Free Play - cont'd - "What Children Lose When We Make Them Safe"

From Generation, Youth Issues, there's a collection of articles, assembled in 2000, focusing on free play. In that collection, an article called "What Children Lose When We Make Them Safe" contains some remarkable insights into the importance of recess. Here are a couple of examples:

"Going 'out to play' when the bell rings at school for example, shifts the balance of power somewhat. Activity becomes self generated. Children are very clear about what is play and what is a lesson, and they see the two as very different. Physical education as a subject is assessed and grades are awarded for co-operation and attentiveness, i.e. doing what you are told and not talking. Play, during breaks in teaching, is under the control of the participants themselves, as adult supervision is less intrusive (although this is rapidly changing, see debate on Recess in America).

"'When we don't have recess, I feel like screaming. When we do have recess, I do scream!' US Girl."

And this:

"When in control of their play activities children also will try to generate excitement. Easy activities are modified to make them more difficult and so produce uncertain outcomes. This keeps children interested and challenged. And they therefore develop better physical skills to cope. In Norway at the ground-breaking playground at Skudeneshavn primary in Karmoy, once rope swings were mastered, children would next try to overload them, to the point where they would all fall off. Better players at particular sports would also handicap themselves to make games more exciting (e.g. table tennis). The Norwegian philosophy sees learning as a series of "building blocks", where everything attempted is safely routed in something that has already been achieved.

(see also: In Praise of Danger)



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith