The Importance of Play

This week’s article summary is To Really Learn, Children Need the Power of Play.

Right before the school year began, one of Trinity’s trustees sent this article to me with the comment, “Sounds familiar, right?  Another example of why Trinity is an excellent choice!”

The article focuses on two educators—one American and one Finnish—who moved to each other’s country and experienced vastly different school experiences for their young children.

The Finnish educator was disappointed by the academic focus and expectation of an American preschool he was considering for his son.

The American educator while in Finland observed a much more relax approach, especially in the younger grades: valuing play, recess, and physicality; not rushing a child into academics; and embracing a slower, more natural and organic start to school that (counter intuitively to many) actually better prepares children for future academic success.

American classrooms on the whole are very different from the Finnish philosophy with much more seat work and with heavy emphasis on literacy and numeracy.

While Finnish students vastly outperform American students on the PISA standardized test, what I really like about Finnish schools is their student measures of success focus on areas like “social growth, emotional development, health, well-being, and happiness.”

As the Trinity trustee wrote, “Sounds familiar, right?”

Joe

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Five years ago, we switched countries. Pasi Sahlberg came to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Harvard University, and William Doyle moved to Finland to study its world-renowned school system. We brought our families with us. And we were stunned by what we experienced.

In Cambridge, Mass., Pasi took his young son to have a look at a potential preschool. The school’s director asked for a detailed assessment of the boy’s vocabulary and numeracy skills. “Why do you need to know this? He is barely 3 years old!” Pasi asked, looking at his son, for whom toilet training and breast-feeding were recent memories. “We need to be sure he is ready for our program,” replied the director. “We need to know if he can keep up with the rest of the group. We need to make sure all children are prepared to make the mark.”

Pasi was flummoxed by the bizarre education concept of “preschool readiness.” Pasi had entered an American school culture that is increasingly rooted in childhood stress and the elimination of the arts, physical activity and play—all to make room for a tidal wave of test prep and standardized testing. This new culture was supposed to reduce achievement gaps, improve learning and raise America’s position in the international education rankings. Nearly two decades later, it isn’t working. Yet this approach  continues, even as the incidence of childhood mental- health disorders such as anxiety and depression is increasing.

Finland focuses on equity, happiness and joy in learning as the foundations of education. Meanwhile, in Finland, William Doyle entered the school system ranked as #1 in the world for childhood education. Rather than pursuing standardized-test data as the Holy Grail of education, Finland focuses on equity, happiness, well- being and joy in learning as the foundations of education.

Finnish parents and teachers widely agree on several mantras rarely heard in U.S. schools: “Let children be children” and “The work of a child is to play.” A Finnish mother told William, “Here, you’re not considered a good parent unless you give your child lots of outdoor play.”

Finnish children learn to take responsibility and manage risks at very young ages, in school and out. Following local customs, William’s 7-year-old son learned to walk to school by himself, across six street crossings and two busy main roads. One day, on a forest path, William came upon a delighted Finnish father applauding his 6-year-old daughter as she scrambled up a tall tree—to a height that would have petrified many parents around the world. “If she falls and breaks her arm, it will be in a good cause. She will have learned something,” the father said nonchalantly.

In Finland, William experienced an education culture that protects and cherishes childhood, one in which students are immersed in a play-rich education that goes all the way to high school. At his son’s school, William saw children rush to the cafeteria in stocking feet, giggling, hugging and practicing dance steps. Students got a 15-minute outdoor recess every single hour of the school day, rain or shine.

“There are many reasons children must play in school,” explained the school’s principal, Heikki Happonen. “When they are moving, their brains work better. Then they concentrate more in class. It’s very important in social ways too.” He added, “School should be a child’s favorite place.”

The cultural shift is profound. Instead of annual, high- stakes standardized tests, Finnish children are assessed all day, every day, by a much more accurate instrument: trusted teachers who are selected, trained and respected as professionals.

Finland has a crucial insight to teach the U.S. and the world—one that can boost grades and learning for all students, as well as their social growth, emotional development, health, well-being and happiness. It can be boiled down to a single phrase: Let children play.

Back in the U.S., that idea has a powerful champion: the American Academy of Pediatrics. “The importance of playful learning for children cannot be overemphasized,” declared the academy’s 2018 clinical report “The Power of Play.” 

According to the doctors, play—including recess, playful teaching and discovery, as well as periods of self-directed intellectual and physical activity by children with minimal direct interference by adults— boosts mental and physical health, develops executive function and offers “the ideal educational and developmental milieu for children.”

A new emphasis on play can be seen cutting across cultures and ideologies. In China, an experiment in outdoor-play-based preschool and kindergarten known as Anji Play is proving so successful in more than 100 schools that it is being expanded—and widely hailed as a national model for early childhood education.

In Singapore, education officials are trying to shift a nation of high achievers away from stress, academic ranking and over-testing toward a new vision of childhood exploration and “purposeful play.” In a 2018 speech, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said, “There is room for parents to step back, give children space to explore and play.”

The lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing.

In U.S. school districts in Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and New York, children are being given up to 60 minutes of daily outdoor, free-play recess. These experiments are directly inspired by Finland’s schools —and educators are reporting sharp improvements in academic performance, concentration and behavior.

We should take a lesson from Finland, follow doctors’ orders and build our schools, homes and communities on the learning language of children: play.