“…Most schools across the nation have
marked the end of another academic year, and it’s time for summer. Time for
kids to bolt for the schoolhouse doors for two long months of play, to explore
their neighborhoods and discover the mysteries, treasures, and dramas they have
to offer.
“This childhood idyll will hold true for some children, but for many
kids, the coming of summer signals little more than a seasonal shift from one
set of scheduled, adult-supervised lessons and activities to another.
“Unscheduled, unsupervised, playtime is
one of the most valuable educational opportunities we give our children. It is
fertile ground; the place where children strengthen social bonds, build
emotional maturity, develop cognitive skills, and shore up their physical
health. The value of free
play, daydreaming,
risk-taking,
and independent discovery have been much in the news this year, and a new
study by psychologists at the University of Colorado reveals just how
important these activities are in the development of children’s executive
functioning.
“Executive function is a broad term for
cognitive skills such as organization, long-term planning, self-regulation,
task initiation, and the ability to switch between activities. It is a vital
part of school preparedness and has long been accepted as a powerful predictor
of academic performance and other positive life outcomes such as health and
wealth. The focus of this study is ‘self-directed executive function,’ or the
ability to generate personal goals and determine how to achieve them on a
practical level. The power of self-direction is an underrated and invaluable
skill that allows students to act productively in order to achieve their own
goals.
“Children who engage in more free play have more highly
developed self-directed executive function.
“The authors studied the schedules and
play habits of 70 six-year-old children, measuring how much time each of them
spent in ‘less structured,’ spontaneous activities such as imaginative play and
self-selected reading and ‘structured’ activities organized and supervised by
adults, such as lessons, sports practice, community service and homework. They
found that children who engage in more free play have more highly developed
self-directed executive function. The opposite was also true: The more time
kids spent in structured activities, the worse their sense of self-directed
control. It’s worth noting that when classifying activities as ‘less structured’
or ‘structured,’ the authors deemed all child-initiated activities as ‘less-structured,’
while all adult-led activities were ‘structured.’
“All of this is in keeping with the
findings of Boston College psychology professor Peter Gray, who
studies the benefits of play in human development. In his book Free to Learn:
Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More
Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life, he elaborates on how play
supports the development of executive function, and particularly self-directed
control:
“Free play is nature’s means of
teaching children that they are not helpless. In play, away from adults,
children really do have control and can practice asserting it. In free play,
children learn to make their own decisions, solve their own problems, create
and abide by rules, and get along with others as equals rather than as obedient
or rebellious subordinates.
“When we reduce the amount of free
playtime in American preschools and kindergartens, our children stand to lose
more than an opportunity to play house and cops and robbers. Some elementary
programs recognize the importance of play and protect its role in preschool and
kindergarten. Montessori schools and Tools of the Mind curricula are
designed to capitalize on the benefits of self-directed free play and
student-initiated activities. Tools of the Mind programs, for example, place
even more importance on developing executive function than on academic skills.
In their
terminology, ‘self-regulation’ is the key to success both in school and in
life:
“Kindergarten teachers rank
self-regulation as the most important competency for school readiness; at the
same time, these teachers report that many of their students come to school
with low levels of self-regulation. There is evidence that early
self-regulation levels have a stronger association with school readiness than
do IQ or entry-level reading or math skills, and they are closely associated
with later academic achievement.
“This is not news to most teachers,
who, when tasked with educating increasingly crowded classrooms, hope and pray
for students with well-developed executive function. The ability to self-direct
can spell the difference between an independent student, who can be relied upon
to get her work done while chaos reigns around her, and a dependent, aimless
student, who is distracted by his classmates and must be guided from one task
to the next.
“Parents, if you really want to give
your kid a head start on coming school year, relinquish some of that time you
have earmarked for lessons or sports camp and let your children play. That’s
it. Just play. Grant them time free from your ulterior motives and carefully
planned educational outcomes. Let them have dominion over their imaginary
kingdoms while their evil dragons, white wizards, marauding armies, and grand
battles for supremacy unfurl according to their whims and wills.”
Why Free Play Is the Best Summer School by Jessica Lahey
Should Children Be Part of “School All Summer”?
Should Children Be Part of “School All Summer”?
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