#4. The Greatest Play Theorist You Probably Never Heard of--Karl Groos
petergray.substack.com
In the late 19th century, Groos developed the first theory of play informed by an understanding of evolution by natural selection. The practice theory.
Could this be an explanation as to why children now seem to spend so much of their solo free time playing on computer games, as this seems likely to be the primary tool of the future? Does playing on computers meet all the criteria for pure play? It feels harder as a home educating parent to accept very long periods of this kind of play, when it is to the exclusion of other kinds of play, but this is the choice children are making.
This reminds me of how 'play' is described in Andreas Wagner's 2019 book (Life Finds a Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity).
Could this be an explanation as to why children now seem to spend so much of their solo free time playing on computer games, as this seems likely to be the primary tool of the future? Does playing on computers meet all the criteria for pure play? It feels harder as a home educating parent to accept very long periods of this kind of play, when it is to the exclusion of other kinds of play, but this is the choice children are making.
Great article! Thank you for all your research!
In this section: Application of Groos’s Theory to Humans, in the second paragraph, it says apples to humans (applies).