—Enjoyable Activity
Skipping, jumping, dancing, singing, fiddling, exploring, imagining, pretending, fantasizing, joking, doodling, visiting, and just goofing off. This is fun, this is play, this is OK.
The objectives of this course are to help students:
This course is part of the Applied Wisdom curriculum.
This course draws heavily on the materials published previously. We are grateful the author has placed that article into the public domain.
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For the purposes of this course, we describe play as:
More formal definitions are available.
Synonyms for play include caper, dalliance, delight, diversion, foolery, frolic, fun, gambol, game, gaming, happiness, humor, jest, joking, lark, match, pastime, pleasure, prank, recreation, relaxation, romp, sport, sportiveness, and teasing. As we use it here it does not include any activities or behaviors that harm or exploit anyone.
Although it appears purposeless, play has important long-term benefits. Play promotes brain development, creative thinking, and problem solving. Play is an important catalyst for learning; it prepares us to deal effectively with new or unexpected situations. Experimenting with socialization as we play teaches us the rules and limits of acceptable and unacceptable social behavior through a wide variety of experiences in a relatively safe environment. Play increases emotional competence; it allows us to simulate a broad range of new experiences easily and safely as we learn from them quickly. Play helps us learn how the world works and how we can interact with it as we test the system in a variety of ways. Through play we learn the difference between acceptable and unacceptable risk taking. The rapid trial and error of play increases our creativity and innovation.
Learning through play has been long recognized as a critical aspect of childhood and child development.
Play can suspend or displace predatory behavior and overcome even a substantial differential in power. Signals of playful intent are widely recognized. Stuart Brown states that the basis of human trust is established through play signals.[1]
Although often misattributed to Plato, the observation “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play that in a year of conversation” remains insightful.
Play often incorporates anticipation, curiosity, surprise, pleasure, and a new understanding that can lead to a new strength and a new level of play.
Play can provide many benefits, even within our work lives. For example, play:
Allow yourself the pure joy of play without feeling frivolous, embarrassed, or superficial. Integrate play into work so that you enjoy your work and increase your overall effectiveness.
If we are careless or cruel play can sometimes degenerate into destructive activities:
People sincerely care about the others they are playing with. Not all purposeless activities are play. Play is not:
Play is fun for all. If you are fearful, anxious, hurt, distrustful, abusive, or distressed, you are not playing.
Play can take many forms, such as improvisation or pretense, interactive, performance, mimicry, games, sports, and thrill-seeking.
Here are some possibilities:
Find ways to solve problems by playing. For example:
Students wanting to learn more about playing may be interested in reading the following books:
I have not yet read the following books, but they seem interesting and relevant. They are listed here to invite further research.