NEW YORK — In one classroom, a group of preschool teachers squatted on the floor, pretending to be cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers. Next door, another group ended a raucous musical game by placing their tambourines and drums atop their heads.
Silly business, to be sure, but part of an agenda of utmost seriousness: To spread the word that America’s children need more time for freewheeling play at home and in their schools.
“We’re all sad, and we’re a little worried. … We’re sad about something missing in childhood,” psychologist and author Michael Thompson told 900 early childhood educators from 22 states packed into an auditorium last week.
“We have to fight back,” he declared. “We’re going to fight for play.”
After his speech at New York’s 92nd Street YMCA, the teachers dispersed into dozens of workshops, some lighthearted, some scholarly — but all supporting the case that creative, spontaneous play is both vital and endangered.
It’s not a brand-new cause — two years ago it was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. But social changes and new demands on kids’ spare time confront free-play advocates with an ever-moving target.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a Temple University psychologist, contends that lack of play in early childhood education “could be the next global warming.”
Without ample opportunity for forms of play that foster innovation and creative thinking, she argues, America’s children will be at a disadvantage in the global economy.
“Play equals learning,” she said. “For too long we have divorced the two.”
Among the key factors, according to Thompson:
Reluctance to let kids play outside on their own, for fear of abduction or injury, and the companion trend of scheduling lessons, supervised sports and other structured activities.
More hours per week spent by kids watching TV, playing video games, using the Internet, communicating on cell phones.
Shortening or eliminating recess at many schools.
More emphasis on formal learning in preschool, more homework for elementary school students and more pressure from parents on young children to quickly acquire academic skills.
“Parents are more self-conscious and competitive than in the past,” Thompson said. “They’re pushing their kids to excel. … Free play loses out.”
Thompson contends that diminished time to play freely with other children is producing a generation of socially inept young people and is a factor behind high rates of youth obesity, anxiety, attention-deficit disorder and depression.
Many families turn to organized sports as a principal nonschool activity, but Thompson noted that this option doesn’t necessary breed creativity and can lead to burnout for good young athletes and frustration for the less skilled.
Vivian Paley, a former kindergarten teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and now an author and consultant, argues that the most vital form of play for young children involves fantasy and role-playing with their peers.
“They’re inventing abstract thinking, before the world tells them what to think,” Paley said in her speech to the conference.
She worries that preschools, in the drive to prepare students for the academic challenges ahead, are reducing the opportunity for group fantasy play — and thus reducing children’s chances to learn on their own about fairness, kindness and other social interactions.
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