1,100 words about the importance of advocating for children and their playing by way of a hard lesson learnt.
"The children at this school told me about ‘The Swinging Tree’. It was right at the back of the school field and was called this because there was one branch in particular that was at just the right angle and height to produce a great place to swing."
A biographical short on the state of children's psychic health and witches.
"After delivering my paper there was only sporadic applause for my efforts and despite the convener asking if anyone had questions there were none. Once I got back to my hotel though the emails started to arrive."
a \‘shȯrt-rēd’\ piece
900 words about what we, the adult in a playspace, should be doing while there are children playing all around us. Vygotsky gets a mention as does a playwork pioneer.
"We have had many positive developments in an early learning and forest school context in how adults see their role in recent decades. What was the ‘teacher’ has, in many respects become the ‘educator’, for example, and that has clearly been a considered move; and yet ‘educator’ still implies ‘educate’."
500 words about how the wear and tear marks left behind on physical features by years of use provide subtle clues to the actions of people long after they have left.
"This week, during an aside from the regular monotony of motels and cafes which makes up the uninteresting side of being on the road touring, brought up an unexpected example of forensic Playwork - the act of reading and interpreting the physical signs that playing leaves behind."
500 words about scary news headlines, ignorance about the reality of children at the play, and the right and wrong questions to be asking.
“Shocking” and “unbelievable” says an article reporting a story that has grabbed national attention in the UK this week. This is in response to a story about a group of children seen playing ‘chicken’ in the road.
"Can you imagine what the world might be like if we all managed to maintain the natural curiosity and playfulness of our child-self through into our adult life and on to the end of our days?"
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a \'lɒŋ- rēd'\ piece
An 1,800 word biographical piece about my early introduction to Playwork and to the world of New Games offered as a tribute to Bernie DeKoven, long-time playful person and key member of the New Games movement. Bernie is true-hero of mine and I count him as being a great influence on my working practice. All Hail Bernie!
This peace gives a definition of 'playfulness' and touches on the importance of being able to conquer self-consciousness when working around the playing child.
"The approach that often well-meaning campaigns, such as the latest Irish ‘Let’s take on childhood obesity’ campaign, adopt in relation to children playing, often leaves me cold."
This piece describes how assumptions about children's lives can sometimes override reality and that even well-meaning people can advance projects that they might feel will be of benefit but which ultimately are just trying to fix something that simply is not broken.
"I have a message to all those out there that might not have much respect for the well-being agenda or who might believe that the issue of children’s happiness is nothing but a modern fad that has no real bearing on the real world. You’re an idiot."
Some aspects of Playwork are harder than others. This story highlights one of the most profound.
"I’ve been asked a number of times why I continue to wear black and white Converse originals on my feet and am rarely seen without them – even in a suit (true story). Today, I explain one of the reasons why."
Shoes. It comes down to shoes. Interestingly, this piece has been one the most commented on, most sharied pieces I've ever written. Here it is brought up to date with a new crucial piece of information in a postscript.
"Throughout most of the 1980s I lived in a house down a cul-de-sac. It was a quite short street with not too many parked cars on and, completely by chance, had three or four playworkers living down it – two of us in the same house."
Children clearly create their own special places for playing but sometimes they need help from local adults to make this work. It can be as simple as asking the right questions and knocking on the right doors and it need not cost the earth.
