Play Gets Us in Touch with Our Core Selves and the Joy of Life.

This article in yesterday's New York Times is a must read for anyone who loves to play, believes in the importance of play for all human beings, regardless of age or ability, and mourns the lack of value play has in our culture.

Let the Children Play (Some More)
By Stuart Brown

Here on the balmy central coast of California and all across the country, kids are heading back to school. The classes are larger, the No Child Left Behind mandates remain in place and, despite advice from the nation’s secretary of health and human services and others, recess and physical education (not to mention art and music instruction) have in many schools been cut back or eliminated. While most of our backpack-laden kids are eager to catch up with friends they haven’t seen over the summer, the general feeling is that “playtime is over.”

Some of my favorite quotations from this article:

"Through the lens of play research, we can see that there is a direct line between play deficiencies and some frightening public health and social trends: tragic statistics for obesity, 4.5 million children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, an increase in childhood depression and classroom behavioral problems involving violence, and an inability to interact well with peers."

"Evidence from around the scientific compass — neuroscience, psychology, exercise physiology, sociology and developmental biology — has revealed the importance of play. Deprive a social mammal like a rat or monkey of its normal rough-and-tumble play and it enters adulthood emotionally fragile, unable to tell friend from foe, poor at handling stress and lacking the skills to mate properly."

"Play-deprived adults are often rigid, humorless, inflexible and closed to trying out new options. Playfulness enhances the capacity to innovate, adapt and master changing circumstances. . . Play is an active process that reshapes our rigid views of the world."

"From an evolutionary perspective, the smarter the animal, the more they play. For humans, play reinvigorates us not because it is down time, but because it gets us in touch with our core selves and the joy of life."

Stuart Brown, is founder and president of the National Institute for Play.

In a short video on his website, Dr. Brown shows "an incredible ballet" between a polar bear and a husky, one of whom could be the other's lunch. Their play suggests asymmetry and the power of play signals which can often be seen crossing species. Dr Brown: "Here's where it begins, with the hard-wired joyful smile between the mother and infant which is the grounding base of play which then can be choreographed into rough and tumble play, games ... "

Dr Brown asks, "What do you think the opposite of play is?" The answer, "Depression."

Wanna play? Octabands are great fun.