I wish to share an article by Kerry McDonal posted on FEE (Foundation for Economic Education), Friday July 28, 2017, titled: It’s Summer Break. Where have All the Children Gone?
In it, she writes about how the children less and less are having free play on their own terms, without adult supervision. They are more and more being contained in structured adult led, often in indoor activities, where they are told what to do, what to think and how to act.
I remember my own childhood; I would be outside playing with friends and neighborhood kids during the afternoons or the weekends, negotiating with others to find something to do, stopping by home to get a sandwich. Sometimes I got a piece of bread with butter and sugar. Have anyone else tried that? White bread with butter dipped in sugar, and I would eat it while playing.
This is not happening to the same degree amongst the young today and that is tragic. Not having free, unfenced, adult free playtime, is unhealthy for a child.
From the article:
In his 2011 article for the American Journal of Play, Boston College psychology professor, Dr. Peter Gray, argues for a causal link between the systematic decline in play and the corresponding rise in childhood anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, narcissism, and other mental illness indicators.
This is one of the reasons I’m against kindergarten. If there is one place where the adults really are in charge, it’s in kindergarten, where the children are being herded from morning to afternoon, always supervised and always guided by adults.
It’s Summer Break. Where have All the Children Gone?