Peter, thank you for this further written exploration on play. I hope it make a difference to future parents, teachers, and educators. Years ago I made a comment to a friend, who has since shared it every chance he gets: "Education is not always playful, but play is always educational."
"But when people are asked to perform the same task anonymously, just for the fun of it, with no judgment of individuals’ performances, they often come up with new, creative, and sometimes brilliant ways to do it."
Or, if you're into hanging boards with cliches on your kitchen wall, "Dance like no one is looking"
I choose to see a future when humanity trusts the intrinsic intelligence, inner-guidance, and broader view of children and allows them to lead their own way. Thus growing into adults for whom living is play. Learning from play to respond to life with ease, grace, and power, these adults create a future for humanity that is yet to be imagined.
Play can also tell us so much about the child engaging in it. Too often, the adults want to lead or change the play in some way, but if you sit back and observe deeply, you will see play schema at work. Children use their bodies and minds in play and often a dominant or several schemas will be evident. I'm observing a child at the moment who chooses objects to play with that spin or roll - marbles, buttons, bike wheels...and he spends a long time figuring out how to move thsee objects in various ways. He also uses his body in this way...loves spinning around in a circle, rolling down a hill or playing with hula hoops, winding string around a cone. I believe he has a dominant rotational schema. Absolutely fascinating to observe and to silently provocate when I can by adding different resources to the mix. Today I will see what happens when I add water in bowlls and stirring sticks!
The more of these letters I read, the more I keep thinking, how can we apply these lessons about play to adults? Can we make more opportunities for adults to "perform well for the joy of performing well", or is t too late for us? Do we even learn in the same way as children, through play?
It would be interesting to "play" with this idea. By the criteria in Letter #2, when would sex meet the full criteria of play and when would it not? As a side note, some anthropologists report that at least in some hunter-gatherer societies young children play at copulation, much as they play at other adult activities. There is little privacy in such societies, so children know what it is.
Yes! There's definitely plenty of links in language ("foreplay" as just one example; also, sexual promiscuity can be "playing around").
This is also useful for thinking through your earlier stipulation that play is autotelic -- a point that I often struggle with. The instrumental value of play can emerge inadvertently. That is, any given moment in any given act of play does not necessarily connect to ends that the players are conscious of (in the moment or ever). It is enjoyable because it enhances our biological fitness. Likewise, the continuation of our species is dependent on procreation, which is why our genetic code equipped itself to rely more on pleasure than conscious family planning! Sex is therefore not without purpose. I think to have a 'warped' view of play (or really, playfulness) that considers when it can be explicitly purposeful -- contra to many writers (yourself included).
Yes, clearly if sex were non-consensual or transactional, then it's no longer play. To your second point, I find it interesting how mismatch creates a vacuum for technology to fill. Rather than learning from observing adults play, kids, especially boys, often learn about sex from porn.
Peter, thank you for this further written exploration on play. I hope it make a difference to future parents, teachers, and educators. Years ago I made a comment to a friend, who has since shared it every chance he gets: "Education is not always playful, but play is always educational."
"But when people are asked to perform the same task anonymously, just for the fun of it, with no judgment of individuals’ performances, they often come up with new, creative, and sometimes brilliant ways to do it."
Or, if you're into hanging boards with cliches on your kitchen wall, "Dance like no one is looking"
I choose to see a future when humanity trusts the intrinsic intelligence, inner-guidance, and broader view of children and allows them to lead their own way. Thus growing into adults for whom living is play. Learning from play to respond to life with ease, grace, and power, these adults create a future for humanity that is yet to be imagined.
Play can also tell us so much about the child engaging in it. Too often, the adults want to lead or change the play in some way, but if you sit back and observe deeply, you will see play schema at work. Children use their bodies and minds in play and often a dominant or several schemas will be evident. I'm observing a child at the moment who chooses objects to play with that spin or roll - marbles, buttons, bike wheels...and he spends a long time figuring out how to move thsee objects in various ways. He also uses his body in this way...loves spinning around in a circle, rolling down a hill or playing with hula hoops, winding string around a cone. I believe he has a dominant rotational schema. Absolutely fascinating to observe and to silently provocate when I can by adding different resources to the mix. Today I will see what happens when I add water in bowlls and stirring sticks!
Have you seen this yet?
https://intranet.csf.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/ressources/EA_indigenous-games-for-children-en.pdf
No, I hadn't seen it. Thank you for the link.
The more of these letters I read, the more I keep thinking, how can we apply these lessons about play to adults? Can we make more opportunities for adults to "perform well for the joy of performing well", or is t too late for us? Do we even learn in the same way as children, through play?
What does adult play look like?
The more I read this Substack, the more convinced I become that sex is often pure play. Obviously sex causes babies, but that's not why we do it!
It would be interesting to "play" with this idea. By the criteria in Letter #2, when would sex meet the full criteria of play and when would it not? As a side note, some anthropologists report that at least in some hunter-gatherer societies young children play at copulation, much as they play at other adult activities. There is little privacy in such societies, so children know what it is.
Do you have a reference for these anthropologists' report? Where can I read about this further? Thank you
Yes! There's definitely plenty of links in language ("foreplay" as just one example; also, sexual promiscuity can be "playing around").
This is also useful for thinking through your earlier stipulation that play is autotelic -- a point that I often struggle with. The instrumental value of play can emerge inadvertently. That is, any given moment in any given act of play does not necessarily connect to ends that the players are conscious of (in the moment or ever). It is enjoyable because it enhances our biological fitness. Likewise, the continuation of our species is dependent on procreation, which is why our genetic code equipped itself to rely more on pleasure than conscious family planning! Sex is therefore not without purpose. I think to have a 'warped' view of play (or really, playfulness) that considers when it can be explicitly purposeful -- contra to many writers (yourself included).
Yes, clearly if sex were non-consensual or transactional, then it's no longer play. To your second point, I find it interesting how mismatch creates a vacuum for technology to fill. Rather than learning from observing adults play, kids, especially boys, often learn about sex from porn.