In this episode I talk about
Peter Gray and his book
Free to Learn - Why unleasing the instinc to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life.
We talk about how play is learning.
how we today think about play as something which is dont
to children. Not something they actively participate and even lead.
for 10.000 years + kids have been learning all by themselves - THROUGH PLAY
Kids play themselve into useful members of their communities.
When we play we are FREE in a way we arent in other aspects of life.
Chimpanzees learn by looking, not by being taught.
The amount of things infants needs to learn is almost insurmountable
Playfully participating in life gets imbedded in us and helps us emotionally able to deal with life.
WIthout playing in childhood you can get difficulties in your emotional connections with others as an adult. ANd many other problems become more prevalent.
Kids has the strongest desire to play because the have the most to learn.
Playful aproaches to the world affords more possibilites. It increases your degrees of freedom.
The colonialisation of childhood by others.
Abusing play as a tool for teaching.
BUT play needs to be self motivated. It needs to be voluntary.
Adults think play is useful only when it can be harnessed to teach something from the decided upon by adults from the curriculum.
Learning happens INSIDE the school and play outside. This is a subtle indoctrination.
The serious that happens inside the classroom is of value. The time wasting play happens outside in recess.
Play is learning as nature intended it for us. Driven by enthusiasm and not to do well on a standardized test.
Playing teaches each of us how to be ourselves! It shows us who we are!
Learning is not JUST what happens in schools.
its not something you buys. Its what you do in the process of developing yourself as a human being.
Biology does not give us built in answers to what it means to be a human. It has given a method to aquire answers. This method is play. This way of being in the world is HOW evolution has equiped us to find ourselves and our WAY.
Quote from the manuscript:
Genes and biology isn’t giving us readymade answers hardwired to solve the difficulties of becoming and staying human. Instead of giving us answers which, as all answers, can be right or wrong, or useful or useless, nature has given us a process to aquire answers. Evolution gave us a method, or an approach to generate answers, not individual answers. This process is play. Perhaps schools
the Way of the Showman 