On Friday, I noticed new things about the Creative Africa exhibit and I learned quite a bit about its background. To begin with, I took a closer look at the things that I skimmed, or just quickly glanced over on my first visit. The photography exhibit was the place I spent the most time in. I didn’t notice the music before and this time, I felt as if it added a different layer to the room. It warmed up the display and seemed to invite conversation. A panel told me that the photographers were asked to recommend songs for this exhibit’s playlist (find it online: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/844.html) to give visitors an added sense of the cities.

While play is hailed as a positive and educational experience, there are several issues regarding play. While instances of selfishness and being uncooperative during play are natural, there are other aspects of play that are destructive to the formative years of childhood. 

Is there such a thing as too much freedom in play? The posting “Play” by the student writing as “Free Rein” in which she shares her memories of her own childhood experience of playing, suggests to me that perhaps there is such a thing as too much. This idea contrasts with those expressed by Tim Edensor and  his co-authors in the the chapter of their work, “Urban Wildscapes”, from “Playing in industrial ruins”. Edensor celebrates play in chaotic, unsupervised environments, but Free Rein’s account of her own childhood experience challenges the notion that the most productive play arises when children are free from supervision and the usual constraints of regulated environments.

Play can always be problematic. In play-fighting children sometimes get too excited and hurt their friends accidentally. Children also love to play in dangerous areas, which again could hurt themselves. But these problems are also part of learning to control their bodies and to deal with problems - problems are part of learning. Even though these danger look like problems they actually are not. 

Pretend Play: Key to Imagination

Why do children pretend play?

On serendip.com, a website where students post about their childhood play, both a US girl AntoniaAC and a Chinese girl Iridium reported they have pretend played in their childhood.

“We were warriors”, said AntoniaAC, “Amazonian women with super strength and with a knack for vanquishing demons, rebuilding destroy villages (mud homes), and soldiers in a forgotten war.”

Although play is an act that many, if not all, children will participate in at some point in their lives, there are still problems that occur while playing. Bullying and exclusion are two major factors, but one that we may not think or care to address is a very important one: sexism.

Often we think of sexism as only affecting our adult lives, what with unequal wages and discrimintation within the workplace. However, sexism is also prevalent (and often rampant) in the lives of children. Girls (and boys) are excluded from games because "this game isn't for them." They are told they can't spend time with a certain group because "they don't belong." Forming gender-specific games or groups seems like a thing of the past for adults, but children still do this regularly.

As we seen in many of the readings, there are quite a few issues that result from play. For one, adventurous and dangerous play may promote the continuation of dangerous/ illegal actions. This is especially in the case of young teens who are very attracted to this type of rebellious play. While going out of one's boundaries is important, encouraging actions that may be detrimental to one's self and/ or society is not something to take lightly.

Drifting away from play in humans, play can also be problematic and a bit confounding in animals. Play in animals often leads to the death of the young, due to some risk taking action. This is another example of how play can be problematic. 

I consider problematic play to be based on an imbalance of play. For example, if someone is limited in their play, whether it is confined to just inside or outside, only with a certain person or group, set to a defined list of activities, or some other overwhelming commonality. It is extremely important for children and adults alike to experience different kinds of play, and I find that a lack of variety in play experiences can really be stunting in one's creative and social growth.

As a child, starfish loved to enact elaborate scenes with the magic of make-believe. She and her playmates would adopt roles, embodying “feuding sorcerers” one day and “magical princesses” the next (starfish). Sometimes they were parents and kids, doctors and patients, or even non-human creatures that would travel through galaxies near and far. In her words, imaginative play was “rewarding” and all she needed was “nothing more than my own imagination to carry them out successfully” (starfish). This ideal notion of the power of children’s imagination is what most adults recall when they think about childhood, and about their current creative capabilities in comparison.