The role of play in early education
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“At charter schools like
Ascend, educators are so
dedicated to making sure
kids learn—it’s like nothing
I’ve ever seen and certainly
not what I hear from
parents sending their kids
to the local district schools.
When people love what
they’re doing, like the educators
at Ascend, they get
great results. You can see it
in the students’ test scores,
but I also see it every day in
my son’s excitement about
going to school.” - Kathy-
Ann Hosten-Peters, Brooklyn
Ascend parent
“I chose Ascend over
other public schools because
of the excellent curriculum.
My daughter is naturally
shy, but the education she
receives from Ascend empowers
her to speak up. She
has excelled academically: I
see a major difference in her
vocabulary and the way she
carries herself.” – Shamar
Williston, East Flatbush
Ascend parent
“I was ecstatic that I
could use my voice to choose
the best school for my son. I
wanted a school that would
love him the same way I do,
and that’s what I found at
Ascend. I love the school
and I don’t regret my choice
at all. He’s grown so much
and is doing great academically.”
- Martha Dottin,
Brownsville Ascend parent
Education
Glance at a typical family schedule and you
would no doubt see that afternoons are jampacked
and many children — even the youngest
among them — have full itineraries of structured
after-school activities.
In an effort to raise well-rounded and intelligent
children, many parents enroll their youngsters
in all sorts of extracurricular activities,
including sports leagues, travel teams, enrichment
clubs, and musical instruction. While
these activities benefit kids in myriad ways, it’s
also beneficial to let kids be kids and to provide
ample time for them to engage in free play.
According to the popular toy and learning
company Alex Brands, structured activities can
teach children how to follow rules and routines
and help them build developmental skills. But
free play can improve critical skills as well. One
of the biggest benefits to free play is it can foster
kids’ creativity and help kids discover their
interests on their own. Free play also helps children
learn independence and how to keep themselves
occupied.
The United Nations recognizes free play as a
basic right of every child and underscores its importance.
Despite this, unstructured play seems
to be on the decline, with more structured activities
taking over young children’s days.
Even in school settings free play has given
way to more time spent at desks and devices in
preparation for standardized testing. Recess,
which has been cut or reduced in many school
districts, has become a hot-button issue for many
free play advocates. The development of Recess
for All Florida Students, as well as proposed legislation
in other states, has redirected attention
to free play and the importance of it. Recess is
a form of free play and provides students with a
break from the rigors of learning.
In a 2011 article in the American Journal of
Play, Peter Gray, Ph.D., a researcher at Boston
College, indicated that “lack of play affects emotional
development, leading to the rise of anxiety,
depression, and problems of attention and
self-control.” Gray also indicated that without
play, “young people fail to acquire the social and
emotional skills necessary for healthy psychological
development.”
Free play also can benefit youngsters in the
following ways:
• Enables kids to learn dexterity and improve
on other strengths;
• fulfills exercise requirements for growing
kids;
• helps kids conquer fears and develop confidence;
• establishes natural leadership roles and hierarchy
in social groups;
• contributes to emotional well-being by giving
children a respite from schedules; and
• helps teach self-responsibility, which may
translate to better behavior at home and in
school.
Free play is an important component of learning
and exploration for children. A mix of structured
and unstructured activities is key to raising
well-rounded individuals.