Our culture does not endorse playing for adults. We hardly condone it for children these days — everything is so scheduled and planned and based around Standards of Learning (SOLs) test scores. I heard a segment on NPR talking about the “gap” year that kids are taking between highschool and college. The theory is that it is becoming very popular because kids no longer experience the true joys of summer. They are too busy and too scheduled and too focused on making their academic and extracurricular record look good so that they can get into a “good” school — they no longer know how to play, to create or even how to just be still. And yet, I also repeatedly hear that the kind of person companies value are those who are creative and innovative and collaborative in their approach to work and life. Why do we stifle these tendencies and traits in our children? Especially if that is what employers are seeking?
TechLearning Summer 2008 Week 5 – PLAY
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Did you see Olivia’s post on this topic?
It’s here.
I’m committed to the notion that play is REALLY important. I sometimes feel sorry for students at UR because they don’t seem to have very much down-time. Always making a million bucks or saving the world. It must suck to be burned out at 21.