Play, Baby, PLAY!

The second half of the month has been very much about Global School Play Day(it's on February 3, sign up here!) for me. As a hype man (my designation) for the big-hearted project, I've been participating in chats about the importance of play in the classroom. I'm not about to change course here. We could muddy our hands complaining about all of the things that keep us from letting our kids be kids, but we'd be here all day.

We need play for discovery. We build understanding, relationships, social skills, and so many other things through play. We also need play as a release valve. Whether we're pushing our students to listen, take notes, engage, create, or just regurgitate (I say, "I hope not," but we all know that it still happens too much!), all work and no play makes Jack into a jerk. Or a mess. And what if Jack or Jill are one of those magical sponge kids who soaks up whatever you toss at 'em? We love those kids, and they get it. They love learning, they get the growth mindset. They know that the effort grows their skill. They deserve that release most of all. Because, because, because we kinda sneer at recreation these days. Sure, we love it, but during work time, we don't throw our respect at our laid back friends. We throw it at the hard workers. Split off the prefix with a hyphen, and re-look at the word:

Re-creation.

Isn't learning about breaking down old misunderstandings, and re-creating our view of the world in a more powerful, more correct, more understanding way?

GSPD is important as a kick start. Sure, it's a nice break if you've been working your students until their fingertips are raw. And you can leave it there. You don't have to be a big picture thinker. But know that's all it will ever be is a break, unless you look at it not as the moment but the movement (apologies to Lin Manuel Miranda). Infuse Play into your classroom. Playful lessons are nice, but if your kids give you forty five minutes of real attention, engagement, or work, give them fifteen minutes to their own energy, creativity, or whatever their recharge is. Some will need to bounce around like idiots, some will need to talktalktalktalktalkt, some will need to find a quiet corner and retreat. Let them. You will all be better for it. 

And now the extension...

Because HECK, if we're working our kids too hard, if we're asking a lot more of them at younger ages, if we're wondering why so many keep blowing it on assignments and tests, shouldn't we be asking that about the whole system? I've often taken the lead from my principal in relation to my students. The ways my best principals have worked with my colleagues and me as an educational team have taught me so much about organizational structure. And through my career, I've applied that learning to my students. It's an analogous relationship. In the best schools, a principal is a caring and interested manager who wants to empower her/his teachers. Shouldn't that be true of teachers, too? I think so.

And now, I'm proposing that the relationship works under the commutative property. It works backward and forward. All of this play is so incredibly important for our students, and guess what? It's so incredibly true for teachers, too. With all of the pressure (to say nothing of the pay) of this career, play and recreation are crucial to us as well. Covey would have us sharpen our saws. He's right. Again, recreation is re-creation. We can't be innovative, big-hearted, gorgeous souls leading children to greatness if we're mentally and emotionally swamped. 

My pal Jennifer Williams and I have put on one Teacher Play Date event to bring play and learning together for teachers. We have plans for more because there aren't enough people operating the release valve on this profession. We (this is the bigger we, not just Jen and me) need to infuse this profession with Play, fun, and re-creation at every level, from kindergarten, to high school, to the teacher's lounge, to the office, to the school board. For the power to truly work, it needs to be surrounding the whole dang game. It needs to be done on the reg, not just on special occasions. 

So let's do it. The work of learning is crucial to our country, to our world. But if we're doing it joylessly, doing it without silliness, fun, play, and re-creation, maybe we're just building a factory world. That's not the world I want to live in.