I first learnt about Puritanism (Oliver Cromwell and all that) doing History at school.  At first I really liked them, taking back land from the rich….  Then on the down side there was the brutality towards the Irish and the fact that they had no fun!  Puritans banned the theatre, forbade children to play games in the street and saw the act of ‘play’ as at best trivial, at worst demonic!

For centuries we have had a debate between then balance of work and play in our lives.  The Protestant work ethic dictated that work was ‘good for the soul’.  This ideology suited the development of capitalism and kept people in their place, the majority of people doing jobs that were unhealthy and alienating. 

 

For years workers struggled to reduce the number of hours that made up the working week.  By the 1970s western countries like ours started to speculate about ‘the end of work’; a time in the not too distant future when we would have more leisure time than work time.  Television programmes like Tomorrow’s World   predicted an increasing array of labour-saving devices (although the hover shoes John Craven promised me have yet to materialise!).

 

Wage Slaves?

 

Bizarrely the 1990s have seen a reversal in the trend of reduced weekly working hours.  By our own volition many of us are, according to author Madeline Bunting, ‘willing slaves’, working an unhealthy amount of hours in a week.  Overwork, for some, has become a sign of status - the laptop on holiday and mobile phone conversations while travelling or in non-work hours.

 

The question of the amount of ‘play’ that is good for us in our lives still rages on.  Even in some of the best companies in the UK 46% of employees in a recent survey complained that they were exhausted at the end of a day’s work (I’m sure a teachers survey would be even higher).  Clearly some cultures seem to value work more than leisure whereas thankfully some cultures don’t.  My favourite proverb learned whilst working in the Caribbean goes ‘If work were such a good thing, the rich would have found a way to keep it to themselves’.

 

Why children need play?

 

The word play has many connotations but words like pleasure, relaxation, perform, take part are often associated with it.  By having play as part of an education experience we are sending a clear signal that play is valuable and is valued. 

 

Play is important for brain activity.  According to neuropsychologist Stephen Siviy “play just lights things up”.  Professor Howard Gardner, famous for his work on assessment and multiple intelligences, also encourages children to play more so as to “master our self, our anxiety and the world”.

 

There is a strong movement within the current education system to develop young people’s emotional intelligence despite an education system which still puts too much emphasis on being trained to pass exams.  “We know that beyond a certain level. IQ and economic success are not indicators of fulfilling relationships or fruitful lives, so why do we sort and direct children by these rules?” 

 

The children we are teaching will be entering a labour market that is likely to value qualities such as creativity, inventiveness, communicating, problem-solving and being adaptable.  We don’t really know what their world will be like.  But what we do know is that if children leave school knowing how to play, both by themselves and with others, they will be in good shape to handle the demands of their world, especially work-life balance.