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.
:)
posted by joi @ 12:13 PM
2 Comments:
well, I have two comments for this post. I'm going to have to split it in two...here goes.
1) Seize the day....PLAY! is a line that a ropes course company called On the Edge used when they came into SuperCamp (SuperCamp is a different post). There is wisdom in this battle cry; I think theater games can be a great source of education. They force a student (man, woman or child) into the world at large, which in my mind is a large goal of education...to get a student (ie anybody) to interact more effectively in the world. Every student has something to give to the educational environment...and they need to feel confident enough to step up to the plate and give it; enter play.
point 2) Joi, re: what our organization wants to look like: it sounds like an educational boutique of sorts might work well. a camp or some other physical manifestation plus consulting on the general environment of education: kids tv, books, etc where the ideas actively used in camp are disseminated to the educational world on a case by case basis...maybe too much? maybe just right...?
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