ED 260– SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Play in Historical Context

Please take out your name tents. Thank You!

Schedule Today:• Announcements• Play Portfolios: Reflections on what we learned• Small Group Discussion and Poster Making• Large Group: Creating an Historical Timeline• Checking in about the Wiki (adding web-links, photos)___________

Your introductions and play memories on the wiki were fabulous!!

Think for a moment….What ideas about play did you discover as you reminisced and wrote about your play memories? What did you learn from reading your colleagues’ play memories?

Heart Play

Total AbandonmentNo WorryJoyClear ThinkingEnergyCuriosity WondermentPrideConnectionMovementImaginationRelaxationTherapeutic

Source: Brannen, Barbara, (2002). The Gift of Play: Why Adult Women Stop Playing and How to Start Again. Writers Club Press: San Jose, CA.

Heart Play Portfolios

Documentation and Analysis of Two Adult Heart Play Experiences Continuing to tell the story of your lifespan play by documenting two

forms of play you enjoy *now* as an adult. Engaged in for this assignment (e.g., no thinking back)

1. One play experience that you regularly engage in 2. One play experience where you try something new or return to a

form of play you love but have not done in a long time. 3. Digital Play Experience (Facebook, video games, Wii Station, iPhone

games etc.) Analysis: Briefly describe each experience Photograph or video clip and if relevant, one web-link Relate to construct of Heart Play and other appropriate literature we

read and/or discuss in class

Chudacoff: From the intro:

“In many non-Western cultures, parents have considered children competent at an earlier age than Western children, permitting play to take place without strict supervision or organization; “free” play is considered and tolerated as “natural.” The play of American youngsters, growing up in a technology-dominated, competitive, future-oriented culture, has required both adult guidance and adult protection lest children’s, and society’s, healthy development be jeopardized. This nexus between generations, and the resulting contest over the site, materials, participants, and autonomy of children’s play, has resulted in both benefits and costs” (p. 18)

Creating an Historical Timeline of Play

Constructs we can use to focus our collective analysis: Views of Children

Views of Play

Play Environments

Play Materials

Playmates

Control versus Freedom in Play (include risk-taking)

Other significant themes for this time period related to play?

Chapter 6: The Commercialization and Co-Optation of Children’s Play (1950-Present)

Rise of mass-marketing to children

Mickey-mouse Club and Barbies introduced

Birthrates up and then down; longer life-spans

Concerns increase for “safeguarding children from all hazards”

Themes: Domestication of play, Adults “co-opting” children’s play

“As the values and goals of success have been switched from acquisition of material things to educational and personal achievement, middle class parents have become less and less patient with the “wastefulness of play.” Upwardly mobile parents wanted their pre-adolescent kids to be better than average in all things, so they tried to provide them with professionally run activities that would enrich their minds, tone their bodies, inculcate physical skills, and enhance their self-esteem.” (p. 165)

Final Reflection Question:

What did you learn from this historical look at play?

Were any of your assumptions challenged? How?

Do you think differently about contemporary play as a result of this reading? Yes/no? Why?