Child's Play

Reading a bunch of articles on the role of play and pretend play in preschool aged children. Also, in the rise and form of humor as children grow up, from infant on. Tons of interesting research out there.

One interesting point that I just read was that the push for school accountability and outcome based measures is forcing playtime and general unconstructed time out of the classroom. There are all kinds of references in the research to rich pretend play being link to better problem solving skills. Taking out time for kids to spontaneously generate imagination session may be creating future citizens void of critical thinking skills.

I stage managed a large family theatre event yesterday in which many of the kids were actively participating in large group improv/theatre games. I was amazed at how receptive they were, especially in the context of a large audience watching them and microphone amplifying their speach. There needs to be more pretend play pushed in older grades (2nd grade on up). Some of the 4th graders and older kids seemed starved for that kind of stimulation.

Piles more research to read. If any of you have any recommendation on how preschool television can be improved with these concepts, bring it on.

:)

Good reading....

Thought I would post good books onthe topic so when we have more people they have a reference and place to reply with more materials:

Lessons without limits - Falk & Dierking
- Very big in the informal education and Museum visitor studies world. Their current focus is on exactly what we are talkin gabout here. They run the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis.

Two Directions

so as i see it this blog needs to have a few foci

• what we are going to do - conversations about what our goals are, what our vision is and what our organization will look like in terms of shape (school, camp etc.) , scope (chicago, regional, national, international) and other characteristics (formal/informal, age range etc.).

• what others are doing that relate to what we are doing - conversations about other organizations/publications; i see this as posts that profile an organization by giving a description of what they do, thus introducing other blog members to this organization. these posts should also provide a link to this organizations site if one is available.
  

as for goals, i think that the end goal is an educational institution of some sort; i for one am a big proponent of a camp or a travelling presentation ala what RR is doing right now, perhaps an integration of both. as i say this the phrase "educational consulting" pops into my head...but i think that these specifics can come a bit later.

content is important.

i think the discussion will start in theory, as theory is the seed of action, but inevitably the talk needs to arrive at method as theory is nothing without action. i envision a wholistic paradigm of education that is flexible enough to accomodate howard gardner's 7 intelligences (i think it's more now), the concept of balance (body, mind, emotion) and the idea that the goal of education is not to attain more, but to become a better, more complete person. all of this while avoiding a too touchy-feely-new-agey thing; the paradigm needs a cohesive vision and a concrete direction.

scope.

definitely international, in fact the acknowledgement of other points of view (ie the role of context) should play a role in crafting the tone of our converstions/organization.

just a start, more to come later...

First of Many

This is the first of many posts dedicated to throwing down innovative ideas about education; our goal is to push the contemporary paradigm of education to new and dynamic levels. Thoughts and posts are welcome.