Writing for life

Published in the WOW! supplement of the Evening Echo 19/09/2007

Over the last week debate has been raging in Britain, and further afield, about the lamentable decline of childhood play. It was all sparked by a letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London, signed by no fewer than 270 international child “experts”, including more than 40 professors, 60 psychologists, and leaders of the main children’s charities and teaching unions.

In the letter these venerable authorities link a disturbing rise in clinically diagnosable children’s mental health problems with a “marked decline over the last 15 years in children’s play”.

You’ll struggle to find anyone who disagrees with the statement that play is an important element in a child’s natural development, and that it’s a vital contributor to their overall wellbeing. In this regard, according to the experts, unstructured outdoor play with minimal adult interference reigns supreme. Yet in today’s busy world our children rarely have the freedom to play outside unfettered.

The experts go on to lists a host of modern day symptoms that they believe exacerbate the erosion of children’s creative play – most of which apply as much here in Ireland as they do across the water in Britain.

For a start there’s the burgeoning traffic, which makes all but the most secluded of residential areas unsafe for children. Then there’s the proliferation of computer games and addictive screen-based entertainment that’s keeping children indoors. Parental anxiety about “strangers danger” is also said to be stifling play, prompting many concerned parents to keep children on a short metaphorical leash outdoors. Ironically our desire to protect our children from short-term danger could be doing them long-term harm.

Another culprit listed in the experts’ letter – one that I think is a major contributor to the problem – is an early school and pre-school system that’s increasingly geared towards formal learning and testing at the expense of free, unstructured play.

We’re trying to control every aspect of a child’s life. It’s all gone too far.

In Colorado, elementary schools have even banned children from playing chasing games like “tag” in the playground. According to one assistant principal “it causes a lot of conflict”. But isn’t that the point? Isn’t learning to deal with conflict – and it’s resolution – through play a vital part of a child’s development? They’re going to encounter conflict at every stage of their lives. If we shield them from it in the playground, how will they cope when they’re confronted with it later in life?

In their letter to The Telegraph the experts call for a “wide-ranging and informed public dialogue about the intrinsic nature and value of play in children’s healthy development, and how we might ensure its place at the heart of twenty-first-century childhood”.

Maybe it’s just me being simple… but isn’t the answer obvious? Why can’t we just let our children play?

We’re bombarded by negative images in the media all the time. Through newspapers, radio, TV and the internet we’re confronted with a constant barrage of information… and because sensational bad news tends to sell better than the “fluffy bunny” good stuff, that’s what we tend to get more of.

As a result we’re living in a world we perceive to be far more dangerous than it really is. Death, mutilation, abduction and terrorism are out there, yes, but let’s get some perspective; they’re hardly lurking on every street corner waiting for us to let our guard down.

We need to protect our children, certainly – but we also need to nurture their development. Part of that means stepping back and giving them the space and freedom they need to play and learn for themselves.