rlugbill Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 I wonder if play is actually more complex than school work. I have watched my dd (12) over the years as she played. She had her own one room school with about 20 stuffed animals and they all were different ages, were on different educational levels for different subjects, had different personalities, different interests, and would interact in complex ways with the teacher and with each other. Other times, she would draw an entire town with chalk on the driveway or construct a town in the basement with blocks, small cars, buildings, houses, stores, schools, etc. The people in the town would interact in complex ways with each other. More recently, she and her friends put on a musical, "Annie". And I just realized how complex that was. They each played multiple characters, sang, danced, wrote the script and adapted it to their circumstances, worked on costumes, etc. If you think about it, musicals are very complex- an interplay of music, the various characters, dialogue, dancing, etc. They put on an excellent performance. It appears to me that when left to her own devices, she comes up with complex situations to learn to deal with complexity. If we assign her school work, it is usually less complex. Learn the times tables or learn the states or the presidents or whatever. More straightforward memorization than complexity. Reading, music, gymnastics and games are other complex things that she enjoys doing. I wonder if complexity is important in learning and brain development and that is why children naturally often play in complex ways. But adults usually teach in non-complex ways. Schools and textbooks have more straightforward, simple approaches to things. Is that why school is boring? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 I've often been in awe at the depth. I've strived to not interrupt that flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 (edited) There's an interesting book by David Elkind called "The Power Of Play." There are also a lot of good quotes about playing! --- Play is our brain's favorite way of learning. Diane Ackerman Contemporary American author Almost all creativity involves purposeful play. Abraham Maslow American psychologist 1908–1970 Whoever wants to understand much must play much. Gottfried Benn German physician 1886–1956 Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold. Joseph Chilton Pearce Contemporary American scholar Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning. Fred Rogers American television personality 1928–2003 A child loves his play, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. Benjamin Spock American pediatrician 1903–1998 Play has been man’s most useful preoccupation. Frank Caplan Contemporary American author 1911–1988 People tend to forget that play is serious. David Hockney Contemporary British painter Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play. Plato Greek philosopher 427–347 BC Deep meaning lies often in childish play. Johann Friedrich von Schiller German poet 1759–1805 Children at play are not playing about. Their games should be seen as their most serious minded activity. Michel de Montaigne French essayist 1533–1592 Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father. Roger von Oech Contemporary American creativity guru You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Plato Greek philosopher 427–347 BC Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play. Henri Matisse French painter 1869–1954 Play is training for the unexpected. Marc Bekoff Contemporary American biologist Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn. O. Fred Donaldson Contemporary American martial arts master When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero. Fred Rogers American children’s television host 1928–2003 It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. D.W. Winnicott British pediatrician 1896–1971 Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play. Johan Huizing Dutch historian 1872–1945 The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery. Erik H. Erikson American psychoanalyst 1902–1994 Ritual grew up in sacred play; poetry was born in play and nourished on play; music and dancing were pure play.... We have to conclude, therefore, that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play...it arises in and as play, and never leaves it. Johan Huizing Dutch historian 1872–1945 The child amidst his baubles is learning the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force… Ralph Waldo Emerson American writer 1803–1882 As astronauts and space travelers children puzzle over the future; as dinosaurs and princesses they unearth the past. As weather reporters and restaurant workers they make sense of reality; as monsters and gremlins they make sense of the unreal. Gretchen Owocki Contemporary American early childhood educator Edited November 30, 2010 by NanceXToo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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