changes where play can offer a powerful small start. The book digs into the role of play in creating social norms, promoting social connection and physical activity, along with the relationship among play, safety, risk, and learning. The Playworks experience provides a great springboard for exploring play and leadership (primarily through the lens of our Junior Coach Leadership Program), and lessons learned from running sports leagues offer a chance to consider the issues of gender, competition, and the role of families. Throughout the book I've tried to illustrate how play can serve as a powerful lever of design in creating intentional teaching and learning moments. I also look at how play can work in conjunction with space and place, including the regional differences we've encountered bringing Playworks to new cities across the US, in expanding our efforts to Ireland, and most recently translating our approach to work virtually. Finally, I've included thoughts on the change that is possible through the connection between race and play, and the role of play in healing.
Each of the Twenty Big Changes has an accompanying Power of Play—insights related to how these changes show up at school—and a Small Start—a game or activity that is intended to make concrete the way that play can serve as a catalyst. I've also included a bunch of my favorite game recipes at the end of the book, and you can share those with others by sending them to the link: www.playworks.org/whyplayworksgameguide.
You'll also find a few Time‐Outs mixed in—ideas that offer slightly different ways of thinking about play, intended to spark your curiosity about the changes you might achieve.
The third and final section of Why Play Works,We Can Do This, looks at the role of adults in promoting play. This section is my call to action—an invitation to the reader to consider how you might become a more active enabler of play and the big changes it can prompt.
***
This is a critical moment in the American experiment. The polarization that defines our public discourse is extreme, and there is a pervasive sense of hopelessness about the possibility of finding common ground. This book sets out to show how play is precisely the counterintuitive solution we need at this moment. Although frequently dismissed as frivolous, nothing could be further from the truth. Play is the antidote to disconnection, isolation, fear, distrust, and despair. It can help in mitigating trauma while building the confidence and resilience essential to navigating risk. It is a source of joy that facilitates understanding across difference. It taps our intrinsic motivation, teaches us to deal with the unexpected, and sparks creativity. Play is where we learn the changemaking skills—the everyday, inclusive leadership skills—that this moment so desperately requires. With this book, I invite you to suspend your disbelief and to consider how play might work for you, your community, and our democracy.
Notes
1
Bleeker, M., S. James‐Burdumy, N. Beyler, A. H. Dodd, R. A. London, L. Westrich, K. Stokes‐Guinan, and S. Castrechini. “Findings from a Randomized Experiment of Playworks” (April 17, 2012). Mathematica Policy Research and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.
2
www.playworks.org/workbook
.
Play, Seriously: The Theory and Science Behind Play
You may be wondering why I'm starting out with this overview of the foundational, big ideas behind play. The truth is that I wasn't all that familiar with any of these theories or the science of play when I launched Sports4Kids—nor when we changed the name to Playworks. It would have helped. It would have made it easier to convince some people and to explain away other people's reservations. I'm not sure it would have radically changed any of our choices, but it might have informed them. And knowledge is power.
All that said, as you will see, a key element of play is volition. My hope is that your engagement with this book will be as playful as possible, and so, by all means, skip ahead to the next section if you so choose. But know that you are cordially invited to spend a little time here learning about play's storied history—play defined, play theory, and the emerging field of play science.
What's in a Name?
It's true that a better understanding of the ideas behind play might have influenced our name change. For the first 13 years we were known as Sports4Kids. This name had seen us from almost the very beginning (we were briefly Kidsports until receiving a cease and desist order from another organization). It had accompanied us through significant growth in staff—including opening new offices in cities across the country, the development of our leagues, and our first big AmeriCorps grant. It was the name we were using when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) decided to invest an astronomical $4.4 million in an initial plan to achieve national scale. And, perhaps most importantly, Sports4Kids was the name—with its accompanying logo—that was on literally thousands of t‐shirts that staff and students wore with a sense of pride and belonging.
Changing an organization's name is a surprisingly complicated undertaking. Not so much in the actual logistics of it—those are fairly straightforward. The complicated part comes in managing all the emotions associated with a name change. To our credit, we didn't take the emotional aspect of our name change lightly. The entire process took almost 18 months from the initial idea of looking at redesigning our logo through deciding to do a whole rebrand, to selecting the name and actually producing new t‐shirts. Looking back, it seems clear that one of the most important aspects of this shift was in developing our ability to explain why. Why Playworks? It was so important—especially for our staff—that the story wasn't simply why not Sports4Kids, even if the 4 in the middle did seem hopelessly 1980s in the rearview mirror. Our name change had to be about becoming something bigger.
With support from RWJF, we worked with a friend and board member, Dru DeSantis, and her firm DeSantis Breindel to go through a very professional process. The team interviewed stakeholders—students, principals, staff, and funders—about the nature of our programming and impact. They generated concepts, solicited suggestions, and made presentations. They brought in two industry superstars—women from Miami, referred to somewhat mysteriously as “the naming ladies,” who generated a list of over 500 names that I remember spending hours poring over.
There was a lot of creativity and a few false starts. We briefly fell in love with the name “Big Bounce,” until someone pointed out that our female staff members might not be super‐psyched to have that emblazoned on their chests. There was another name—that now escapes me—that I knew we absolutely had to have, but someone else owned it.
Playworks wasn't actually on the list. It emerged during a presentation to staff members when we were stalled and decided to go back to the drawing board and review what we knew. Dru was walking us through a slide deck—yet again—on all our various attributes and values, emphasizing what principals and teachers said about our impact over and over again. In summation she noted, “Play works.” Our then executive director David Rothenberg and then COO Elizabeth Cushing looked at each other, and we had found our new name.
Defining Play
But why the shift from sports to play? Sports hold a funny place in American life. Although many people in the US love sports, there is a not‐insignificant population that see sports as somewhat suspect. Some of these humans work in schools, and they would argue that they have been driven to this position by the extreme way we push young people into sports. They see sports as competition for the time and attention of their students and a distraction from the “real” work of teaching and learning.
Play and sports, although deeply connected, aren't exactly the same. Usually in sports your goal is trying to win. And that really does change everything. One of my favorite definitions of a game comes from the philosopher Bernard Suits, who explains a game as the “voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.”1 Fundamentally, there is an attitudinal difference between having an end goal or not. It's not that play isn't serious and sports are—play can be extraordinarily serious. It's not that play is always fun, either. People often think of play as the opposite of work, but as the New Zealand play theorist Brian Sutton‐Smith wrote, “The opposite of play is not work. The opposite of play is depression.”2 The difference is really in the fundamental question, “to what end?”
Defining play is a tricky thing to do. It's a little like the old saying about pornography, “you know it when you see it.” Play theorists have debated the definition for as long as there have been play theorists. In his 1955 book Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga defined play as “a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life … ‘not serious,’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly.”3 Developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky limited his discussion of play to the make‐believe play of preschoolers, and Maria Montessori maintained that play was the work of a child, emphasizing the importance of play based in reality.4
Mildred Parten proposed a system of classification for play in the 1930s that is still commonly used in child development. Her system was originally made up of six categories: unoccupied play, onlooker behavior, solitary independent play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play. Subsequent sociologists have added five additional categories: dramatic/fantasy play, competitive play, symbolic play, physical play, and constructive play.5
More recently, Dr. Stuart Brown's book, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, takes a stab at defining the activity, laying out the essence of play in seven properties: purposeless, voluntary, inherent attraction, freedom from time, diminished consciousness of self, improvisational potential, and continuation desire.6 Like everything else in play theory, these seven properties have been debated extensively. Is play marked by purposelessness or the absence of apparent purpose? Can you be forced to play? If you are extrinsically motivated, does that diminish the value of play? What about when play stops being fun?
The one thing that all the play theorists seem to agree on is the importance of play being voluntary. This emphasis on choice also feels like the characteristic that has the greatest influence on the experience of play in schools, providing students with a direct understanding of the difference between engagement and compliance. As a result, play can be a source of uneasiness for adults who see their job as maintaining control, even as it offers a powerful springboard for encouraging students to be the drivers of their own education.
In an interview with the American Journal of Play, Dr. Brown offered a wonderful definition: “Play is an ancient, voluntary, inherently pleasurable, apparently purposeless activity or process that is undertaken for its own sake and that strengthens our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity, tempers and deepens our emotions, takes us out of time, and enables a state of balance and poise.”7 He goes on to emphasize the importance of play being voluntary, suggesting that when an activity becomes compulsive—or an addiction—it can no longer be play because you are no longer really choosing it. “When play ceases to be voluntary, it ceases to be play.”
A Brief Tour of Play Theory
In the early 1900s, play theorists proposed the idea that children build up an excess of energy and that active play is required to work off that surplus. And although play theory has come to recognize a far greater complexity, this understanding is still very commonly held, especially in schools. Initially suggested by Friedrich von Schiller in the 18th century and expanded on by the psychologist Herbert Spencer in 1873, the idea is that our evolution from hunter‐gatherers has left us with excess energy that makes prolonged sitting a challenge.
For children's play, at least, Anthony Pellegrini and John Evans refuted this understanding in a 1997 article entitled “Surplus Energy Theory: An Enduring but Inadequate Justification for school Break‐Time.”8 Evans and Pellegrini note that the argument is physiologically unsound and points to children's willingness to play beyond exhaustion—after their “surplus energy” is spent—as well as children's willingness to opt to stay inside when given the choice of quiet sedentary activities—hinting toward a lack of “surplus energy”—as evidence. Further, as I have frequently witnessed in schools prior to Playworks programming, it is not uncommon for only a few children to engage in “moderate to vigorous” physical activity during free play. Clearly not all kids are bursting to release some energy.
