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Children and play

May 20, 2024 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Kaieteur News – In “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, the quintessential novel of childhood bliss, Mark Twain advised, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” As a definition of “play” it would be hard to beat but somehow we seem to be fast forgetting its simple implications; with worrying results for our children.

Not too long ago, most kids in Guyana had the opportunity to lead a Tom Sawyer kind of existence. Swimming in canals and the Atlantic Ocean, catching birds and fishes, “bush-cooks”, “taaga and washa”, marbles, spinning tops, kites, cricket – the necessaries for the last few all created by the players – defined the play of boys. Excepting for the more adventurous girls, their play was different “house”, “littee” rag dolls – but no less creative – and certainly as much fun.

While the richer children may have had toys – imported from Europe or the US, those children of less fortunate means – which meant the vast majority of children – demonstrated their ingenuity by quickly improvising from the bric a brac around them, imitations of the upscale toy.

It did not take much for a stick to become a horse and since most children quickly abandoned new toys after the novelty has worn off, it was certainly easier on the pocket.

Children grew up and were not noticeably burdened by having been left to their own devices to entertain themselves. However, in a while adults – most likely in imitation of the developed countries from which we take most of our cues on behavioural matters – decided that play was too important to be left to kids.

So many important lessons were learnt through play that adults had to get involved to ensure that the lessons were imparted most effectively.

Mark Twain’s homily on the necessity of voluntariness of play for children was evidently cast by the wayside.

And so we introduced the notion of structured play for children. Children had to play cricket to learn to “act as a team” and we introduced coaches to instruct the children. The “made-up” toys? Well, they had to be replaced by toys specifically designed to pass on all kinds of information deemed essential to the children’s development.

Children whose parents could not afford the new toys were raising “deprived kids”. They did not notice that they were emphasising children playing with things rather than playing with each other and figuring out the dynamics of group interaction.

Schools also were forced to get into the act in supervising children’s play.

It should not surprise anyone that schools sports are heartily detested by most schoolchildren who see it as anything but “play”.

Then came another, but related innovation: children could not go outside to play excepting under the supervision of one or more adults.

This defined a new role for parents and adults, practically unheard of in the history of mankind.

Parents, especially mothers, now had as part of their duties, the job of playing with their children. Not just babies or toddlers, mind you, but grown children.

So now we have the phenomenon, via the Americans, of the frazzled Mom, ferrying their children from one site of play to another and being responsible for their “fun”. Parents now worry that their children may be “bored” and have to devise (worthwhile) activities to keep them suffering from ennui.

But hold it. It would appear that sturm and drang were but for naught. In a 2009 report, published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a respected adolescent specialist found that it is child-driven play, not adult-driven play, that has the greatest benefits to children because it contributes to “cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being.”

Based on his research, he believes that undirected play helps children “learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills.” Our parents were right all along. Just let the children play.

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