The Focused Student: When ‘play’ meant something different
For students who took enrichment classes, summer camp, or summer school, there’s now a brief “play” break until school begins. Perhaps it’s time to return to some old-fashioned play.
Maybe it is just me, but I don’t think I’m alone in my concern that many of today’s young people are so immersed in solitary use of electronic gadgets that they are missing opportunities to learn crucial social and mental skills.
When I was growing up in La Cañada, there wasn’t much technology. Television was black and white with three stations that only worked if you were able to adjust the rabbit ears just right (we were not allowed on the roof to play with the antenna). Saturday mornings consisted of cartoons (which we were allowed to watch for two hours if we got up early enough). Beyond that it was “get out of the house and go play!” And we did.
So what did we do in those days?
That depended a lot on how many kids were around on a given day. With enough boys, sports of one sort or another were usually the choice. It didn’t matter how good you were, or whether it was the right season. We headed down to Palm Crest Elementary and played basketball games, from half court to Horse. When we tired of that we would play on the jungle gym, parallel bars, swings and other equipment and chase each other around the school, sometimes being asked to leave the premises if we were not going to stay on the asphalt field.
For my sister and her friends, it was usually jacks, jump rope, skates, or fantasy play with dolls. I know they read a lot. In those days, it seemed boys were learning to be competitive, girls to be cooperative.
And we played.
Living up against the hills, we always did some hiking, until we got into the poison oak. That took care of hikes in the hills for the season.
But we played.
We also built tree forts. Some of them were very elaborate, with multiple levels. They were built from scraps of wood “borrowed” from any nearby construction site. It was amazing what we could build with wood scraps.
And we played.
At some point during the summer we would put together homemade coasters, which consisted of four wheels we took off an old scooter, tricycle or stroller and attached to a steel rod. We would then lay the rod and wheels on a 2-by-4, put some nails in the wood and bend the nails over the steel rod to (sort of) hold it all together. The two 2-by-4’s, now with four wheels, then got a hole drilled in the middle and a bolt would go through it and a 2-by-8 piece of wood that we could sit on. Oh, and if we had a brake (not considered essential), it was a piece of wood nailed to the side of the 2-by-8. When pulled back this would scrape the street and perhaps bring us to a stop, if it didn’t fall off. If it did fall off, we switched to the emergency brake by scraping our shoes on the ground, stopping (we hoped) before we got to the bottom of the street.
And we played.
Sometime during the week, war or cowboys vs. Indians or army or dueling knights was inevitable, with toy guns and caps, swords, and bows and arrows and other things that society has practically banded today for safety and sensitivity.
And we played.
So what does all of this stuff have to do with learning? Well, think about all the planning, anticipation, cooperation, assembling, creative resources, imagination and organization that went into these activities.
And we learned.
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ROBERT FRANK is the executive director of the Hillside School and Learning Center in La Cañada. He holds a master’s of science degree in special education and has more than 40 years of teaching experience. His column appears on the last Thursday of each month. He can be reached at frank@hillsideforsuccess.org.
