Thursday, April 10, 2008
Games of Make Believe
A recent broadcast of the Leonard Lopate Show had, as its topic:
"Please Explain: Games of Make Believe: We look into how children play games of make believe, and whether kids’ imaginations have changed along with trends in technology and education. Dr. Susan Linn is Associate Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the author of most recently Dr. Elizabeth Goodenough teaches at the University of Michigan Residence College and is the author of most recently Under Fire: Childhood in the Shadow of War."
Here's a quote from their discussion: "Nurturing creative play has become counter-cultural, because it's not lucrative. Children who play creatively don't need any of the things...that dominate the toy market."
I liked that counter-cultural label. I liked the explanation for it. But, despite the erudition of the authors and the clarity of their insights (play is important. kids need more of it.), I find myself only partially nodding in agreement (go ahead, try nodding partially. it's kind of fun.).
I think people who are so clearly alarmed by the way kids are playing now, with the impact of mass media and stuff, need to turn those alarms off for a while, and listen more carefully to the way kids are playing, right now, in the middle of all that technology and commercial pressure. It's hard to listen carefully enough. To look deeply enough. But kids are playing brilliantly with all the stuff they have to play with. Brilliantly.
Maybe they're not playing the way we'd like to see them play, maybe there are other things they could be playing, but until we are ready to acknowledge and support the new forms of play that our kids have created, until we are ready to play with them, the best we can do, I think, is stay out of the way.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
"Please Explain: Games of Make Believe: We look into how children play games of make believe, and whether kids’ imaginations have changed along with trends in technology and education. Dr. Susan Linn is Associate Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the author of most recently Dr. Elizabeth Goodenough teaches at the University of Michigan Residence College and is the author of most recently Under Fire: Childhood in the Shadow of War."
Here's a quote from their discussion: "Nurturing creative play has become counter-cultural, because it's not lucrative. Children who play creatively don't need any of the things...that dominate the toy market."
I liked that counter-cultural label. I liked the explanation for it. But, despite the erudition of the authors and the clarity of their insights (play is important. kids need more of it.), I find myself only partially nodding in agreement (go ahead, try nodding partially. it's kind of fun.).
I think people who are so clearly alarmed by the way kids are playing now, with the impact of mass media and stuff, need to turn those alarms off for a while, and listen more carefully to the way kids are playing, right now, in the middle of all that technology and commercial pressure. It's hard to listen carefully enough. To look deeply enough. But kids are playing brilliantly with all the stuff they have to play with. Brilliantly.
Maybe they're not playing the way we'd like to see them play, maybe there are other things they could be playing, but until we are ready to acknowledge and support the new forms of play that our kids have created, until we are ready to play with them, the best we can do, I think, is stay out of the way.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
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