October 10, 2014 - 23:38
Humans are naturally social beings. It is important to remember that person to person interactions are essential to individuals’ development as functional members of society. It is because of the moments that are shared with others, while growing up especially, that people come to cognitively appreciate the role of others in their lives. When investigating how people gain the skills that allow them to relate, connect and evaluate others, the developmental stages of children are the most important. One of the most common and interactive activities taking up by children is play. This simple but important task is a building block for societal systems and understanding social norms. To dissect the importance of play, I will address ideas of play, lessons learned from play and the implications of play on society.
There are different ways in which play is classified. There is the traditional view of the Western world that consists of playing in a clean and confined area, supervised and with mandated objects of enjoyment, or toys. In Urban Wildscapes, the traditional idea of play is challenged. Authors Edensor, Evans, Holloway, Millington and Binnie make an argument for an unsafe and uncertain environment being essential for free play in their chapter Playing in Industrial Ruins. “A lack of overt regulation is a key attribute of ruins, important in relation to play since this provides a space outside the strictures of ‘healthy and safety’, systematic surveillance and material maintenance…” (Wildscapes, Edensor, Evans, Holloway, Millington, Binnie,66). The freedom of play outside of rules expands the former ideals of play because it opens them up to play that is not in a pre-approved setting or manner, to play that is not told that it is play but created as play. “…old tires, rusted scrap metal, and broken glass bottles. It was fun playing with these objects, further damaging them in order to create something totally new…” (Play Does Have Limits, Sydney, 2014). This sentiment beautifully illustrates a type of play that is created from the available environment. This story exhibits an amazing opportunity to morph the grey matter of an idea into an actual action. Though play does exist in a structured manner, it is very rich in learning experiences in a less secure environment.
Abundant in its opportunities for failure, play offers abundant opportunities to learn how to succeed. Whether speaking in terms of how to land a specific skate trick or how to operate in a group setting, play provides an outlet for trial and error. “…children need wilder places to play where…children can learn life-long lessons, particularly about risks and how to deal with them…” (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, 2007). It is important that danger is not so shielded that the future generations are sheltered into ignorance. To institute the idea of order into the lives of children living in a consistently inconsistent world would be to give a NASCAR driver running shoes, assuring their future failure. Play is essential to the healthy development of an individual because it provides for lessons to be taught through having to solve for problems as they come up. “…our capacity as a species to adapt, whether we’re in the artic, the tropics, the desert or the rainforest, appears to me to be related significantly to our capacity as developing creatures to play…” (Play, Spirit, and Character, Stuart Brown, 2009) The amazing thing about play is that it can exist in different places, like the artic, the tropics, the desert and the rainforest, and overcomes barriers without even trying. In this same way, play teaches those that allow it to teach them how to adapt to situations and work with what is available. It teaches the true meaning of words like “flexibility,” “compassion,” and “courage.”
As it is commonly understood, most children do not stay children forever but what they does as children does affect them long after. In studying the motivation behind the heinous crimes of a disturbed individual, Brown relates a story of further findings in relation to generally vile acts. “A team of us then studied all the young murderers whose crime was essentially homicide without their being career criminals. We did an in depth study of them and their families….a majority of them…had really bizarre, absent, deficient, deviant play histories…” (Brown, 2009). It was this lack of play growing up that stunted these individuals growth. They were locked out of the world around them long before they were deemed a criminal or put behind bars. Practice does not make perfect but permanent. By neglecting the lessons of play taught to children, the lessons taught to adults are not even existent. “…when one really doesn’t play at all or very little in adulthood there are consequences, rigidities depression, adaptability and lack of ironies which are things that are pretty important, that allow us to adapt to an environment of many demands...” (Brown, 2009). The effects of play are not usually acknowledged by social individuals but are clearly visible in those that lost the ability to appreciate it. By reinforcing play as a productive and important activity, it is less likely to be pushed aside by the “matured” sector of society and more likely to simply adapt. By encouraging free play to children, adults are also encouraging themselves to live a more fulfilling life of deep personal connections and interactions.
Though thought to only be a child’s activity, play has the ability to infiltrate the lives of an individual at all levels of life. Its grand ability to create adaptive abilities through action reassert its significance in the adult realm. Existent in more than just traditional ways, play is adaptive in it of itself. Teaching through self-discovery, play gives the individual the opportunity to take part in their education. Effecting the person one will become, play has implications for the society as a whole. Play is not a simple act but a tool for learning. It is a major bridge between the environment and one’s identity. It is what one creates and create one in turn.