One way that I think play can be problematic is if a child only has unstructred play.  Unstructured play is a great thing, but if that is all a child knows, it could cause problems later.  The way I'm imagining it is that if there is a child who for their first three years of life only had unstructured play, when they start school at age four they may not be used to a structured class.  It may be hard for them to sit still for very long or pay attention to the teacher.  I think that it is important for parents to try to faciliate play for there children once in a while and make sure that they interact with other kids starting from a young age.  Playing independently all the time can make it harder for kids when they get older to make friends and be social.

            Play is any free activity that brings joy to someone.  For children this could be playing on the playground, pretend house, wrestling, or caring for baby dolls.  Now adults on the other hand may enjoy reading a good book, going shopping, or spending time with kids.  While play varies among all ages, it is essential to the development of the brain to play.  As Stuart Brown states in his interview, “Play, Spirit, and Character,” a child could learn more by playing at recess than by being in a classroom setting (Brown).  This gives children the opportunity to find their own fun exploring.  Kids needs to be given the freedom to figure out play and games on their own, without structure, in order to develop and grow as human beings.

It is an accepted view that almost all of us look back on our childhoods with a sense of nostalgia. (Henig, 2008) We long for the days we were able to spend carefree and happy. The strong association between our childhood and play has led us to see play as a right of passage, or even a necessity, for all children. UNICEF, in its Convention on the Rights of the Child, defines play as a basic right that all children should have access to. (Edensor, et. al, 2011) Despite this, significant evidence has shown that adults, when testing whether or not play has a positive effect on learning and development, have been made, albeit inadvertently, victims of “play ethos,” which is defined as a cultural view that play is necessarily advantageous for children.

I lived in the old part of Pasadena, Texas until I was eleven years old. By the time my parents were in middle school the area was already taking an economic plunge. Chain stores died and left, white flight was almost at its end, and ruins that were all too familiar to me growing up were setting in. With the decay of Pasadena came an increase in crime and instability in the neighborhoods. Therefore my mother never allowed my brother and me to explore the outside world very much. We were only allowed to ride bikes with our dad or an older cousin and only in certain places, I was only allowed to play in the yard for short periods of time and only if I stayed in front of the kitchen window or if my mom came out to watch me. So playing outside was never very appealing to me.

Princess Jefferson

When Play Was Play

In the Primary ages of our life, there is no distinction between fantasy and reality, all we know is that there is always time for fun. At early ages just about anything around you can become subject of models of your game, but what we don’t ever think about as children is why we play what we play or even the wherewithal from which it came; all we know is that the games we play fill that happy part of us known to childhood. The question that I pose is, when does play, stops being just play. Is it as you mature, or was does time for play just become expunged.

A class mate of mine describes her childhood ideals of play as follows:

Netflix

House MD

Season 1

Episode 1

Timecode: 03:00-03:40

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me the things that tormented me the most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive and who had ever been alive. I went into the 130th Street Library at least three or four times a week and I read everything there, I mean, every single book in that library. In some blind and instinctive way, I knew that what was happening in those books was also happening all around me and I was trying to make a connection between the books and the life I saw and the life I lived. I knew I was Black, of course, but I also knew I was smart.

i'm a fan of anything that chooses to use art as a tool to deconstruct false narratives. i love colors and knowing when to use them and when to not. kris is such a thoughtful speaker too, something i gleaned at the opening at 5 when i overheard him talking about where he comes from and how he's inspired to do what he does. damnnnn to be able to convert passion to profession!! 

I loooooooved the Kris Graves exhibit! I went to the opening at five and stayed until they kicked us out because I was having so much fun talking to him, his mom, and the Bryn Mawr staff and students who were there. I also loved his talk. He was so much fun to listen to. I loved hearing about his process and his background. It's amazing how an entire lifetime can be put into a peice of work. I loved seeing his transition from an amature photographer who was playing around with his friends to an artist who is trying to reshape how black people are seen in the world. He reminds me of themanwholovedflowers, which is an instagrammer who has a photo series with a similar concept to Graves'. He uses flowers to challenge the stereotypes of black men.