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Let the children play
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Location: Blogs Now We're Talking |
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| Posted by: Joe Byrnes |
10/14/2006 1:57 AM |
A couple years ago I learned the value of cruise control.
I used to stress about my place in the traffic on Interstate 75 and seethe at drivers who cut me off or rode my bumper. Now I just let them drift past as my wife and I, coasting at 70 mph, talk politics or chat about the boys or relive some long-ago family feast.
A report Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics brought that lesson to mind. It relates, as I see it, to the joys of childhood and the anxiety that goes by the name of time management.
You, too, may know the quiet horror of wasted time — of important things left undone — that gnaws at my thoughts. It is a symptom, I think, of middle age, when the minutes count against you as lost opportunities in the face of dwindling years.
Every so often, I'll write down whole new sets of resolutions, with schedules and calendars and promises to rise early or study late. Now, thanks to Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg and two AAP committees, I'm lifting my foot from the gas and clicking on my cruise control.
The doctors pointed out a simple truth about childhood.
Children need play — free, imaginative, self-directed play. This is different from the structured teamwork of sports, the lost time that is video-gaming or a zombielike zoning-out in front of the TV.
Organized sports are good for kids, of course, and so are school days, marching bands, homework assignments and chores around the house. But, if the schedule runs from rise-and-shine to lights-out, wondrous dimensions of childhood are left unrealized. These are the worlds that children unfold for themselves freely in their imaginations or play-act with their friends.
Kids at play are not just marching to a different drummer. They're bouncing on the bed or twirling to the squeal of a tin horn — or racing through pastures, belting out their own nonsensical songs. Maybe they are building cities in the back yard or raising families of Care Bears and Barbie dolls.
The School District lines them up in lockstep to learn facts, words, skills, concepts and equations, without the free play of recess and with less time now for music and art. It's up to the parents, I guess, to guard those hours when a child can be a child.
You can read the AAP report online at www.aap.org/pressroom/
play-public.htm.
It begins: "Play is essential to development as it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of children and youth." Participating in child-driven play also enables parents "to engage fully with their children."
I believe that playful attitude will mature as a lively openness, compassion and honesty, as creative problem-solving and a sense of perspective.
A grown man may not plink toy xylophones anymore, but he delights in the call of a cardinal at his doorstep.
A grown woman may not still drink her tea with teddy bears, but she understands how to treat her friends.
We may no longer debate the relative strengths of comic book characters, but we do, perhaps, listen for the inner struggles of colleagues or clients.
The playful imagination we enjoyed as children helps us see the world and work and problems and people differently.
Each of us has this unique cruise control.
We can battle others for the fast lane, or we can live by truths we know through the gift of a childlike heart.
Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or (352) 867-4112.
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Re: Let the children play |
By Eric Barnes on
10/11/2006 1:56 PM |
| We don't debate the relative strengths of comic book characters? How else are we to resolve the dilemma of who would win a fight between Spider-Man and Wolverine? |
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