Educación Sudbury

EINSTEIN MAY NEVER HAVE USED FLASHCARDS, BUT HE PROBABLY BUILT FORTS

Why one alum is part of a growing movement to bring play back into the lives of children
by Lory Hough

In some ways, this headline is almost funny, the idea of a young Einstein, wild hair flying, throwing his mother’s quilt over a couple of chairs and crawling underneath.

But to Elizabeth Goodenough, M.A.T.’71, a headline like this is not a joke. We’re a busy-by-design society that’s become so concerned with turning kids into baby Einsteins that something critical to childhood, something that Goodenough holds sacred, is fast becoming extinct: free play.

She says that all you have to do is drive around American cities and towns to see for yourself; there are very few kids outside.

This is why Goodenough raised money to start a project called Where Do the Children Play? which includes a PBS documentary that will air in the fall, as well as a companion book and website. In addition, with a coalition of national children’s organizations, she hopes to start a national dialogue about the issue. The project, which grew out of her earlier book called Secret Spaces of Childhood, is aimed at raising public awareness about the critical importance of play. Beyond the obvious — play helps kids stay in shape — it also promotes creativity and teaches skills such as negotiating and how to be around others.

“Play takes many forms. It may be best defined from within as a spontaneous human expression that relies on imagination and a sense of freedom,” Goodenough says. “Players invent alternative contexts for conversation, visualization, movement, and interaction with real objects. They discover release and engagement, stimulation, and peace. Although play can arise anywhere, even in a cement cell, children are naturally beckoned by the living world to enjoy perception and the sensations of being alive.”

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