While sitting in the children’s area of the Stuhr museum today, my eyes scanned over the various quotes on the wall about play. This one by Plato stuck with me.
When I listen to my children play, it is full of scenarios they have learned during our studies. They re-enact battles, build shelters and pack bags for lengthy journeys. They pretend they are characters from the bible or from some book we are reading. It is active, imaginative and constructive. And I can always tell which books have been their favorites over the past few months.
What does our play say about us as a culture?
If you turn back the pages of American history, you find an interesting contrast to today’s entertainment-driven lifestyle. What seemed to be the “play” of the pioneers? Quilting bees, husking bees, spelling bees and an occasional fair. An evening of music, an occasional visit and a reading from the bible or some other rare and highly valued book. Much of the entertainment seemed to serve the purpose of making the work more bearable or to showcase one’s talents. The rest was constructive. Something was being created and connections were being made between people. Even the games children played were active.
And today? Our play is largely passive. In fact, it is really too passive to be considered play at all. We watch a movie or a television show. We listen to a CD. Hours are spent on these pursuits each day.
Heard on a radio commercial:
With high speed Internet and digital cable with DVR, all your news and entertainment needs are taken care of through Comcast.
Not only has our play taken on a different quality. It has taken on an elevated importance. It has become a need. And what does that say about us as a culture?
[tags]education, play, homeschooling, entertainment[/tags]
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So true. Sigh. But what do we DO about it? I wish I had an answer.
I think the only thing we can do is guard ourselves and the hearts of our children, encouraging them to play outside and develop more active interests. And talk about it and discuss it.
It surprises me how many people view television as good for young children because it is labeled “educational.” Kids actually watch half the television once they start school! i am not completely against television, but I cannot imagine setting a toddler down in front of it for four hours per day.
Dana,
Your entry today reminds me of a book I recently read and keep meaning to review in my blog… but
Anyway, have you read The Vanishing Word by Arthur W. Hunt III? It is excellent and perhaps my favorite part of the book was the beginning when the author reviewed the cultural impact of technology on our society ~
I love this quote by Plato. And yes, as a culture, our play is way out of whack. We are missing that important element of creativity, which is stifled by passive TV viewing.
Recently, I read a stat that today’s young people watch more YouTube than TV. So passive media consumption is moving to the computer. No surprise!
When I read that card all I could think was, Oh sh**! I’m in trouble now.” LOL
I don’t play well. I never have. I never did…not even as a child. I played with my dolls and Barbies or I read and wrote. I simply was not into playing…and I still do not play well.
Does that say I am too serious? LOL I have no idea, but I would love to learn to play! I wished I could play as I child, but I wasn’t comfortable with it…I’m not always comfortable with it now.
Julie, no I haven’t. I’ll add it to my list of books. Unfortunately, it grows faster than I can read!
e-mom, that is no surprise. And my husband falls into that. He could watch YouTube all day, but fortunately, he knows better!
Shawna, I do not really “play” that much either. I am a more quiet reflective typr. (Bet you’d never guess that!) Anyway, I think you can also replace play with whatever you pursue in your free time. Do you knit or watch videos? Read or listen to MP3s? Nothing is inherently wrong with any of it, but a do think that the dominant place passive entertainment has taken does not bode well for our future.
I’m not familiar with the Arthur Hunt book, but I wonder how much it has in common with Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death. From the forward:
“…we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision there was another — slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World…Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision…people will come to love their oppression, to adore technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. huxley feared those who would give us do much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy…This book is about the possibility that Huxley, and not Orwell, was right.”
Oh, and what is it about that “packing up and going on a journey” motif? My children play that too, sometimes for days on end. There was rice…RICE!…all over the bathroom floor…MY bathroom floor!… because they got into the pantry and got some to take on their journey…which apparently took them through the bathroom. (They play all the scenarios you listed, but the journey thing has been big lately.)
One of the things I’ve definitely noticed since we started homeschooling is the difference in play between HS and traditionally schooled kids. The HS kids tend to be much more creative and also more age-appropriate in their play. The traditionally schooled kids tend to be pseudo-sophisticated and their play is dominated by pop culture. No wonder our kids often get seen as “weird” by outsiders but really that’s a compliment. When the mainstream kid culture is unhealthy, better to be seen as odd than to get sucked up in the cesspool.
Rebecca, I am glad to know my children are not the only ones. They have traversed the desert that is our hall, tamed the wilds of the bathroom and hunted lions in the kitchen. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they drag out all the folded sheets for bedrolls and sheets.
And that sounds like another good book for my list.
Crimson Wife, I tend to agree. My sample size is decidedly limited, and I know both types exist in both environments, but the same seems true here.