Wondering what this image has to do with "stranger danger"? You'll find out really soon.
Here, once again, Joan Almon, an early childhood educator with more than 30 years of teaching experience, talks about the dangers of fearing play.
“Real play — play that is initiated and directed by children and that bubbles up from within the child rather than being imposed by adults — has largely disappeared from the landscape of childhood in the United States,” Almon said. “There are many reasons for this, such as the long hours spent in front of screens each day or activities organized by adults. In addition, preschools and kindergartens that used to foster meaningful play and exploration often spend long hours on adult-led instruction instead.”
Unfortunately, says C. J. Ellis of KidsReadUs.com, many parents are concerned that their kids will accidentally get hurt while participating in playful activities. “It seems that parents do not understand how kids can rise to the occasion.”
In her recent article, “The Fear of Play” published by Exchange Press, Almon agreed: “Playgrounds that offer genuine risk, such as Berkeley’s adventure playground, where children build two-story play structures with hammers and nails, tend to have fewer accidents than traditional playgrounds. Give children real risk and they rise to it; they learn how to handle it.”
On the other hand, when children are subjected to “sanitized” play spaces, they have been known to take risks just for the thrill of doing so, Almon added.
There is also a widespread fear of 'stranger danger,’ Almon wrote. "Most parents will not let their elementary-age children go out unattended. Yet most crimes against children, such as abduction or abuse, are perpetrated by people the family knows rather than strangers on the playground.”
In an effort to be ultra organized, parents also risk abandoning simple activities that can foster imagination. “All of us like to feel in charge of daily events and activities involving our children,” Ellis explains. “But the result has been asking children to sit quietly while completing adult-prepared worksheets.”
“No wonder people love to see young children working at computer screens,” Almon said. “It’s so tidy compared to play, which [can be] messy.”
Play is full of symbols and metaphors, she added. Some elements come from everyday life but the next minute the child will be filled with magical-like thoughts.
That lesson is well exemplified in The Culprit Was a Fly written by educator Lisa Funari-Willever. “Theodore is a precocious child who tangles with a pesky fly that refuses to leave his sandwich,” Ellis explains.
“He considers various creative ways to make the fly disappear but finally realizes what the right solution really is,” she says without giving away the story’s ending. It’s a prime example of how daydreaming and imagination can play a role in a child’s dvelopment, Ellis adds.
In fact, Ellis and Almon said, play can be so powerful that it can help parents Let Their Child’s Imagination Fly!
[Almon is co-founder of the U.S. Alliance for Childhood and co-director of its Restoring Children's Play project. For 30 years, she taught preschool and kindergarten in Waldorf schools in Maryland and abroad.]
It is difficult as a parent to let your child go, per se, into the world unrestrained and therefore unprotected. But I do take your point about how children rise to the occasion and through real play (perhaps riskier play in the eyes of the parent). Given the opportunity to learn through experience how to cope with risks and dangers, it makes sense that children will benefit. Learning through experience usually proves more valuable and long-lasting than any other type of learning.
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