Play Is in the News…

Two articles on the importance of play in the Boston Globe: Carlo Rotella's op-ed, A Serious Need for Free Play (September 30, 2011), argues that learning through play "is what kids are designed to do." In The Heartbreaking Point: My Family's Struggle to Resist the Winds of Educational Change (August 28, 2011), Laurie Swope describes her son's reaction to "all listening, no playing" in kindergarten. The Globe then published a group of letters responding to Swope's article.

 

The Alliance for Childhood has figured prominently in recent national news stories about the importance of children’s play. Hilary Stout’s article “The Movement to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum” appeared in the New York Times on January 6, 2011 and quoted Executive Director Joan Almon along with other leading play advocates, including Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University, Roberta Golinkoff of the University of Delaware, and Jim Hunn of the nonprofit KaBoom! The article sparked widespread comment and was number one on the Times’s “most e-mailed” list for a while.

 

The Chronicle of Higher Education followed up on February 20 with “The Case for Play: How a Handful of Researchers Are Trying to Save Childhood,” by Tom Bartlett. It opens with a description of the pop-up adventure playground created by the New York Coalition for Play at last fall’s Ultimate Block Party in Central Park and quotes the Alliance’s Ed Miller. It also includes a thoughtful discussion of the strengths and gaps in the research literature on the cognitive benefits of play.

 

…and the Alliance Is on the Air

Joan Almon and Ed Miller have both been recent guests on Rae Pica’s indispensable BAM! Radio Network, where Rae conducts thoughtful conversations on important issues related to children’s bodies and minds. Joan talks with Daniel Willingham and Justin Snider about the proper role of rote memorization in learning here: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WMBK.RTRoteMemorization.cfm. And Ed takes on the subject of core standards for kindergartners with Randi Weingarten and Lisa Guernsey in a two-part series here: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WMBK.RTKindergartenregulation.cfm and here: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WMBK.RTKindergartenregulation2.cfm.

 

Screen-Free Week: April 30 – May 6

The former TV Turn-off Week has been reinvented as Screen-Free Week by the Alliance’s partners at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and will be celebrated this year from April 30 to May 6. Families, schools, and communities all over the U.S. will spend those days turning away from screen-based entertainment and distraction and turning on to life and the real world—to reading, enjoying nature, daydreaming, and spending time with family and friends.

 

More than 50 national and professional organizations have endorsed this effort, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Public Health Association, and the National Head Start Association. For more information, see www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/.

 

“Race to Nowhere”:  An Important Film

In this 2010 documentary, filmmaker Vicki Abeles presents disturbing evidence of the price children are paying for America’s obsession with test scores, “standards,” homework, and getting into the “best” colleges and the resulting narrow definition of school achievement. Interviews with children, parents, and experts like pediatrician Kenneth Ginsburg give voice to what has been until now a silent epidemic of stress, depression, cheating, and self-destructive behavior. At the same time, we are robbing children of time for unstructured play and their natural joy in learning—and coming close to destroying the profession of teaching.

 

Screenings of “Race to Nowhere” are taking place throughout the country. To find one and learn more about the film see www.racetonowhere.com.

 

Play Coalitions Are Sprouting

The Alliance was instrumental in the founding of the first play coalition in the U.S. nearly four years ago in New York City. And it has helped in the creation of the U.S. Play Coalition at Clemson University, the Alamo Play Coalition in San Antonio, and the new Bay Area Coalition for Play, in partnership with the Mills College School of Education. Our friend Cynthia Gentry has founded the Atlanta Task Force on Play, and other friends are talking about creating similar groups in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Do you want to get involved? Write to Senior Researcher Ed Miller and he’ll connect you.

 

Boot Camp Update

In our last Update we wrote about the growth of “kindergarten boot camps,” a troubling trend that continues in spite of our efforts to challenge the underlying assumptions. You’ll find our recent article on this topic, published in The School Administrator.

 

New Research

The Alliance advocates for more effective, child-friendly policies and practices in education and public life by bringing to light important research on children’s learning and development. Two new studies in the journal Cognition offer evidence that direct instruction of young children by teachers actually limits their learning and is counter-productive:

• The first study, by Laura Schulz of M.I.T. and others, found that direct teaching of four-year-olds, compared to playful, open-ended exploration, made children less curious and less likely to discover new information. The experimental design involved getting children to make discoveries about a new toy. One group was encouraged to play with the toy; the second group was instructed in how the toy worked by the experimenter, who acted more like a teacher. The first group learned significantly more than the second.
• The second study, by Alison Gopnik of the University of California, Berkeley, and others, looked at the question of whether direct teaching of four-year-olds affects their creativity. Again, the results of the experiment showed that allowing children to play with materials—in this case a toy that can produce musical sounds—resulted in more learning and creativity than direct teaching.

Writing about the studies in Slate, Gopnik concludes that “it’s more important than ever to give children’s remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play.”