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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/a-history-of-play-theory-courses-online-this-november_111s270</link>
<title><![CDATA[A History of Play Theory courses online this November]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[ 

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Advanced Notice

I have literally had people shouting out me because of not having had a History of Play Theory Course running for such a time. Soooo, I&rsquo;ve decided to make an online version of parts one, two, and three available in November this year.

Each part requires a minimum number of participants to make it work so there is an &lsquo;interest form&rsquo; [here] for you to fill in if you fancy having a go.

Why should you do these

Professionals have a habit of sticking to their lane &ndash; through our training, the books we read, courses we go on, etc. we tend to concentrate on perspectives from within our discipline. In the context of play theory this presents a problem because there are SO MANY more interesting and useful perspectives out there that we don&rsquo;t usually dip into. 

These courses aim to break that habit. And trust me, you will find something to amaze you in every one of these different viewpoints.

The courses

There are six parts to the whole series of &lsquo;A History of Play Theory&rsquo; with three being made available as live online session this November.

You can take as many or as few of the various parts as you wish and in any order (although it is suggested to do part one first as that gives some context to the whole program). 

Each part looks at past and present theories of play of five academic and scientific disciplines grouped into linked categories. The three available in 2026 are:

Part One: Historical Approaches to Play Theory

This course looks at the past and present perspectives on play from:


	Classical Philosophy
	Modern Philosophy
	Medieval History
	Archaeology
	Folklore


Part Two: Early Scientific Approaches to Play Theory

This course looks at the past and present perspectives on play from:


	Zoology
	Sociology
	Anthropology
	Evolutionary Biology
	(the) Four Classic post 1859 theories of Play 


Part Three: Approaches of the Mind and Soul to Play Theory

This course looks at the past and present perspectives on play from:


	Neuroscience
	Psychology &amp; Psychoanalysis
	Social &amp; Geographic Psychology
	Cognitive &amp; Developmental Psychology
	Pedagogy


How do they work

Starting in November (and possibly running into early December) each course will hold six live evening sessions of 2 hours each. The sessions will be recorded and made available to participants for seven days after the live session).

All three parts will be delivered on different days each week so that people choosing to do more than one can attend (we already have people interested in doing at least two of the courses together).

The cost will be around $360 plus a small booking fee for each course. If you choose two of the courses you will receive a 10% discount, and for all three a 20% discount. 

Please note, people will not be invited to pay for their chosen courses until the minimum numbers have been reached. If the numbers are not reached, the courses will not go ahead.

----

So, do you fancy one or more of these? 

Each course will introduce you to whole new set of names to check out and new books and papers to read. You want to build your theory base, you little theory- nerd, you &hellip; then try one of these courses.

Interest form [here] 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>29 Mar 2026 09:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/cinderella-dressed-in-yella_111s108</link>
<title><![CDATA[Cinderella Dressed in Yella!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A conference on the folklore, childlore, and playlore of children.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[New Conference Event for 2026

The first major Malarkey Events gig of 2026 is set to kick off in August.

Cinderella Dressed in Yella! a conference on the folklore, childlore, and playlore of children will be held at Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne on Wednesday 19th August 2026.

The event will feature keynote presentation from three of the leading names in current Australian folklore plus a number of panel sessions with presentations of papers on a range of sub-themes that include, but are not limited to: games, songs and rhymes, wit, jokes, taunts and teases, and toys.

This event will be suitable for students, educators, academics and researchers interested in the play lives of children.

Submissions for papers are welcome (see Call for Papers here).

Cost:

$360  Early Bird (till 1st June 2026)

$430  Late Bird (after 1st June 2026)

$180  Student Rate (limited places for full-time students only)

Successful paper presenters will receive a 20% discount on Early Bird rate

Ticket link here: https://www.trybooking.com/DJEUN 

 

Also join the conference social media pages for the latest news

facebook.com/CinderellaFolklore

instagram.com/CinderellaFolklore

 

Hope to see you there!

 

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 07:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/want-to-host-marc-armitage-for-a-gig-in-2026_111s106</link>
<title><![CDATA[Want to host Marc Armitage for a gig in 2026?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[I am not planning to Tour as much in 2026 as the mammouth Tour of 2025 so slots may be more limited. If you would like to be considered as a host for a private/in-house gig, an open gig, a semi-private gig (bit of a mix of the other two), or a conference presentation, get in touch now. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Call for Expresions of Interest in Hosting a gig for 2026

I am putting the draft list of locations/venues for #Tour 26 together already and it would be nice if you joined the list - some people are on there already.

I am not planning to Tour as much in 2026 as the mammouth Tour of 2025 so slots may be more limited. If you would like to be considered as a host for a private/in-house gig, an open gig, a semi-private gig (bit of a mix of the other two), or a conference presentation, get in touch now. 

Head over to this link [here] to express your interest and join me in spreading the word about play, playing and Playwork in 2026.

Ta!

Marc

#play #playing #playwork #marcatplay #Tour26 #PlayIdeas #PlayTheory
]]></content>
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<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 08:07:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/marcatplay-on-tour-in-tas-2025_111s103</link>
<title><![CDATA[marcatplay on Tour in TAS 2025]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[I&#39;m on Tour in TAS over August 2025 ... erm, and one gig in Queensland too!

So, I&#39;ve toured in Victoria and South Australia so far this year ... now it&#39;s Tasmania&#39;s time.

Herston QLD (yes, I KNOW this isnt in TAS!)

Burnie TAS

Geeveston TAS (private gig)

Battery Point TAS

Launceston TAS (double-gig)

Blackmans Bay TAS (private gig)

Midway Point TAS

 

Tickets and details avialble here: 

 






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]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[I&#39;m on Tour in TAS over August 2025 ... erm, and one gig in Queensland too!

So, I&#39;ve toured in Victoria and South Australia so far this year ... now it&#39;s Tasmania&#39;s time.

Herston QLD (yes, I KNOW this isnt in TAS!)

Burnie TAS

Geeveston TAS (private gig)

Battery Point TAS

Launceston TAS (double-gig)

Blackmans Bay TAS (private gig)

Midway Point TAS

 

Tickets and details avialble here: 

 






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]]></content>
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<pubDate>24 Jun 2025 11:52:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/first-tour-of-2025_111s101</link>
<title><![CDATA[First Tour of 2025]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Ticket page for my first Tour of 2025 is now open.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Ticket page now open for my first tour of 2025!

Ok, so here we go ... my first Tour of 2025 kicks off in Mansfield VIC on Saturday 1 March and then spends the whole of March and April whizzing around, mainly, Victoria and Melbourne.

There are a few dates in the ACT and NSW, though. You should check them out.

It kicks off with a special double-gig in Mansfield with a massive discount ticket.

Also, please, please, please share the news of the Tour and individual gigs with your networks - getting the word out via social media is proving really difficult at the moment.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road this year!

 





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<pubDate>15 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/tasmania-here-i-come_111s99</link>
<title><![CDATA[Tasmania here I come!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Tour details for September on the fine Island of Tasmania.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Tasmania here I come!

Time to hit the road again  - this time it&#39;s Tasmania in September.

I&#39;ll be doing ten gigs in ten days with three of them Open Gigs, in Hobart, Geeveston, Launceston, and Richmond.

And! Im doing private gigs in Bellerive, St Helens, Cambridge, and Devonport. 

What a mix as well, with some ECE, OSHC, primary school, parents, and mixed gigs. TAS is great for this stuff. 

Ticket page opens this weekend.

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>23 Aug 2024 11:31:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/embedding-playwork-practice-in-mtop-v2_111s98</link>
<title><![CDATA[Embedding Playwork Practice in MTOP v2]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brand new gig

Embedding Playwork Practice in MTOP v2

For the first time, three of the leading names in the New Wave of Playwork in Oz on the same stage at the same time.

This gig, which is specifically for the OSHC sector, is travelling the country promoting why and how we should be incorporating a Playwork style of working in our centres. 

Playwork is really shaking the foundations of OSHC work in Australia at the moment - come and find out why in:

Adelaide, Monday 5th August 2024

Sydney, Wednesday 7th August 2024

Brisbane, Thursday 8th August 2024

All 10am-2pm. Cost: $180 all in inc gst and a light lunch.

To Book

Head to www.marc-armitage.com/events and use the drop down menu and you shall receive an invoice like magic! 

do it now!

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Brand new gig

Embedding Playwork Practice in MTOP v2

For the first time, three of the leading names in the New Wave of Playwork in Oz on the same stage at the same time.

This gig, which is specifically for the OSHC sector, is travelling the country promoting why and how we should be incorporating a Playwork style of working in our centres. 

Playwork is really shaking the foundations of OSHC work in Australia at the moment - come and find out why in:

Adelaide, Monday 5th August 2024

Sydney, Wednesday 7th August 2024

Brisbane, Thursday 8th August 2024

All 10am-2pm. Cost: $180 all in inc gst and a light lunch.

To Book

Head to www.marc-armitage.com/events and use the drop down menu and you shall receive an invoice like magic! 

do it now!

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/embedding-playwork-practice-in-mtop-v2_111s98</guid>
<pubDate>04 Jul 2024 10:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/ticket-page-for-the-national-play-playing-playwork-conference-2024-now-open_111s96</link>
<title><![CDATA[Ticket page for the National Play, Playing &amp; Playwork Conference 2024 now open!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Conference24 - the National Play, Playing and Playwork Conference for Australia in 2024 is go!
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[It&#39;s here!

At last, tickets are available for Conference24 - the next instalment of the National Play, Playing and Playwork Conference for Australia. And this time it&#39;s even bigger than ever.

Join us in Melbourne on Friday 8, Saturday 9, and Sunday 10 March 2024. 

Three Days

A common theme in post-conference evaluations for our previous gigs has been that people want more - more choice, more keynotes, more networking, more days.

So, for the first time the conference will be for three rather than two days. You asked for it so that&#39;s what you are getting.

We are returning to the Melbourne Conference and Convention Centre again (for the third time) and have been guaranteed glorious weather.* An extra day means that we can provide one-third more breakout sessions than ever and double the number of home-grown and international keynote speakers.

* I made this bit up.

Cost

Tickets cost $825 pp for everything! That&#39;s just $15 per day more than the last national conference, although we are running for three days this time, remember. That&#39;s still makes us the cheapest of the national conferences around.

That&#39;s deliberate because it&#39;s also what you asked for. 

Booking

To book your tickets complete the booking form. An invoice will then sent to you. Plesse note, the ption to pay via installments has now ended.

Let&#39;s see who signs up first: will it be you?

Social Media and Sharing

To keep up with the latest news, please follow on the conference social media platforms on facebook and instagram. And watch out for Marc&#39;s regular &#39;Conference News in 100 seconds&#39; video clips.

This is largely a networking event, remember. YOU are a big part of this project, so please like, share and comment the news on social media. We need you! 

Remember to use the hashtag #OzPlay24

Ok - ready? Let&#39;s go!

I dont know about you, but I am stupidly excited!

 

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>23 Jul 2023 07:16:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/brand-new-live-online-gig-for-july_111s95</link>
<title><![CDATA[Brand new LIVE online gig for July!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Toys! Love them or hate them?

My first LIVE online gig for nearly two years. Grab it, quick!
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Toys! Love them or hate them?

My first LIVE online gig for nearly two years. Grab it, quick!

The recording of this gig will be available for ONE WEEK afterwards, so if this live date is outside of your time zone don&#39;t worry - you can still watch it so sign up today.

The gig will looking at:

: defining toys

: a history of toys

: changes in toys

: the confusion with loose parts

: conflicts with the classroom

Also, please tell your networks and work mates about this gig - it really helps.

Tickets

Tickets are available [Here] 

Group tickets for FIVE OR MORE ONLY are available without th online booking fee. Email [here] for details.

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/brand-new-live-online-gig-for-july_111s95</guid>
<pubDate>17 Jun 2023 12:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/marcatplayon-tour-2023-ticket-page-now-open_111s94</link>
<title><![CDATA[marcatplayon tour 2023 - ticket page now open!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Tickets for 2023 Touring season Leg 1 NOW OPEN!
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Here it is! Tickets for my 2023 Tour are now open.

This first Leg will see me start with a couple of VIC gigs before heading over the river into NSW, through to the ACT and Canberra before arriving in Sydney early April.

There are three topics available this year with gigs being held weekdays, weekends, daytime and early evenings.

locations so far (with many more to come):

Kyabram VIC

Cobram VIC

Mulwala NSW

Albury NSW

Jindabryne NSW

Wagga Wagga NSW

Cootamundra NSW

Bathurst/ Eglinton NSW

Bonython ACT

Isabella Plains ACT

Forrest ACT

Cowra NSW

Gymea/Sydney NSW

Castle Hill/Sydney NSW

Bankstown/Sydney NSW

-x-
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/marcatplayon-tour-2023-ticket-page-now-open_111s94</guid>
<pubDate>12 Feb 2023 02:24:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/come-and-get-your-pre-recorded-on-demand-on-line-gigs-here_111s93</link>
<title><![CDATA[Come and get your PRE-RECORDED, ON-DEMAND, ON-LINE gigs here!]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Whoa there! 

These pre-recorded, on-demand, on-line gigs are still available until 28 February 2023.

Here you go ... seven of last years online gigs plus two BRAND NEW ones available for your viewing pleasure.

These 50-60 minute #playbite gigs are a mix of play theory, play practice and play ideas presented in a very informal style as though they were face to face gigs.

They are available to watch anytime between now and 28 February 2023 and cost either $20 or $30* Australian per gig. 

Thats the same as   $&#xFEFF;13.60 USD    $18.50 CAD    &pound;11.25 GBP    &euro;12.75 EURO.

So, here you go - choose one, many or all! and hit the links to go to the ticket pages.

-x-

More details on the content of each gig in the links.

-x-

$20 Loose Parts Theory part 1: The Ugly Side of Loose Parts

$20 Loose Parts Theory part 2: Children Need Caves

$30 Loose Parts Theory part 3: Loose Parts and the Dump

$30 Play Frames Plus: the ebb and flow of play

$20 How to Provide for: Moving Play

$20 How to provide for: Sitting Play

$20 It Starts with a Nursery Rhyme

$20 From Space Hero to Pop Star: what makes pretend play work

 

 

Enjoy!
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Whoa there! 

These pre-recorded, on-demand, on-line gigs are still available until 28 February 2023.

Here you go ... seven of last years online gigs plus two BRAND NEW ones available for your viewing pleasure.

These 50-60 minute #playbite gigs are a mix of play theory, play practice and play ideas presented in a very informal style as though they were face to face gigs.

They are available to watch anytime between now and 28 February 2023 and cost either $20 or $30* Australian per gig. 

Thats the same as   $&#xFEFF;13.60 USD    $18.50 CAD    &pound;11.25 GBP    &euro;12.75 EURO.

So, here you go - choose one, many or all! and hit the links to go to the ticket pages.

-x-

More details on the content of each gig in the links.

-x-

$20 Loose Parts Theory part 1: The Ugly Side of Loose Parts

$20 Loose Parts Theory part 2: Children Need Caves

$30 Loose Parts Theory part 3: Loose Parts and the Dump

$30 Play Frames Plus: the ebb and flow of play

$20 How to Provide for: Moving Play

$20 How to provide for: Sitting Play

$20 It Starts with a Nursery Rhyme

$20 From Space Hero to Pop Star: what makes pretend play work

 

 

Enjoy!
]]></content>
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<pubDate>03 Jan 2023 09:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/2022-comes-to-an-end_111s92</link>
<title><![CDATA[2022 comes to an end]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Well, there we go ... 2022 has officially came to an end (for me!).

The last gigs of the year have been done and I am at home on the sofa with my feet up until next year.

It&#39;s been an odd year in many respects with highs and lows that I shall summarise in more detail soon. With the tail end of covid still affecting the beginning of the Touring season on February, and the massive camper van Tour across a third of the country been at each end of the scale.

2023 will be a quite spectacular year with a lot in preparation for you. Stand by for more news and get some chill out time before we kick off again in February 2023.

Marc

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Well, there we go ... 2022 has officially came to an end (for me!).

The last gigs of the year have been done and I am at home on the sofa with my feet up until next year.

It&#39;s been an odd year in many respects with highs and lows that I shall summarise in more detail soon. With the tail end of covid still affecting the beginning of the Touring season on February, and the massive camper van Tour across a third of the country been at each end of the scale.

2023 will be a quite spectacular year with a lot in preparation for you. Stand by for more news and get some chill out time before we kick off again in February 2023.

Marc

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>10 Dec 2022 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/last-gigs-of-2022_111s91</link>
<title><![CDATA[Last Gigs of 2022]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Will you be joining me for the last gigs of 2022?

After almost three months of unexpected sick leave, I am all up and ready for the final leg of this year&#39;s Touring.

Tasmania is first with a few gigs in Queensland to follow and that&#39;s about it for the year.

It&#39;s been an odd one - it started off with a whimper rather than a bang as newly imposed covid rules and travel restrictions in Victoria and South Australia meant a rapid change of scheduling; and plans for Western Australia ground to a halt as I became ill. But despite that, I have still done more gigs this year then in the last three combined - maybe a little too many, in fact.

So, as well as these last few gigs of 2022 there needs to be some catch up early next year. Plans for that are underway as we speak.

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Will you be joining me for the last gigs of 2022?

After almost three months of unexpected sick leave, I am all up and ready for the final leg of this year&#39;s Touring.

Tasmania is first with a few gigs in Queensland to follow and that&#39;s about it for the year.

It&#39;s been an odd one - it started off with a whimper rather than a bang as newly imposed covid rules and travel restrictions in Victoria and South Australia meant a rapid change of scheduling; and plans for Western Australia ground to a halt as I became ill. But despite that, I have still done more gigs this year then in the last three combined - maybe a little too many, in fact.

So, as well as these last few gigs of 2022 there needs to be some catch up early next year. Plans for that are underway as we speak.

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/last-gigs-of-2022_111s91</guid>
<pubDate>16 Oct 2022 04:46:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-word-play-is-equal-among-other-agendas_111s90</link>
<title><![CDATA[The word play is equal among other agendas ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[1,000 words on just how easy it is for the word &#39;play&#39; to be subsumed by other agendas and disapeer.

&quot;This pushing aside of the word play has a long history and it tends to happen when the topic of play meets another, usually more powerful agenda. The word play becomes subsumed by that agenda and disappears which by default trivialises play into a lesser-importance.&quot;

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

In the 1970s the American evolutionary biologist Robert (Bob) Fagin expressed concern about a significant loss of focus on play research in the field. Up until this point evolutionary biology had probably been responsible for the more significant theories in play that had so far come about. Of the four &lsquo;classic theories&rsquo;, for example, (the first really scientific attempts to explain play) all four had an evolutionary element and three were very specifically from the emerging field of evolutionary biology.

This lack of focus that Fagin could see was largely because the generation of evolutionary biologists responsible for this work on play were quite literally dying out and interest among the new generation was lacking. There were people from the field still looking at questions around play but generally they were doing so as part of other varied agendas. This meant that the word itself was losing status among the lexicon of twentieth century evolutionary biology.  

This pushing aside of the word &#39;play&#39; has a long history and it tends to happen when the topic of play meets another, usually more powerful agenda. The word play becomes subsumed by that agenda and disappears which by default trivialises play into a lesser-importance.

The word play disappears

There are many examples of this both large and small. The name change of the then Pre-school Playgroups Association (formed in 1961) to the Pre-school Learning Alliance (in 1995) was a highly contested move by the organisation to gain more credibility - the word &lsquo;play&rsquo; being seen as holding it back.

Twenty years later, the largest body of play therapists in Australia made a serious proposal to remove the word play from their title citing the need for the organisations&rsquo; work to be taken more seriously by parents and other clinical bodies. This move seemed to have been defeated by a poll of members.

Small scale examples of the disappearance of the word play are almost constantly around us: playgrounds become referred to as &lsquo;recreational facilities&rsquo;, playtime becomes &lsquo;breaktime&rsquo;, and playthings are marketed as &lsquo;education toys&rsquo;. One recent poster produced by an occupational therapy body demonstrates how subtle this disappearance can be and how easy the trap is to fall into contributing to it.

Easily done

The poster provides a set of positive things for children to play in the outside world with cartoon illustrations in support. What the children are doing in these illustrations is playing, yet the poster manages to avoid using the word play completely. Instead, what the children are said to be doing is described as &lsquo;nature based vestibular activities&rsquo;.

This example, which incidentally is from a source with much pro-play related material, has knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the disappearance of the word play by subsuming it within the broader agenda of occupational therapy and a need to speak directly to parents.

I get this, I really do, and yet this is how it happens: small, almost incidental acts contribute to the replacement of the word &lsquo;play&rsquo; which leads to it being seen as secondary. In the long run this is damaging to the field of play professions across sectors who battle with having their work taken seriously simply because they use the word play.

On top of that, it also has the potential to denigrate the work of some of those early play theorists, chiefly among them woman, who fought to carve out a place for play in the world of more &lsquo;serious agendas&rsquo;.

To name just a few

Alice Bertha Gomme (1853-1938), effectively forced the then Folklore Society to accept children, who were almost exclusively seen through the lens of play, as being part of a distinct area of study (which then became childlore and later playlore) but she had to do so by carrying out a quite massive exploration of children&rsquo;s play and self-publishing it in such a way that it embarrassed the Society into accepting the folklore of play as legitimate.

Hermine Hug-Hellmuth (1871-1924), pioneered the early technique of incorporating play into the psychoanalysis of children (which we would today call play therapy) but she faced an uphill struggle in the fight to gain and retain credibility for herself and her use of play as a chosen medium. Up to this point, toys had been used as a tool in the psychoanalysis of children but were somehow seen as unconnected from the broader concept of playing.

The same is true of the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), who&rsquo;s role in breaking an apparent disinterest in the field for seeing children and their play as being as culturally significant as that of other groups, led to the lives of children and their playing being considered a key element of socialisation. She had to deal with some serious attempts to trivialise her work and question her methodology.

And in more recent history, the archaeologist Grete Lillehammer (to date), almost single-handedly pioneered the use of exploring play as an analytical tool towards considering the child&#39;s world in prehistory, despite also facing an almost complete disinterest in the archaeology of children.

Losing focus

Each of these, and many others, have fought tooth and nail to raise the importance of the words play and playing in the lives of children past, present, and future; without them we would not have playlore, play therapy, a sociology of playing, or an archaeology of play.

To deliberately lose focus on the word play and allow it to be subsumed, even when this might be being done for apparently justifiable reasons, places the work of these key people in jeopardy. It also makes the work of those today involved in children&rsquo;s play much harder than it needs to be.

The battle for the importance of play has been fought - we should not need to have to battle for it all over again, and rather than allowing the word &lsquo;play&rsquo; to be subsumed by alternative agendas we should be fighting for it to be retained and given the status we know it deserves by consciously using that word when what is being discussed is playing.

After all, there is a reason that Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child mentions play, rest, learning, and culture; but more importantly it places the word &lsquo;and&rsquo; between them: play &lsquo;and&rsquo; rest, play &lsquo;and&rsquo; learning, etc. It does this so as to place the word &lsquo;play&rsquo; as separate and equal with these other agendas. Let&rsquo;s not lose that focus. The word &lsquo;play&rsquo; is equal among other agendas, and it must be seen to be so.

--------------------

1st June 2022

--------------------

Follow me on social media:

facebook

instagram

instagram.vintage 

--------------------

Permission is given to reproduce this piece for educational purposes with the condition that the author and copyright is fully acknowledged and a link to the original piece on this website is given. (c) 2022 Marc Armitage.
]]></content>
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<pubDate>01 Jun 2022 10:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/new-tickets-available-for-playwork-gathering_111s86</link>
<title><![CDATA[NEW TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PLAYWORK GATHERING]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[TICKET REISSUE

OSHC sector Playwork Gathering Australia 2021

Waaaaay back in 2019, we were all poised to gather in a field beside a lake in Queensland to discuss all things Playwork. And then something happened. 

No one at the time could have any idea that it would be two years before we could get back to this. But, here we are - the gig is going ahead so there is a reissue of tickets available from today.

The Playwork Gathering is aimed specifically at the Out of School Hours Care Sector and will run at Camp Moogerah QLD 4309 in May 2022 . 

 

Date: 28th and 29th May 2022

Participants from the OSHC sector are welcome from all across Australia to meet with four key speakers plus others who represent the latest in theoretical and practical Playwork from the OSHC sector. 

What will I get for my ticket?

Tickets cost $360 pp and are inclusive of ... well. everything!


	All meals and refreshments on Saturday/Sunday (meals available to purchase on Friday night)
	Accommodation (in superior glamping huts - no tentage this year)
	All workshops and presentations
	All booking fees and tax
	Networking opportunities in meeting educators from across Australia embarking on the Playwork journey
	A chance to question, debate, discuss all things Playwork with each other and the exprienced key speakers
	The Wicker Man celebration on Saturday night


Like I said - everything.  This is an intensively packed couple of days - you will be getting a lot of bang for your buck. 

How do I book?

For this year&#39;s event we will using invoicing for all tickets. Go this form [Booking Form], fill it in and we will send you an invoice for payment. Your places will then be reserved. You can book as an individual or as a group.

Do it now!

What are the timings for the Gathering?

The event begins on Saturday morning at 9:00am sharp with a welcome to country, and ends at 1pm on Sunday. You will be able to join us anytime on the Friday night from 2pm onwards.

The days are packed full of presentations and discussions that will stretch your knowledge of Playwork and enhance your practice using this approach, so be preapred for very full days.

You will really need the Wicker Man celebration by the end of Saturday!

What else do I need to know?

A private, top secret squirrel Top Secret Facebook Group has been set up to keep up with the latest news and information on the event. You should go and join it. BUT, only people booked into the event can join so grab your tickets first.

Please spread the news about this event to your networks and colleagues. The last Playwork Gathering was great fun and really successful. 

If you have questions yourself, contact us by email [Email] or PM on the Facebook Group page.

This is going to be good!

 

 

 

 

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[TICKET REISSUE

OSHC sector Playwork Gathering Australia 2021

Waaaaay back in 2019, we were all poised to gather in a field beside a lake in Queensland to discuss all things Playwork. And then something happened. 

No one at the time could have any idea that it would be two years before we could get back to this. But, here we are - the gig is going ahead so there is a reissue of tickets available from today.

The Playwork Gathering is aimed specifically at the Out of School Hours Care Sector and will run at Camp Moogerah QLD 4309 in May 2022 . 

 

Date: 28th and 29th May 2022

Participants from the OSHC sector are welcome from all across Australia to meet with four key speakers plus others who represent the latest in theoretical and practical Playwork from the OSHC sector. 

What will I get for my ticket?

Tickets cost $360 pp and are inclusive of ... well. everything!


	All meals and refreshments on Saturday/Sunday (meals available to purchase on Friday night)
	Accommodation (in superior glamping huts - no tentage this year)
	All workshops and presentations
	All booking fees and tax
	Networking opportunities in meeting educators from across Australia embarking on the Playwork journey
	A chance to question, debate, discuss all things Playwork with each other and the exprienced key speakers
	The Wicker Man celebration on Saturday night


Like I said - everything.  This is an intensively packed couple of days - you will be getting a lot of bang for your buck. 

How do I book?

For this year&#39;s event we will using invoicing for all tickets. Go this form [Booking Form], fill it in and we will send you an invoice for payment. Your places will then be reserved. You can book as an individual or as a group.

Do it now!

What are the timings for the Gathering?

The event begins on Saturday morning at 9:00am sharp with a welcome to country, and ends at 1pm on Sunday. You will be able to join us anytime on the Friday night from 2pm onwards.

The days are packed full of presentations and discussions that will stretch your knowledge of Playwork and enhance your practice using this approach, so be preapred for very full days.

You will really need the Wicker Man celebration by the end of Saturday!

What else do I need to know?

A private, top secret squirrel Top Secret Facebook Group has been set up to keep up with the latest news and information on the event. You should go and join it. BUT, only people booked into the event can join so grab your tickets first.

Please spread the news about this event to your networks and colleagues. The last Playwork Gathering was great fun and really successful. 

If you have questions yourself, contact us by email [Email] or PM on the Facebook Group page.

This is going to be good!

 

 

 

 

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/new-tickets-available-for-playwork-gathering_111s86</guid>
<pubDate>10 Apr 2022 06:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/on-the-road-in-2022_111s89</link>
<title><![CDATA[On the Road in 2022]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Here we go!

Early Bird Tickets are now available for 50+ gigs I&#39;ll be doing in 2022.

You can find the ticket page under the &#39;Events&#39; tab above, then tick on the tour page.

Don&#39;t worry if you can&#39;t see your state/city yet - more dates to be announced soon. Watch this space.

Early Birds end 1st January 2022 - looking  forward to seeing you all in the next twelve months.

Marc

 

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Here we go!

Early Bird Tickets are now available for 50+ gigs I&#39;ll be doing in 2022.

You can find the ticket page under the &#39;Events&#39; tab above, then tick on the tour page.

Don&#39;t worry if you can&#39;t see your state/city yet - more dates to be announced soon. Watch this space.

Early Birds end 1st January 2022 - looking  forward to seeing you all in the next twelve months.

Marc

 

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/on-the-road-in-2022_111s89</guid>
<pubDate>30 Nov 2021 12:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/2022-here-we-come_111s88</link>
<title><![CDATA[2022 here we come]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Well, 2021 was fun, wasn&#39;t it!?

Things have been a bit tough for everyone recently but at least we can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel that is the year&#39;s end.

There are big plans for 2022 with a lot on the list:

:: two residential playwork training weekends

:: two international conferences

:: a range of new regional play seminars

:: lots more on-line on-demand playbite sessions

and especially ...

:: 16 weeks on the road delivering PD gigs to every state and territory in Australia

You Can Help

If you would like to join our growing list of gig hosts for the 2022 road tour, head over [here] for more details and to fill in an &#39;expression of interest&#39; form. 

I can&#39;t wait to be back on the road again

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Well, 2021 was fun, wasn&#39;t it!?

Things have been a bit tough for everyone recently but at least we can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel that is the year&#39;s end.

There are big plans for 2022 with a lot on the list:

:: two residential playwork training weekends

:: two international conferences

:: a range of new regional play seminars

:: lots more on-line on-demand playbite sessions

and especially ...

:: 16 weeks on the road delivering PD gigs to every state and territory in Australia

You Can Help

If you would like to join our growing list of gig hosts for the 2022 road tour, head over [here] for more details and to fill in an &#39;expression of interest&#39; form. 

I can&#39;t wait to be back on the road again

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/2022-here-we-come_111s88</guid>
<pubDate>28 Oct 2021 11:41:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/hard-lessons-on-the-road-to-becoming-an-advocate-for-children-and-their-playing_111s87</link>
<title><![CDATA[Hard lessons on the road to becoming an advocate for children and their playing]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[1,100 words about the importance of advocating for children and their playing by way of a hard lesson learnt.

&quot;The children at this school told me about &lsquo;The Swinging Tree&rsquo;. 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.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[ a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

This photograph has a story behind it that served as a great learning lesson to me back in the early 1990s - one that has stayed with me from that day.

I had done a play audit at a primary school as the first stage of a longer development project aimed at enhancing the play opportunities for children at this school. In it, various groups of children had taken me around the grounds to show me what they did and where. An important element of that was identifying the most popular spots to play which are often obvious as they are given special names.

The children at this school told me about &lsquo;The Swinging Tree&rsquo;. 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. I included a note about this when delivering the report of the play audit to the staff at an after-school meeting the following week complete with slides.

The photograph shows what I found on my next visit to the school. That was a hard lesson to learn.

The Next Lesson

Some time after this incident, I turned up at another primary school I was working with ready for the next planning session to be met by a group of children already waiting for me at the school gates. Before I even had a chance to get off my bike, they were dragging me into the grounds all excitedly trying to tell me something at the same time.

&ldquo;The trees, the trees&rdquo;, they were all saying, &ldquo;something has happened to the trees!&rdquo;

They led me to an area that had already been identified on the play audit as an important place for them. Again, this area had a name: they called it &lsquo;The Trees.&rsquo; Brilliant. Another purely descriptive name (there&rsquo;s a pattern developing).

Unlike the larger tree in the first example, this was a line of about seven or eight miniature fir trees running along a path by the side of the school buildings. In this area, people collected small berries and twigs (from the trees) to use in making potions and spell making; the one and only hole on the school grounds used regularly as &lsquo;the cauldron&rsquo; for mixing the potions was here too between two of the trees. The &lsquo;witch&rsquo; lived in this area as well and she was a key character in this form of playing.

Once we got there, the children pointed at the trees and told me in unison, &ldquo;Look, look! The trees are bleeding!&rdquo; And sure enough, they were.

Each of the trees had a distinct blob of bright red on its trunk that was dripping like a bloody wound in a bad Hammer House of Horror film. The children were amazed by this. I was worried because I knew what it meant.

They were felling marks, in other words, these trees had been marked to be cut down.

The Breathless Outpouring

I didn&rsquo;t tell any of the children this but expressed similar amazement about &lsquo;the bleeding trees&rsquo; before heading into the school to ask the staff if I was right about the paint marks. I was.

The headteacher told me that the trees were to be felled to allow more natural light into the classrooms on this side of the school. A perfectly reasonable idea, possibly, but after my experience with &lsquo;The Swinging Tree&rsquo; I think a frustration that had been building up in me came to a boil and I launched into a spontaneous and passionate defence of &lsquo;The Trees&rsquo;.

I pointed out the importance of special names given to special places; the continuity of use of these special places over generations of children; the existence of the cauldron and potion mixing, emphasising the role of this kind of play in language development; and finally, the unfairness of adults changing the physical environment without any consultation with children who after all are the principal users of it. It just burst out of me in a breathless outpouring.

I paused.

The Headteacher paused.

In fact, the Headteacher looked rather taken aback.

Finally, he said &ldquo;Erm. OK. We&rsquo;ll have a rethink on that one, then.&rdquo;

What I Had Learnt Was Wrong

At first, I thought the learning lesson in the first incident was to simply not include anything that came up during the play audit that I thought might be taken in a negative light, which is a tactic I adopted. The second example made me realise that this was not the right approach.

Over the years I have been able to work with more than seven-hundred schools on projects like this and in most of them the school staff have received the results of their play audit with nothing less than a fond interest and at times amazement. So, examples like those in the first school have been rare.

What has been more common, though, has been a genuine concern over forms of playing that some might perceive as risky or odd, not realising that these things are general and not unique to their school. That does mean that even the most receptive of schools can interpret parts of their play audit in a negative light and at times can even be a bit sceptical. That can lead to some poor interventions on their part.

It occurred to me that recording what, how and where children played certain things in their school grounds and using that knowledge to create more and better opportunities for their playing was not enough. I had to use that knowledge to be an advocate for children and their play, to be prepared to defend their playing and ensure that it survived on their terms. What needed to go together with collecting this information was ensuring that schools actually understood it.

As a result, the delivery of the play audit became as much a lesson in the history, folklore, and culture of children&rsquo;s play as it was as an exploration of what children were playing today. Weaved subliminally into that delivery also came a message about the need for caution and respect on the part of adults in what to do with this knowledge.  

Implicit in this came the point that now I had finished watching in detail what the children were doing my focus had now shifted to watching just as closely at what the adults were going to do next.

Postscript

As a postscript, the second school never did cut down &lsquo;The Trees&rsquo; but on a re-visit more than five years later that name for the area had fallen out of use. It had been replaced by a new name and that was, &lsquo;The Bleeding Trees&rsquo;, even though the paint blobs had long since faded away.

From knowledge comes wisdom.

--------------------

Marc Armitage, 10th August 2021

Playworker and advocate for children and their playing

--------------------

Comments and shares welcomed

Follow me on 

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.com

www.instagram.com/marcatplay
]]></content>
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<pubDate>09 Aug 2021 11:41:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/marcatplay-online-coming-soon_111s82</link>
<title><![CDATA[marcatplay online coming soon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Some exciting news - marcatplay online will be coming soon. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Look what is coming very soon

What

A series of 50 minute online professional development events called Play Bites. Each will explore a key idea in the context of play and playing from a multi-disciplinary aspect. Each gig will be live with an opportunity for Q &amp; A and discussion 

Why

If we want to understand children we need to understand play, because it is the one behaviour they do more than any other with the exception of sleeping. The problem is that most of us tend to extend our knowledge on a topic from the perspective of our professional &lsquo;box&rsquo;. So, we miss stuff &ndash; really interesting stuff that comes from those in other boxes. So, prepare to have you box well and truly opened. 

Where

The gigs will take place online using a forum that is locked to ticket holders only and can be entered only with a pass key. A new events tab has been opened on the website where you will soon be able to find more details for each gig.

When

The gigs will be available at a mix of times and days so as to be accessible to people across time zones for an international audience. Each gig will also be repeated across a four-week schedule. 

How much

The gigs will be priced in Australian dollars with tickets available via Facebook and Eventbrite. The price will be around $35 AUD per gig with an option for group bookings. 

When does it start &amp; can I help

The first set of six gigs will launch at the end of April 2020, and yes you can help! 

Please share the news and details of the gigs as they are released. This is a new venture and I&rsquo;m very excited by the possibilities in this. Being able to hold gigs with a mixed sector, multinational audience is beyond exciting. I hope you are all as excited as I am.

See you online soon.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For more details and the latest news follow me on:

www.marc-armitage.com

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.com

www.instagram.com/marcatplay

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>12 Apr 2021 07:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/would-you-like-to-host-a-gig-with-marc-in-2021_111s85</link>
<title><![CDATA[WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOST A GIG WITH MARC IN 2021?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The call is out for potential hosts for touring 2021.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Preparations are underway for a 75 gig tour over every state and territory in Australia 2021 and I am on the lookout for new potential organisations to join our established list of hosts.

Whether you are ECE, a primary school, OSHC centre, community organisation or local government department; small or large, city or country I&#39;d like to hear from you.

More details and an expresion of interst form can be found [here].

Looking forward to hearing from you.

#marcatplay #marcatplayontour #flagtour2021

Marc

 
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/would-you-like-to-host-a-gig-with-marc-in-2021_111s85</guid>
<pubDate>22 Jan 2021 04:42:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/chinese-skipping_111s84</link>
<title><![CDATA[Chinese Skipping]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[670 words on the history of one particular form of skipping game, a radio show, and the contibution of a littleold lady.

&quot;Interview done, I sat back sipping my cup of BBC coffee and listened to the calls coming in. One of them took me and the programme staff aback a little.&quot;
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<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Back when I was still living in my home city, I had an apartment above the regional BBC radio and tv studios. Largely because of that I used to be called on as a guest on local shows quite often, especially on the radio (I think they considered me a cheap turn because I lived so close).

On one occasion, I was asked to take part in an afternoon call-in programme on the radio. In regional and local media &lsquo;call-ins&rsquo; have a well-deserved reputation of being terrifyingly unpredictable but the theme was about memories of skipping games so I felt confident enough. I had been invited onto this one because of a recent project I had been doing in local schools on skipping games which had received a fair bit of coverage in the local press, and topics like this are the bread and butter of local radio. 

The programme started with a pre-recorded interview with me talking about the history of skipping that had been recorded on a school playground with the sounds of playing all around; it then segued into a studio chat and then followed the live phone in. 

In the studio part of the programme we talked skipping games in general but we highlighted one particular form of skipping which is technically called &lsquo;elastic&rsquo; or &lsquo;fixed line skipping&rsquo;. This is a fancy term for using a loop of elastic instead of an open ended rope. It is called various things in different places the most common of which includes the names &lsquo;French Skipping&rsquo;, &lsquo;Chinese Skipping&rsquo;, &lsquo;England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales&rsquo;, or plain &lsquo;Elastics&rsquo; among others. The best name I ever heard it called, though, was in a primary school in East Yorkshire where it was universally known as &lsquo;Twang&rsquo;.

Where did the game come from?

I pointed out that the game was also often called &lsquo;American Skipping&rsquo; which matched the idea that it was believed to have made its way to the British Isles via the children of American Air Force personal in the 1960s. However, my own fieldwork had found examples of it in the UK from at least the early 1950s.

Interview done, I sat back sipping my cup of BBC coffee and listened to the calls coming in. One of them took me and the programme staff aback a little.

A very irate woman came on the line and pointed out that I clearly didn&rsquo;t know what I was talking about because she remembered playing this game as a child in the early 1930s. She explained how her mother would make the rope for her by stitching together lengths of wide knicker elastic into a loop, and also said that she knew the game as &lsquo;Chinese Skipping&rsquo;. She even recounted some of the rhymes she remembered playing and they were very similar to the modern ones that we had played in the recorded interview earlier. 

That caller was my mother which became obvious the more she struggled to continue talking without bursting out laughing. 

I should probably explain at this point that she was my adopted mother and was a generation older than you might expect, hence the childhood in the 1930s. It also turns out that she may have had a point. 

The Chinese connection 

The Opie&rsquo;s collection of &lsquo;Games with Things&rsquo; (written by the great folkloric collectors Iona and Peter Opie but published after this radio show aired) concluded that although there was a wave of &lsquo;American Skipping&rsquo; in the UK in the 1960s the origins of the game were older and not American.

The oldest record they had for this form of skipping came from Shanghai in the early 1930s, which might obviously count for the game often being called &lsquo;Chinese Skipping&rsquo;. Interestingly, my home town has had a sizeable ethnic Chinese population since the mid-19th century. So, my mother&rsquo;s story is more than a little plausible.

The moral of this tale is clearly that if you have a question about any subject whatsoever, ask your mother first. That and never let her near the telephone during the day.

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

7th July 2020

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The photo above was taken by Marc on the Skipping Project mentioned in the text in 1990/91.

For latest tour dates and tickets see

www.marc-armitage.com/events &amp; www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

Comments and shares welcome here or on social media.

#play #playing #playwork #playhistory #folklore #childlore #playwiththings #skipping #mothers 

 

&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
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<pubDate>07 Jul 2020 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/chopper-envy_111s83</link>
<title><![CDATA[Chopper Envy]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[An 800 word short on the importance of bikes for children&#39;s independent mobility and a bit of chopper envy.

&quot;I kept saying to him, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t let go, don&rsquo;t let go!&rsquo; and he replied repeatedly, I won&rsquo;t!&rsquo; with me never realising at the key moment that his replies were getting fainter and fainter.&quot;

 
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<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

When I was around ten-years old, we upped sticks from the place I still have my fondest childhood memories of (the Spring Bank area of my home city) to move to the unknown realm of East Hull. Being taken away from the junior school I had already been in for two years and from my circle of playmates was a tough one, but my parents bribed me with the lure of a bigger bedroom and a new bike.

The promise of a bigger bedroom turned out to be true. I measured the length and width of the old one with a ball of wool and comparing it to the new one discovered, sure enough, that it was bigger. Not only that but the old bedroom had one tiny little window and this one had two tiny little windows! A win win.

The new bike was something I had to wait for until the next Christmas, though.

I had learnt to ride a bike on one my dad had built out of odds and ends and then painted bright electric blue (no way would I ever loose that one in the dark). He taught me how to ride it in the age-old way of letting me loose on the local car park while he held on to the back of the saddle to help my balance. I kept saying to him, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t let go, don&rsquo;t let go!&rsquo; and he replied repeatedly, &#39;I won&rsquo;t!&rsquo; with me not realising at the key moment that his replies were getting fainter and fainter.

The electric blue bike had not been brought with us to the new house because I had outgrown it by then, and with my new school being just that little bit too far to walk twice a day a new bike was going to be essential.

First taste of independence 

It is difficult to appreciate how important autonomy of movement is for children. The opportunity to travel significant distance away from the home patch easily and quickly in groups with your mates opens up a whole new world for children full of  possibilities. It is with peddle power that most children get to experience a sense of freedom for the first time.

Later in this story, for example, my friends and I would check out our bikes from the school bike park at the beginning of lunchtime and head off in a pack to the Lido in East Park (outdoor swimming pool for the unfamiliar). There we would spend an hour unaccompanied by any adults swimming lengths and diving to the bottom of the pool for pennies thrown in as a challenge; then we would peddle like mad back to school eating our sandwiches on the way.

Long before that on the twice-daily walk to my new school I had to pass Richardson&rsquo;s Cycle Shop and so got to see my new bike in the window every day. It was obviously going to be a Raleigh Chopper - the bike to have at the time. It&rsquo;s tall, swooping handlebars, high backed seat and small front wheel/big back wheel arrangement was the bee&rsquo;s knees and I knew this is what I would be getting. 

I already had the accessories planned out. I was going to have the set of streamers that attached to the handlebars and the beads to go on the spokes that clacked as they zoomed around. It was going to be great! 

How do you wrap a bike?

And then the great day came. Christmas! Getting up early and heading to the Christmas tree showed that, sure enough, a new bike had arrived! It was (badly) covered in Christmas wrapping paper but the outline clearly gave away what it was. The excitement was unbelievable as I ripped through the paper to behold my brand new shiny, erm ... Raleigh 20 Shopper!

It was an excellent bike for school, I was told; very comfortable to ride, they said. Lightweight. Had a purpose built carry bag on a frame at the back for my books (that was the &#39;shopper&#39; bit); ideal commuter. 

But it wasn&rsquo;t a Chopper. 

I was gutted and also deeply embarrassed on the first few trips to school in the new year. It did the job but I looked longingly at the new Choppers that my school mates rode in on after Christmas with envy. I never did get to own one. 

My parents, bless &lsquo;em, didn&rsquo;t really get my disappointment - they were thinking practical and possibly cost as well. Still, it got me to and from the Lido every summer lunchtime for the next two years and that&rsquo;s what counts. 

I wonder how much they cost now, though, and do they do them in my size?

Tell me: what was your first bike? What memories do you have of it?

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

16th June 2020

- - - - - - - - - - - -

For latest tour dates and tickets see 

www.marc-armitage.com/events &amp; www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

Comments and shares welcome.
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<pubDate>16 Jun 2020 10:09:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/whatever-happened-to-marbles-and-jacks_111s81</link>
<title><![CDATA[Whatever happened to marbles and jacks?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A 1,000 words on why we might not see &#39;collectables&#39; based play like marbles and jacks being played as often as in the past.

&quot;When I was at school I distinctly remember playing seasonal games with &lsquo;collectables&rsquo;. Mainly this involved games of marbles, played strictly during &lsquo;marble season&rsquo; only you understand, although at home we played jacks often as my mother was an absolute expert at the game.&quot; 
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<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

When I was at school I distinctly remember playing seasonal games with &lsquo;collectables&rsquo;. Mainly this involved games of marbles, played strictly during &lsquo;marble season&rsquo; only you understand, although at home we played jacks often as my mother was an absolute expert at the game. 

So, where are marbles and jacks now, I hear you ask. Let me tell you a story.

Many years ago (I&rsquo;m so old) I ran a research project that resulted in a long out-of-print book. The project was about the game of marbles and it involved two main phases. One led to me travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles interviewing groups of children in schools about the game. I was asking them about the kind of marble games they played, where they played them and them and how. I also asked them what they called their various different marbles. 

You might remember that all marbles have names and also usually a points value. The more unusual or rare a marble the higher its points value so you could literally have two, uneven handfuls of marbles but each with the same points value. 

Although the names differ from place to place there are some commonalities in these names. The most basic low scoring marbles are usually called things like &lsquo;ordies&rsquo; (as in ordinary) or &lsquo;crappies&rsquo; (as in ... well, you get the picture); variations of &rsquo;glammy&rsquo; or &lsquo;glamog&rsquo; is also common (which might come from the Latin &lsquo;to roll into a ball&rsquo;) and similarity &lsquo;potties&rsquo; (a throwback to when basic marbles were made of clay). 

Other more dramatic marbles can have equally dramatic names which often reflect the nature of the object: plain glass marbles are often &lsquo;cats eyes&rsquo; (for historical reasons that some people will get), &lsquo;beachballs&rsquo; are those with a twist of multicoloured glass inside, transparent marbles with a dark brown tinge become &lsquo;cokies&rsquo; (as in the drink cola) and odd-shaped or distorted ones become &lsquo;eggies&rsquo; (as in, erm, an egg). 

Marble Games

The other facet of the project was to look at changes and consistencies in marbles games and the playing location which included recording when &lsquo;marble season&rsquo; began and ended. To do this I spent a spent a number of regular extended periods of time in two schools so as to watch the game in more detail. 

This &lsquo;seasons&rsquo; title is a bit of a misnomer though as, with a number of folkloric rituals, marbles might come back every year though not necessarily at the exact same time. But the word season here implies that come back every year it does. 

The two primary schools I was following were at either end of one of the longest streets in my home city and I visited them often to record what was happening in the playground. For each of the four years that I followed them closely, the playing of marbles appeared annually, but, as expected, not at the same time of the year. In fact, the marble seasons at each school started anywhere between February and May. Curiously, marbles always started at one of the two schools first and then appeared in the other within two to three weeks.

It took ages to work out why this was so and it was a chance conversation with a local resident that led to finding out why.

There was, opposite one of the schools, a small corner shop. This shop sold marbles which it would restock once a year - but not necessarily at the same time every year. The shop was right opposite the school in which marbles always began first and, guess what: the appearance of marbles in that school coincided with when the shop restocked its marble supply. 

Working out how marble season ended was more clear cut. Sue, the headteacher at one of the schools (the one opposite the corner shop) told me that when the teaching staff were getting fed up of dealing with marble-related issues she would make an announcement at school assembly along the lines of, &lsquo;Now I see from my diary that it says marble season ends a week on Friday&rsquo; &ndash; and end it would! Typically, within four or five weeks, marble playing ended at the second school too.

Clues

There should be some big clues here about what influences the way children play with collectables in general and more specially on the question of why we sometimes don&rsquo;t see games like this happening. But here&rsquo;s another clue for you. 

For a series of training sessions I ran in Australia only recently I needed to put together a box full of marbles and jacks. This proved almost impossible to do. The number of toy shops and department stores I had to visit before finding what I needed surprised me.

At about the same time, the teaching staff at an Australian primary school I was working in reported never having seen marbles being played and therefore assumed this was a long dead game, yet another one that had been killed off by &lsquo;the screen&rsquo;. So, I showed a group of their children some example marbles from my own collection. Not only did they name each of the marbles but they also stated the points value for each with consistency across the group. What they also said was that none of them had played marbles at school recently because they simply couldn&rsquo;t find them to buy. 

The point is, not seeing a particular game being played can lead adults to conclude that the game has died out and exists only in their own nostalgic play memories. The reality is that games based in collectibles are highly dependent on those collectibles being available.

Seeing as children are not usually in charge of the retail supply chain I think we could all agree that if we don&rsquo;t see marbles and jacks being played it is not because today&rsquo;s children see no value in collectible based play. The proof of that is in just giving children access to a bunch of marbles and &lsquo;poof&rsquo;, almost like magic, the &lsquo;long-lost&rsquo; names and marble games suddenly reappear. 

Try it.

- - - - - - - - - - -

2nd April 2020 

- - - - - - - - - - - 

The photos above taken by Marc are from the &#39;Marbles Project&#39; in 1994. The one on the left shows two handfuls of marbles with the same &#39;points&#39; value in each; on the right, marbles being played on a round drain cover - a very common arena for marble games. 

Are you following me on social media? 

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

www.instagram.com/marcatplay 

 
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<pubDate>02 Apr 2020 02:38:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/keeping-secrets-from-children-is-virtually-impossible_111s80</link>
<title><![CDATA[Keeping secrets from children is virtually impossible]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A short on pots and pans, secruity measures, and how keeping secrets from children is virtually impossible.

&quot;Then, one day I turned up at the school and, as per usual, headed for the staff room but when I got there I couldn&rsquo;t get in. Between visits a new push button security lock had been added to the staff room door and, of course, I didn&rsquo;t know the code.&quot;
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<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Children are full of surprises and keeping secrets from them is virtually impossible. Here&rsquo;s an example of what I mean.

I once worked in a primary school in the UK that I don&rsquo;t think anyone involved with would complain at describing it as &lsquo;a bit hard&rsquo;. That was largely because it was serving an area that was itself &lsquo;hard&rsquo; - a lot of social issues, a lot of poverty and crime. It was a tough place to live and that was to a large extent reflected in the school.


I&rsquo;ve always liked working in places like this. Not neccessrilly because of any particular social consciousness but more because there is a brutal honesty involved in working in such a school that produces a very specific environment. Gaining the trust of the children can be challenging but once gained it is never lost.

The games project I had been heading was proving so successful that the school decided to extend it and so in the end I spent two days each week there for the best part of the school year.

Removing the restrictions of the &lsquo;classroom&rsquo; and the academic work associated with it and replacing it with lots of movement and more frequent play sessions made these children really come out of their shell. The teaching staff saw this too and began to incorporate many of the principles into their day to day teaching commenting that reducing the time the children spent sat at desks was actually enhancing what they did during those times they were sat at desks.

Then, one day I turned up at the school and, as per usual, headed for the staff room but when I got there I couldn&rsquo;t get in. Between visits a new push button security lock had been added to the staff room door and, of course, I didn&rsquo;t know the code.

Later, a rather exasperated headteacher told me what had happened that led to the new security measures. Mid-week, and during the school day, someone had come into the school, gone into the staff room and stolen all the cutlery, the pots and pans and the kettle. Oh, and they stole the curtains too. The curtains - and no one at the time noticed.

What really amused me was that while I was trying to work out how to open the door, one of the children walked past, said &lsquo;Hi Marc&rsquo;, then promptly told me the code to get in. Turned out he wasn&rsquo;t the only kid in the school that knew it either. I didn&rsquo;t have the heart to say this to the headteacher.

I&rsquo;m telling, you can&rsquo;t keep anything from these little buggers.

#playconversation #justsaying #school

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

15th March 2020

- - - - - - - - - - - -

For latest tour dates and tickets see www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

Comments and shares welcome.

]]></content>
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<pubDate>15 Mar 2020 02:40:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/walls-and-doorways_111s79</link>
<title><![CDATA[Walls and Doorways]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[1,000 words on the difference between &#39;playspace&#39; and &#39;playspaces&#39; that raises the importance of &#39;walls and doors&#39;.

&quot;We tend not to sit down for a meal in the laundry room, or take a bath in the garage. Yet, have you ever really considered why we don&rsquo;t do that? It&rsquo;s a useful question to answer when it comes to designing a playspace but the answer might not be the obvious one.&quot;

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sh&#x22F;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

We tend not to sit down for a meal in the laundry room, or take a bath in the garage. Yet, have you ever really considered why we don&rsquo;t do that? It&rsquo;s a useful question to answer when it comes to designing a playspace but the answer might not be the obvious one.

Significantly, the two classic, and absolute must-have-on-the-shelf books for anyone interested in providing space for children to play are not actually about the design of space. They are about understanding how children use space. 

When &lsquo;The Child in the City&rsquo;, the first of these books by Colin Ward, was published in 1978, it was nothing short of a revolution in the understanding of how children make use of their environment - the word &lsquo;revolution&rsquo; here being deliberate considering Ward&rsquo;s roots in the world of anarchist theory. 

As the Times Educational Supplement said of the book at the time, &ldquo; ... [It] tears down the walls and brilliantly highlights a culture which extends from Battersea to Bangladesh; the only true international culture ...&rdquo;

His writings were not the first to describe this separate culture of children&rsquo;s play but it was the first to tear away the tidied up, romanticised vision of it and replace it with the gritty reality. What his book reveals is a culture of play that was, and still is, completely alien to most adults in which the desire for children to take ownership of and adapt their playspace often leads them into conflict with adults. 

More importantly, perhaps is his revelation that movement forms an important part of the way children use their space. In fact, it becomes clear that children do not see their play as being restricted to just one space and that movement around the wider environment becomes a key part of how they use it, constantly travelling between one space to another. 

The Set

The second book, &lsquo;Childhoods Domain: play and place in child development&rsquo; by Robin C Moore published in 1986 is often, quite rightly, seen to be part of &lsquo;a set&rsquo; with Ward&rsquo;s book. It takes the very general picture of children&rsquo;s use of space and the importance of movement from Ward into more detail as Moore actively explores the individual spaces children use in partnership with the children who actually use them.

What Moore&rsquo;s book shows is that the various spaces that children value in their environment are not just seen as different because each provides a different set of possibilities, but more significantly, each is easily identifiable as being a different &lsquo;space&rsquo;. What makes these spaces clearly different is the existence of tangible, physical boundaries between one and another and the journey that has to be taken to reach them. 

Moore says at one point how, &ldquo;... a strong sense of enclosure and physical differentiation [can] stimulate the use of a small portion of an otherwise large, underused space.&rdquo; (:146). In other words, a large undefined space may be ignored but an enclosure or boundary within it creates &lsquo;a different space&rsquo; which may be usable.

Which brings us back to our laundry room and garage analogy. 

You might think that the reason we would not take a bath in the garage is because this space has a different purpose allocated to that of a bathroom and is equipped differently, which is true. Yet, the real reason is a combination of that defined purpose and the fact that all the various rooms in the house have solid walls dividing them into distinct spaces and doorways that have to be travelled though to get to them. This is what makes each room a different space in our overall reading of &#39;the house&#39;.

Confused? Try moving in to a new bedsit and watch how the living space and the sleeping space gradually start to merge together and the dividing line between each becomes fuzzy. That is because a bedsit with areas for separate functions is effectively one single space and our head interprets it in that way.

Now let&rsquo;s apply that idea to the &lsquo;playspace&rsquo;

First, we have to consider that when constructing a playspace we rarely have the opportunity to create it within a much wider environment. We are constrained with an often quite tight and rigidly designated area with little opportunity for this important element of moving around. 

More importantly, when we create the playspace this point about separate &lsquo;spaces&rsquo; is often missed and so we create what is effectively one large singular space. We might within our larger playspace provide separate elements for playing: the mud kitchen, sandpit, swings, a sitting place, climbing frame, etc., yet without a significant boundary between each, these elements are all still within a single space; and with no obvious &#39;door&#39; there is little to differentiate them. 

Try this: stand in one corner of your playspace and take a look across it. If you can see every one of the separate elements in that space, even if they have what appears to be a separation from each other, then what you have is a single space with separate things in it rather than a series of spaces. 

What creates the feel of those separate spaces is this combination of tangible &lsquo;walls and doors&rsquo; which enables a real sense of movement around the wider space. It means, in short, that the beginning of designing space for playing is not in creating a space but in creating a series of distinct, physically separate spaces which you cannot cannot fully see until you open the door. 

The playspace is dead; long live the playspaces. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

4th March 2020

Photo taken by Marc at West Lakes Shore Kindergarten in Adelaide SA Australia in November 2019.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

For latest tour dates and tickets see www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events
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<pubDate>04 Mar 2020 05:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/to-be-or-not-to-be-play-based_111s78</link>
<title><![CDATA[To be or not to be play-based]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A short on an online conversation, confusion over what is and is not &#39;play-based learning&#39; and the pressures facing educators. 

&quot;When educators, in the early years especially, say that they are not getting the results they expect from a play-based approach the most common reason is that they are not actually applying a play-based approach.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

In a recent online discussion, a kindergarten educator mentioned that she had lately introduced a play-based approach in the classroom. She had been excited about making this change and was equally excitied to see the change it would make in her children. But then, a problem occurred.

The &lsquo;powers that be&rsquo; began to express concern at a &lsquo;slowing down&rsquo; in the learning of children at the school. This was clearly putting some pressure on her to justify the move yet she also mentioned that she was beginning to have doubts herself. Despite feeling that the learning space felt calmer, busier, more engaged with and was more cooperative, she was not seeing the results in terms of learning that she had expected.


What her students were lacking, she said, was &lsquo;a degree of focus&rsquo;. She explained, once her students latched on to something it was proving difficult to extend on what they were doing with teacher inventions.

In one example, a small group of children took the large building blocks from the &lsquo;construction corner&rsquo; into the &lsquo;play house&rsquo; and started to build a wall. She said, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s Great! But wouldn&rsquo;t it be better to take the blocks back into the construction area so that you could incorporate the many other building materials there into your project?&rsquo; She found that making this suggestion to them had stopped the playing dead in its tracks.

It is this comment that gave the game away.

When educators, in the early years especially, say that they are not getting the results they expect from a play-based approach the most common reason is that they are not actually applying a play-based approach. What they are more commonly doing is trying to shoehorn a play based methodology into the old expectation of didactic teaching and as a result are adopting similar expectations.

The pressure from those above, who it would appear were quite sceptical about the whole idea to begin with, cannot have helped. Yet the greatest barrier facing those children in their new play-based environment was actually unintentionally being set by the educator herself.

Expecting a play-based approach to work within the same time frame, classroom structure and educator role is simply not compatible with a play-based approach. It is not compatible with the training that many educators receive either, which is why often they cannot see this point.

This educator will get there, and the reason why I can be certain of that is because she reached out for advice. Clearly, she already knows where the need for change lays.

#playconversation #justsaying #learning #playbased #kindergarten

Photo from Smithfield Plains Kindergarten in Adelaide SA, Australia. 

&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;

For latest tour dates and tickets see www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/to-be-or-not-to-be-play-based_111s78</guid>
<pubDate>01 Mar 2020 09:31:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/is-play-a-right-or-a-privilege_111s77</link>
<title><![CDATA[Is play a right or a privilege? ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on how schools treat the recess/playtime periods at school for objectives other than playing. 

&quot;Well if you can&rsquo;t learn to behave yourself properly then I&rsquo;m banning you from this week&rsquo;s lesson on the Tudor kings and queens.&rdquo; 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

I have been rereading a couple of play-related news pieces lately that have included the phrase &lsquo;play is a privilege not a right&rsquo;, both of which involved primary/elementary schools.

The first covered the story of an Australian school which has placed four brightly painted benches alongside its playground space on which those being punished for some school misdemeanour are expected to sit and miss out on playtime/recess. What this means is that not only is denial of playtime being seen by the adult staff as an acceptable punishment, even for non-playground related issues, but that the school clearly believes that it is ok to force those children to then sit and watch what they are missing out on.


The second was a blog piece by the US writer Laura Hanby Hudgens who, while acknowledging that schools may adopt punishments such as this because of limited time and options, still raises the point that such punishments are probably counterproductive yet justified using the &lsquo;privilege not a right&rsquo; argument.

On the surface, using this as a punishment seems to make sense as what is the point of denying something that you are not actually that keen on as a punishment? But there seems to be a question of value here. Despite history being my favourite subject at school I never once remember being threatened with, &ldquo;Right! Well if you can&rsquo;t learn to behave yourself properly then I&rsquo;m banning you from this week&rsquo;s lesson on the Tudor kings and queens!&rdquo; Recess is clearly not being seen in the same light.

The only slight problem is that access to be able to play freely IS a &lsquo;right&rsquo; rather than a &lsquo;privilege&rsquo; and it is enshrined as such in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in the same way as access to health and education is.

The USA would seem to have an excuse here, though, seeing as it is the only nation on earth not to have actually ratified the Convention. The rest of us have no excuse.

#play #playing #playwork #school #recess #UNCRC #article31
&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;

For details on latest tours see www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/is-play-a-right-or-a-privilege_111s77</guid>
<pubDate>26 Jan 2020 08:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/cherished-possessions_111s70</link>
<title><![CDATA[Cherished Possessions ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on one of my most prized possessions and why I&#39;ve hold of it for so long.

&quot;The vast majority of our most precious childhood items tend not to survive into adulthood, though, because the most important things to us at the time tended to be rather simple and ephemeral.&quot; 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Do you have any cherished possessions saved from your childhood? I certainly do, all of which have a special place on my shelves at home, each with its own important memory attached.

For example, I have a very tiny posh bone china cup and saucer decorated with a number of folktale characters that was bought for me so that I could join in with the cake and coffee ritual for visiting relatives. I particularly remember it coming out most Sundays when my Auntie Mitzi would come round bringing me my weekly Milky Way chocolate bar and a copy of the comic Whizzer &amp; Chips.


There is also &lsquo;Moby&rsquo; which is a carved whale mounted on a plaque that I made in woodwork. This was always proudly displayed on the wall of my parents house and served as a talking point because I had accidentally broken the tail off while sanding it down. My teacher had told me not to worry as he would glue it back on but when he did he put it on upside down! It is fairly obvious when you look at it.

The vast majority of our most precious childhood items tend not to survive into adulthood, though, because the most important things to us at the time tended to be rather simple and ephemeral. My most prized possession is just one of these. It is my elephants egg.

This is quite a hefty sized dark brown stone that I discovered as a four year-old at a place called Cannock Chase (a national park in the UK). The exact date and place of discovery is recorded on it together with a few flowers in now fading paint.

When I first found this and brought it for my mother to see, she said &ldquo;That&#39;s a elephants egg, that is. You need to look after that and keep it warm and one day it will hatch out into an elephant.&rdquo; I believed her of course and in fact still do which is why it has travelled the world with me and still has pride of place on the shelf.

One day, perhaps one day very soon, it will hatch and just as my mother promised I shall have my very own elephant. I&rsquo;ll bet you don&rsquo;t have one of those.

#playconversation #playmemories #looseparts #justsaying

&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
For details and tickets for the current PD tour see

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/cherished-possessions_111s70</guid>
<pubDate>23 Jan 2020 05:24:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/one-way-only_111s71</link>
<title><![CDATA[One-Way Only]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on rules, who they apply to and who they do not.

&quot;I had to deliver the initial results of my interviews to a whole staff after school hours meeting and at the opening of the presentation I laid out a number of rules for the next hour that I was applying &lsquo;for safety reasons&rsquo;.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Let&rsquo;s have a vote: &lsquo;rules are rules&rsquo;, or &lsquo;rules are meant to be broken&rsquo;? Which would you go for? I ask because there have been a number of news stories and social media posts about &lsquo;rules&rsquo; recently, particularly in relation to children and schools.

I did a piece of work once in a secondary school in a country that for security reasons shall remain nameless (Ireland) which involved me interviewing groups of young people to explore what they liked and disliked about the daily routine of school. There was much they liked about their day yet among the various interview groups what they disliked the most produced an almost universal answer: the &lsquo;corridor rule&rsquo;. When I asked one of the interview groups what this meant they simply said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll show you - let&rsquo;s go to the dining room&rsquo;.


The &lsquo;corridor rule&rsquo; was the stipulation that corridors around the school should be walked down in one direction only so setting out from their classroom we had to turn left, a point that was reinforced with a large arrow painted on the wall outside the classroom door pointing left and saying &lsquo;This Way Only&rsquo;. So we turned left. Then, after a while, turned left again at a junction, then left again, and then (you might be about to get the point here) left again to arrive at the dining room door - which was immediately next to the classroom we had just come from. On the right of the classroom we had just come from.

What was equally annoying to the young people here was that adult members of the school staff were clearly exempt from this rule and were turning whichever way they wanted from rooms and often seen, you will be shocked at this, walking the wrong way down the corridor! I asked the senior staff about this rule just to make sure I wasn&rsquo;t been pranked but, no sure enough it really was a rule &lsquo;for safety reasons&rsquo; and staff were exempt from it - for &lsquo;safety reasons&rsquo;. Nor was this the only rule in the school that seemed to apply to young people only.

I had to deliver the initial results of my interviews to a whole staff after school hours meeting and at the opening of the presentation I laid out a number of rules for the next hour that I was applying &lsquo;for safety reasons&rsquo;. Many of the staff present smiled as this list went on, then sniggered before finally bursting out into open laughter.

Interestingly, none of the senior management team laughed.

#playconversation #justsaying #schoolrulz

&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;

For latest tour dates and tickets see

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/one-way-only_111s71</guid>
<pubDate>13 Jan 2020 05:43:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/this-is-deeply-concerning_111s72</link>
<title><![CDATA[This is deeply concerning]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on the state of children&#39;s psychic health and witches.

&quot;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.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Quite some years ago I went to deliver a paper to a conference of mainly psychologists and, in particular, psychotherapists. It&rsquo;s was pre-PowerPoint days so I delivered the paper, called &lsquo;Black and White Ladies, Weeping Women and Bloody Mary&rsquo; using a ton of photographic slides. It was about the kind of spooky, ghostly storylines that children use during their recess/playtimes at school. These storylines have what seem to be universal themes.

For example, I showed a photograph of a red painted metal door in the wall of a primary school (actually a heating oil point) and explained how children had told me that this was the &lsquo;furnace&rsquo; where, &ldquo;The witch burned the bad boys and girls&rdquo; and how if you looked through the key hole you could definitely see the bones of previous victims!


It turns out that some kind of cooking pot or furnace and associated storyline has been present at every single one of the hundreds of school play audits that I have ever done. But they are kept secret and so adults are almost always oblivious to this fact and even when they see some of these features in use they interpret them literally rather than figuratively.

I recently posted online a photo of a small concrete square on a school field with a hole in it and asked people what they thought it was. Almost everyone said, a pop-up sprinkler, a washing line point, an old Maypole, a pot holder, etc. - all very literal answers. In &lsquo;real life&rsquo; it was actually the stump of an old cut down netball post but children at the school told me that this was the &lsquo;cauldron&rsquo; where &ldquo;the witch makes her spells&rdquo; which was the reason why it was full of water (on a dry day), small berries and twigs.

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 from audience members started to arrive and there was a theme with these too. One said, &ldquo;If what you have said is true then I have serious concerns for the psychic health of Britain&rsquo;s youth.&rdquo; Another said simply, &ldquo;This is deeply concerning.&rdquo;

Given that kind of reaction is it any wonder that children consciously keep these kinds of stories secret?

#playconversation #justsaying #ghosts #pretendplay
&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-

Current tour details at www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/this-is-deeply-concerning_111s72</guid>
<pubDate>06 Jan 2020 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/listen-first-act-second_111s73</link>
<title><![CDATA[Listen first - act second]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on why sometimes the best intentions can hinder rather than help. 

&quot;His support staff had noticed this was making it difficult for him to get around independently in his old unpowered chair. So, to help him his school decided to put some of his support money towards buying him an electric wheelchair.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

I once worked on a research project aimed at assessing the experience of recess/playtimes for children with disabilities. It was coming up to ten years since the education departments in England and Wales had introduced the policy of closing &lsquo;special&rsquo; schools and integrating children who might previously have gone to them into mainstream primary school.

One of the children I interviewed was &lsquo;Craig&rsquo;. He was a wheelchair user who was increasingly losing control over use of his limbs. His support staff had noticed this was making it difficult for him to get around independently in his old unpowered chair. So, to help him his school decided to put some of his support money towards buying him an electric wheelchair.


Craig appreciated this and said it had helped him - but not at recess. When he, and other children at the school, were interviewed, their conclusion was that the new wheelchair had actually lessened his mobility. This was because his independence at recess had never actually been an issue.

He explained that his classmates had always pushed his wheelchair for him which meant that not only did he have a crowd of playmates with him all the time but that that it also made him feel a part of this crowd. There were practical issues too such as there was a slope leading into one of his favourite playground spots that the electric chair couldn&rsquo;t access and it was far too heavy for his playmates to push. He said he had tried to tell the adults these things but didn&rsquo;t think they had understood.

The moral of the story seems to be that if you want to improve the inclusivity of children then it would seem to be a very good idea to talk to them and their fellow playmates about it before going ahead and making expensive decisions on their behalf.

#playconversation #justsaying #school #inclusionissues

____________

Current tour details at www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/listen-first-act-second_111s73</guid>
<pubDate>31 Dec 2019 06:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/life-kicks-the-silliness-out-of-us_111s74</link>
<title><![CDATA[Life kicks the silliness out of us ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on the importance of silliness.

&quot;We should probably gloss over the night we nearly set the boat on fire because we had gone to the pub forgetting that we had left the oven on, or the trouble we got into by accidentally entering the tidal waters of Great Yarmouth.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

When I was in the 6th Form at school (that&rsquo;s the non-compulsory 17/18 year old bit of school before college and university for you non-British folk) for two years in a row we went on a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads. We found ourselves spilt into groups of four or six, given a boat, some basic instructions and told to be back at the hiring point in a weeks time.

Although some boats grouped together to travel the inland waters in packs others spilt off as lone vessels but for all of us, I don&rsquo;t think we really appreciated the degree of independence we were being given. There was no &lsquo;adult&rsquo; with us, we had no set programme, for many of us it was even the first time we had been responsible for cooking and cleaning up after ourselves.


And it was fun, silly even. For one of the trips my dad made us a set of wooden swords that he painted in grey primer that mysteriously turned bright pink when it dried. My mother made us a skull and crossbones pirate flag, and we bought eye patches, pirate hats and a toy parrot. There was a lot of &lsquo;avast behind&rsquo; and &lsquo;splice the mainsail&rsquo; stuff as well as shouts to board neighbouring vessels and threats to liberate their fish and chips.

We should probably gloss over the night we nearly set the boat on fire because we had gone to the pub forgetting that we had left the oven on, or the trouble we got into by accidentally entering the tidal waters of Great Yarmouth. But we survived.

We adults tend to miss how important this exuberance of silliness was for us at that time because gradually life kicks the silliness out of us. But that&rsquo;s even more reason why we should be careful to never decry children and young people for their silliness because there will come a day when it will leave them too.

#playconversation #justsaying #importanceofyouth #sillyness

------------

Current tour details at
www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events

]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/life-kicks-the-silliness-out-of-us_111s74</guid>
<pubDate>24 Dec 2019 01:49:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/everyone-runs-away-from-home-at-least-once_111s75</link>
<title><![CDATA[Everyone runs away from home at least once ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on running away from home

&quot;I remember walking down the long never-ending street that granny lived on being not upset but very angry. Then, my dad suddenly appeared alongside driving our old ex-army Moggie 1000 very slowly, his head sticking out the open window.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

I remember reading once that two of the most consistent experiences among young children is that at some point they believe that their parents are not their real parents, and that they attempt to run away from home. This is certainly true in my case, although I have to admit that as I was adopted from a very young age the first one kind of doesn&rsquo;t count. But I do distinctly remember an attempt to run away from home.

When I was six, my father and I moved in with my grandmother on dads side for almost a full year. I learnt many years afterwards that this was because my mum was very seriously ill and spent most of that year in hospital.

We had Christmas there and I had prepared my wish list for Santa. It included a dozen Action Men (GI Joe for our American friends) as well as an Action Man tank. What I got was a lousy single Action Man in an ancient cavalry costume and a horse. I was livid.I packed a small brown leather suitcase and then I was off.

I remember walking down the long never-ending street that granny lived on being not upset but very angry. Then, my dad suddenly appeared alongside driving our old ex-army Moggie 1000 very slowly, his head sticking out the open window.

He never said a word, he just continued driving until eventually I stopped and got in. When we got back to granny&rsquo;s I sat and unpacked the suitcase that I had filled with my most precious things, including a colouring book, my slippers, &lsquo;Rabbit&rsquo;, and that Action Man with the silly cavalry costume.

#playconversation #playmemories #justsaying

------------

For details and tickets for the current PD tour see

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/everyone-runs-away-from-home-at-least-once_111s75</guid>
<pubDate>20 Dec 2019 02:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/are-you-planning-to-hit-me-with-that-thing_111s76</link>
<title><![CDATA[Are you planning to hit me with that thing?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A biographical short on the difference between one of my schools and another. 

&quot;School was ok too - I settled in quite quickly, made some good friends and generally I have good memories of my time there. There was one aspect of this new school that I really struggled with, though.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

When I was ten-years old our family moved from one part of the city to another. This new area was alien to me and it involved a change of school but the change was actually quite a comfortable one.

I did the usual measuring of the bedroom in the old house and compared it to the new and was pleased to see it was bigger. We also now had a garden which the old house did not. School was ok too - I settled in quite quickly, made some good friends and generally I have good memories of my time there. There was one aspect of this new school that I really struggled with, though.

I had been there less than two-weeks when I was called out to the front of the class during a lesson. To this day I&rsquo;m not sure what the reason was but the teacher was clearly unhappy about something. Call me stupid, but it didn&rsquo;t occur to me what was going on until he reached behind his desk, took down a cane that was hanging on the wall there and told me to hold my hand out.

I remember very clearly asking if he was planning to hit me with that thing and when he said yes, frankly, I was shocked! I had come from a school that had no corporal punishment to one that clearly did and I genuinely did not understand what this was all about.

I walked out. I didn&rsquo;t run, I didn&rsquo;t cry, I just firmly said &lsquo;no you&rsquo;re not!&rsquo; and I left and went home.

It still shocks me to this day that there are some adults who feel it is not only ok to strike a child in this way but also that it does them some good. So, I&rsquo;m pleased to see that this week (december 2019) the States of Jersey has become the third legislator in the British Isles to ban the corporal punishment of children in all circumstances including the home.

Hitting children is a power issue. Full stop. It is not a positive thing and it needs to stop.

Everywhere.

#playconversation #justsaying #corporalpunishment #childrensrights

------------

For details and tickets for the current PD tour see

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play/events
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/are-you-planning-to-hit-me-with-that-thing_111s76</guid>
<pubDate>12 Dec 2019 03:45:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/loose-parts-and-serendipity-2-of-2_111s69</link>
<title><![CDATA[Loose Parts and Serendipity (2 of 2)]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[1,000 words about where loose parts should best be left to get the most from them. It&#39;s largely about the word serendipity and a dead German biologist. The second of a two-part blog.

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;Whether we acknowledge it or not, when we adults gather specific materials together and place them in a context that we have pre-decided, like the tabletop, then we have both reduced the variety and the possible combinations available.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

The first of this two-part piece explored whether loose parts are &lsquo;open ended&rsquo; or not (you will have to check that one to find the answer to that) and it ended by suggesting that loose parts work best when we leave them somewhere and then walk away. Part two explores exactly where that &lsquo;somewhere&rsquo; should be.

It&rsquo;s largely about the word serendipity and a long dead German biologist. 

--------------

The dead German was Jakob von Uexk&uuml;ll (1864-1944) a biologist who was particularly interested in how living organisms perceive the physical environment in which they find themselves. His conclusion was broadly that all organisms strive to become familiar with their surroundings by actively exploring their environment and making physical contact with it. 

When they discover something that they &lsquo;don&rsquo;t know&rsquo; they apply what they &lsquo;do know&rsquo; in order to conclude what the form and function of this new feature is. Gradually, the organism begins to develop a detailed perception of their environment and so its ability to interact with it increases. He called this developing known-environment the Unwelt. 

It&rsquo;s more complex than that, obviously, but the key takeaway parts are active exploration, physical contact, and the application of knowns to unknowns. You might already be able to see the connection between Uexk&uuml;ll&rsquo;s ideas and play in general but maybe not in relation to loose parts yet. 

The general connection is that his concept adds some explanation to the way that children interact with the environment they find themselves in, being that they are also apparently living organisms. It explains, for example, why children seen to be drawn to physically touching anything they come into contact with; and also why children can reach different perceptions from each other on the same finding: it&rsquo;s to do with their respective stock of previous knowns.

There are other less obvious connections too

Despite the fact that you may think you have never heard of Uexk&uuml;ll I bet you twenty-pence you have been influenced by him as his notion can be found at the heart of the work of other names you may be more familiar with including the perceptual ideas of the psychoanalyst Karl Jung, the cognitive theories of psychologist Jean Piaget, and the concept of affordance from James J Gibson.

Most significantly, Uexk&uuml;ll&rsquo;s work can be seen in the ideas of the mathematician and computer pioneer Seymour Papert. Why is that important? Because Papert is as significant in the development of loose parts theory as is the better-known Simon Nicholson. That&rsquo;s why. 

Which brings us to the serendipity bit

Serendipity (the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way) is not a word you hear often in the teaching world. In fact, it can often be seen as the complete opposite of teaching. After all, to &lsquo;teach&rsquo; implies planning and direction which means that we know where things are heading once we have started them off and that thing is usually some form of learning outcome.

To imply, therefore, that learning might take off in some unknown, unplannable direction is something that just does not make itself felt in the training of many educators and so there is a temptation to actively guard against serendipity kicking in. For some, it can be seen as a distraction from the carefully planned learning experience we are in the process of delivering but for others the deviation from planned learning can be absolutely terrifying. 

Papert, on the other hand, was a pioneer in the &lsquo;discovery method&rsquo; of learning (as was Simon Nicholson) and was a firm proponent in the idea that learning could, and should, be largely self-directed. This was centred in his belief that, &ldquo;You can&#39;t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.&rdquo; 

That&rsquo;s serendipity, see?

The trouble is

Although this idea has made itself felt in the training of many educators it is not the case in all. Modern teaching methods and the training that promotes it (especially in the United States) are still often a highly structured affair and the delivery of learning is often seen as a time-restricted activity (which is the real enemy of play and self-discovery). 

The result can be that despite a recent explosion in the interest of loose parts in a learning context it leads some to consider them as just a substitute for the more typical materials we find in education catalogues. That leads to thinking of them as requiring the same degree of structure or at the very least as needing a &lsquo;starting point&rsquo; for effective learning to occur. 

So, we set them up as &lsquo;provocations&rsquo; or invitations to play on a tabletop or in a &lsquo;station&rsquo;. This is completely at odds with the ideas of Nicholson and Papert, even if we see the setup as only a begining&#39;.  

Because

This is because at the root of the concept of loose parts is not only that children should have access to as broad a variety of materials as possible but that they should be able to choose how those materials can be combined. 

So, whether we acknowledge it or not, when we adults gather specific materials together and place them in a context that we have pre-decided, like the tabletop, then we have both restricted the variety of available materials and any possible combinations available. Worse, we have removed the element of serendipity &ndash; that chance discovery of a previously &lsquo;unknown&rsquo; combination. 

The solution is to go back to the ideas of a long dead German and embrace the idea that we don&rsquo;t always know what the &lsquo;knowns&rsquo; are for the playing children that we work with. Even they don&#39;t know. New understanding comes down to them making physical contact with the environment around them, applying their existing knowns to newly found unknowns, and creating their own connections.  

The conclusion

As said in part one, we should just leave loose parts somewhere and walk away. But leave them where?

The answer is not to set them out in a corner or on a table in a pre-conceived way. Instead they support children best when hidden or apparently dumped randomly in places where children have to actively seek for them or come across them by accident. This gives them the opportunity to make their own discoveries, come across serendipitous combinations and use them in a way that they choose to so that they can learn what they need to learn when they need to learn it.  

It&rsquo;s not neat. It&rsquo;s not tidy. Yet it is incredibly powerful. 

Marc Armitage

-------

Photo a bunch of loose parts tucked around the corner, in Meriden Adventure Playground UK taken by Marc

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

 www.twitter.com/marcatplay

www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay
]]></content>
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<pubDate>18 Sep 2019 10:46:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/a-five-year-old-a-wall-and-a-100-year-old-theory_111s68</link>
<title><![CDATA[A five-year old, a wall, and a 100 year-old theory]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[900 words on what happens when a five year old spots an aging playworker while trying to balance along a low wall, with a bit of a more than 100-year-old theory thrown in to boot. 

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;It is at this point that she noticed me walking towards the pair with shopping bag in hand and we briefly made eye contact &ndash; and something happened. Question is, what?&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

On a recent trip to the local supermarket I spotted what I expect is a sight many of us will also have seen. It involved a girl of about five-years old and a low wall alongside the footpath. Can you guess what happened?

If you guessed that she insisted on climbing onto the wall and balancing along it, you are correct &ndash; well done!

She was with an adult who, despite also pushing a pram, managed to help her scramble up on the wall and then kept a hand hovering close by to help with any balance issues. The girl also kept a hand close, though not touching, while gaining her balance and then starting hesitantly to walk along the wall. She was wobbly to say the least and kept looking down to make sure that the reassuring hand was still there.

It is at this point that she noticed me walking towards the pair with shopping bag in hand and we briefly made eye contact &ndash; and something happened. 

Her reaction to realising someone was watching reminded me of an experiment I and fellow students had to complete in my first year at university. Despite reading history and philosophy, we all had to do a mandatory unit of experimental method and this involved running a psychology-based experiment in small groups.

Our group had to recruit participants for the experiment from students wandering around the university apparently not doing anything (in other words most of them). Using a script, members of the team asked them if they would be prepared to help a group of first year students in an experiment, and if they said yes, they were led to a room and asked to wait their turn to take part.

The experiment

On being called for their turn each was given a brief in the corridor outside a second room. They were asked to enter this room where they would find a table and chair at which they should sit.  On the table would be a simple jigsaw laying face down (it was a twelve-piece wooden child&rsquo;s jigsaw) which, when they were ready, they should turn over and begin to assemble. Once complete, they should then stand up and leave the room.

The volunteers were asked not to rush or say anything during the experiment but note that there would be someone with a stopwatch in the room who would begin timing the moment the first piece was turned and end when the last piece was in place. Each of the participants duly carried out their task one by one, receiving a voucher to spend in the refectory as a thank you on leaving the room

Thing is, there was one crucial piece of information missing from the brief, at least for 50% of the participants. 

Whereas half of those taking part found the room exactly as described &ndash; table, chair, jigsaw, timer &ndash; the other half of them had a little extra. They found in front of the jigsaw table six non-verbal, expressionless people sat on chairs with their arms folded watching their every move from the moment they entered the room to the moment they left. Participants entering the room were clearly a little taken aback on discovering this but all still sat and completed the jigsaw task. 

This experiment was an exercise in social facilitation, in other words an attempt to measure the effect of an audience on completing a basic task. The results of this might surprise you. Take a guess on what such an effect this might have while we play a short piece of music. 

Intermission 

I suspect that like most people you guessed that the audience would put the individuals off from their task, as I admit I did at the time of the experiment. But the reverse was actually the case &ndash; the participants with the audience performed the task quicker and with fewer mistakes than those without.

This is an example of the Yerkes-Dodson effect, first proposed by the psychologists Robert M Yerkes and John D Dodson in 1908, who noted that although the effect of an audience on performing an established skill could indeed act as a barrier, on basic motor tasks or on newly developing skills the audience actually aids performance. 

Despite this effect being known about for some time the world of neuroscience has only recently begun to provide an explanation of how this works. A newly published  paper from John Hopkins University, for example, concludes, 

&ldquo;When participants knew an audience was watching, a part of the prefrontal cortex associated with social cognition, particularly the thoughts and intentions of others, activated along with another part of the cortex associated with reward. Together these signals triggered activity in the ventral striatum, an area of the brain that motivates action and motor skills.&rdquo;

Science, see. Interestingly, this effect only really works if the observer is silent. 

So, back to our young subject on the wall - what happened next?

On realising she was being watched, our five-year noticeably stood more upright. She waved away the hovering adult hand and, tongue hanging out in concentration, the task of balancing along the wall suddenly became very serious. Despite a few further wobbles, she did not reach out for the helping hand and managed to successfully complete the length of the wall.

And there&rsquo;s more: by this point I was almost up to the pair of them and I couldn&rsquo;t hold back another bit of eye contact and a little smile. No words passed between us but I got a five-year old&rsquo;s knowing smile in return.

If you don&rsquo;t get the implications of that, I suggest you sit down with a bickie and have a think.

-------

Marc Armitage

photo - the keen eyed amongst you may recognise this photo as I have used it before. That is my mother and I, walking the wall quite some years ago.    

----

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/maat.play

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www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>04 Aug 2019 05:38:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/when-adult-and-children39s-needs-clash-it39s-the-adults-that-usually-win_111s67</link>
<title><![CDATA[When adult and children&#39;s needs clash it&#39;s the adults that usually win]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[900 words about what happens when you ask a playwork consutant to make recomendations on movoing a local community playground because of noise complaints. It doesnt as expected.

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;It seems to be a truism that when children and young people come into conflict with adults in their local communities it is the adults who invariably win.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

It seems to be a truism that when children and young people come into conflict with adults in their local communities it is the adults who invariably win. This is especially true with the allocation of space as can be seen from the vast number of complaints made by adult residents against local playgrounds every year. 

This conflict takes many forms,  including the fear that a playground might attract people from &lsquo;outside the area&rsquo; and increase crime levels; that a new playspace might reduce house prices (which incidentally it doesn&rsquo;t&rsquo; &ndash; the reverse is true); and even that it might spoil the aesthetics of the area. 

Possibly the most high-profile complaint of late has that of a London housing developer in the UK deciding that children living in social housing should be segregated from those living in privately owned homes on the same housing development. That one got a huge amount of coverage. 

These conflicts are nothing new. Take the example of Mr Moody, the headteacher of a school in the East Riding Yorkshire who reports in his journal for 1877, &ldquo;Mr Richardson has forbidden the children to play in the street in front of his house &hellip; I have told them to make the yard their playground in future.&rdquo; [1] 

So, a recurring issue in the lives of children and young people with a broad set of conflicting problems. Unsurprisingly, though, chief amongst the complaints raised, is about noise.  

I have form on this one 

I have been called on many times to mediate in neighbourhood disputes over play spaces in my time and the vast majority of them have been about noise. 

Some years ago, for example, I was asked by a local council to produce a report on a local playground that had been subjected to several noise complaints.  It was situated on the edge of a small country town within a well-defined neighbourhood area and my brief was to make an assessment of nuisance and make recommendations on possible nearby locations that the playground could be moved to. The latter point was unusual, and I confess it raised my suspicions of the motives behind this brief. But rent to pay, food to eat, etc. etc. 

The first task I preformed was to make a &lsquo;play value&rsquo; assessment, in other words an assessment on how popular a playspace might be based on a number of predefined criteria. At first glance it was typical of many local council provided playspaces &ndash; a jumble of uncoordinated mixed metal playground features which despite an appearances of &lsquo;quality&rsquo; often scores quite low. In other words, looks good but not that good in play terms. 

Yet this one was slightly different

Despite being quite small and having few pieces of fixed play equipment with no clear distinction between spaces for &lsquo;younger&rsquo; and &lsquo;older&rsquo; children it actually scored quite well in terms of play value. 

This is not insignificant as those play spaces scoring higher play value tend to receive more use. Yet, in this case the elements increasing the score were not necessarily deliberate design features. 

The site was not a plain rectangle, which is the norm, as it had a bit of a bend in it that had clearly been shaped to wrap around a small clump of low growing trees roughly central to the site. These trees, the main branches of which were laying horizontally along the ground, displayed a lot of signs of wear and tear of play use and were therefore clearly popular. There were also lots of collectables around, natural loose parts such as twigs, berries and flowers. 

More significantly in terms of usage, though, was the fact that this playspace was in just the right place for its local community. Location is by far the most important factor that determines the popularity of a playground. 

I had been asked to provide a written report outlining my recommendations that would be presented to the local recreation committee, but I discovered that if the report was short enough I could deliver a summary of the results verbally in person. So, I &lsquo;accidentally&rsquo; forgot to present a draft of the report to the department before attending a committee meeting.

The results

On the day the room was (shock horror) occupied by an exclusively male group of serious-looking suit-wearing councillors and officers. I set up for my allotted ten minutes of talking time, got my set of transparencies for the overhead projector ready (this been before the days of PowerPoint) and launched in.

I pointed out that (literally) all the complaints noted were coming from one strip of homes that ran alongside the playground. These were all bungalows &ndash; a form of housing generally occupied by retired and older people (older people and playgrounds rarely mix well).

Then I showed maps of the area and pointed out the relationship of the small playground to the neighbourhood and how it was on a transit route for both the local primary school and high school as well as how close it was to the homes of local children using this space; all points which will increase popularity and average usage rates. 

I also pointed out that moving such a playspace was fraught with difficulties which were exacerbated by the current popularity of the space, and yet there was an obvious solution to the issue &ndash; one that was at the root of my wish to deliver the report verbally rather than in written form. 

I finished with, &lsquo;I note that the row of bungalows from which the current noise complaints are coming from were built quite some time after the construction of the playground. My recommendation, therefore, is move the bungalows.&rsquo;

I sat down.

Silence.

No questions asked. 

The playground is still there

------

Marc Armitage

Photo - a photograph of a depressingly common local playground in a British housing estate. This one comes from an assessment project of local playspaces I did for the City of Wakefield in Yorkshire in 2006.  

note [1] This quotation is from &#39;Mr Moody&#39;s Moral Mirror: the logbook of an East Riding school master published by Hutton Press in 1986. 

-----

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

 www.twitter.com/marcatplay

www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>01 Aug 2019 09:16:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-latest-in-gun-violence-research-and-computer-games_111s66</link>
<title><![CDATA[The latest in gun violence research and computer games]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[1,100 words about the latest reserch into the effects of children playing computer games with violent themes and dangerous behaviour involving firearms. It&#39;s not quite what you might expect. 

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;The history of children&rsquo;s play is littered with examples of adults expressing concern over the negative impact of certain types of play. In the old days it was concern over things like spinning tops (I kid you not) but in a modern context the biggest fears are possibly about a presumed link between computer games with violent storylines and real violence.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

The history of children&rsquo;s play is littered with examples of adults expressing concern over the negative impact of certain types of play. In the old days it was concern over things like spinning tops (I kid you not) but in a modern context the biggest fears are possibly about a presumed link between computer games with violent storylines and real violence. Not surprisingly it has formed the basis behind dozens of research papers.

Thing is, and this is not meant to be an insult, reading research papers is not straight forward; it is, almost literally, like reading something in a foreign language, and when the press get involved it can make things ten-times worse. 

Take for example the coverage of a recently published paper. The ABC online news reported on this saying, &ldquo;Even as questions about the relationship between violent video games and shootings have been asked with growing urgency, a dearth of good data has made it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions.&rdquo; Despite this the story went on to say, &ldquo;&hellip; researchers from Ohio State University claim to have found a link.&rdquo; 

Did they? I mean both did they find a link but also did they &lsquo;claim&rsquo; to have found a link? I&rsquo;ll give you a short cut: no, and no. 

The latest study

The US study looked at potential links between exposure to computer games with an element of weapon violence and children&#39;s use of firearms. Its brief is very carefully worded in that it talks of studying whether, &ldquo;Exposure to violent video games increases children&rsquo;s dangerous behaviour around real firearms.&rdquo; 

This &lsquo;dangerous behaviour&rsquo; term seems to be a nuance that has not been picked up by much of the media reporting it. And yet the authors have some blame for this too because clearly the research does not support their own hypothesis. 

First, let&rsquo;s look at how the press have reported this story.

The online news service inews went with &lsquo;Children who play violent video games more likely to exhibit dangerous behaviour&rsquo;. So, they got the dangerous behaviour bit in; and the possibly more respected Reuters, went with the even more emphatic, &lsquo;Kids who play violent video games may be more likely to pick up a gun and pull the trigger.&rsquo; 

Have you caught the clickbait yet? Just in case you have not, here&rsquo;s another from Cosmos (&lsquo;the science of everything&rsquo;): &lsquo;Video game guns increase real-life gun-play in pre-teens&rsquo;. (see the screenshot above).

The research 

The published paper, titled &lsquo;Effect of exposure to gun violence in video games on children&rsquo;s dangerous behavior with real guns&rsquo;, was written by Justin H Chang and Brad J Bushman. It concludes that children in the lab who had previously played a computer game containing elements of either gun play, sword play or neither behaved differently on subsequently discovering a real gun in a situation without adults present. 

The study showed that over 60% of children who played a computer game that included guns then went on to pick up a real gun hidden in a room, pointed it at themselves, others and even pulled the trigger. This was a statistically higher number than those children who played a computer game with no elements of weapons included.

Now let&rsquo;s discuss this 

First, despite the 60% figure being statistically significant, around half of those playing the non-weapon version of the computer game still picked up the real firearm. A point that most of the press reports seem to have left out. 

Of more significance, though, are a couple of points raised in the papers conclusion. One being this,

&ldquo;While each of the outcomes [in the study] point in the predicted direction, some were nonsignificant, perhaps because of insufficient statistical power.&rdquo; Oh dear. Let me translate that for you from researchese into proper English: in means, &lsquo;we are convinced that our results show what we predicted although they are not actually strong enough to prove it with scientific reliability&rsquo;. 

There. Fixed it.

There are some parts of the study that prove more interesting, though. For example, the authors say,

&ldquo;We found that having taken firearm safety courses reduced some risky behavior around handguns ... [but that] children who had taken a firearm safety course pulled the trigger more times while pointing a handgun at themselves or their partner...&rdquo;

Ah. 

Here&rsquo;s another,

&ldquo;Our study highlights another danger of violent media exposure: it increases dangerous behavior around firearms. Specifically, exposure to violent video games can increase a child&rsquo;s interest in firearms, including shooting a handgun at themselves or others.&rdquo;

What do we conclude from this

What this study has shown is not that children become more violent as a result of playing some computer games but that some may become more inquisitive about real firearms if they happen to find them &ndash; a point the authors address only in the very final sentence of the paper. The implications of this should be obvious, and concluding that such games increase violent behaviour is not one of them.

The important point here, in a research context, is that one study producing a given result is not enough from which to draw legitimate conclusions. It takes consistent and verifiable findings across a significant number of studies to be able to do so. Despite the claim in the ABC News piece about a dearth of research on this topic there are in fact hundreds of such studies available to read. The bulk of these have simply failed to find such a consistent link. A point noted on even in this latest research.

There are three broad conclusions we can reach from this: either, more study is required because there legitimately is a link but we just have not found it yet; or that such a link does not exist; or that something else is the issue. This latest study does point to the real cause behind this issue but it is not the one grabbing the headlines, probably because the authors themselves seem to be down-playing it.

The &#39;something else&#39;

It is right to point out that every year children accidentally kill or seriously injure themselves and others around them with firearms in alarming numbers and so this is a topic worthy of serious discussion. Yet, it is also true to point out that this issue affects children in the U.S. far more than in any other part of the world.  

The rate of children and young people killed by firearms in the U.S. is more than 36 times higher than in comparable industrialised countries. This figure includes a quite disturbing number of accidental shootings, and there is a simple reason for that.

Children in the USA are involved in firearms incidents in such numbers not because of any demonstrable influence from computer games but more likely because they have access to guns in a way that is not the norm around the rest of the world. The number of guns in civilian hands in the US is greater than the number of people living in the country, a proportion that is way higher than any other country on earth. Teach children responsibility around firearms, I hear you say. Fine, yet this study suggests that having children take safety courses in firearms is just not enough to keep them safe, and is possibly quite the reverse. 

The real issue here is that no matter how many precautions gun owners take over the safe storage of their firearms, the sheer number of them increases the possibility of children gaining access to them. That is the &lsquo;something else&rsquo; that needs addressing as clearly children cannot keep their natural curiosity in check over this issue or any other. Sort that one out and then we can talk about the effect of the computer game. 

----

Marc Armitage

For further information on tracking the number of and circumstances behind firearms deaths involving children see the online Gun Violence Archive. 

Photo - screen shot from the Cosmos article mentioned above reproducced under the &#39;fair use&#39; rules. The &#39;Or does it&#39; is my addition. 

-----

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

 www.twitter.com/marcatplay

www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay
]]></content>
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<pubDate>04 Jun 2019 03:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/loose-parts-and-open-endedness-1-of-2_111s65</link>
<title><![CDATA[Loose parts and open-endedness (1 of 2)]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[900 words about the confusion some find over using loose parts and how that relates to &#39;open-endedness&#39;. The first of a two-part blog.

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;By definition an object, whether a loose part or not, cannot be &lsquo;open-ended&rsquo;.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Social media is full of educators posting images of newly found scrap items followed by the question, &lsquo;How should I use this?&rsquo; People recognise that these things are &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; yet it is evident from asking a question like this that loose parts puzzle people sometimes. 

Those who are well versed in loose parts theory and practice sometimes scratch their heads at posts like this and wonder why people don&rsquo;t intuitively get it. Yet we must remember that loose parts don&rsquo;t come with instruction booklets; and yes, I know that&rsquo;s half the point of loose parts but not everyone is starting on the same page. 

What is actually more frustrating is seeing some of the answers people offer to this question. These answers sometimes suggest uses that are tantamount to limiting loose parts as though they were just a cheaper and more sustainable replacement for catalogue bought resources. The thing is, neither the person asking the question or those giving the answers may be at fault. It could simply be down to the tradition behind their training. 

The training that educators receive has changed significantly in recent decades yet in some respects we are still tied into methodologies that are quite literal. What I mean by that is that some educators are still taught to see teaching and learning along the lines of &lsquo;do this, and this will happen&rsquo;. It is a consequence of the way we see learning as being bound to defined learning outcomes.

By itself this is not necessarily a bad thing except when educators are confronted with something that does not neatly fit in to this literal view, the result can be genuine confusion. In a play context that happens all the time. 

To be or not to be open-ended

Take the example of open-endedness in relation to loose parts, a point that is often not tackled well (if at all) in an educators training. 

The Cambridge Dictionary online defines the term &lsquo;open-ended&rsquo; as being, &lsquo;An open-ended activity or situation that does not have a planned ending, so it may develop in several ways&rsquo;; the Collins Dictionary online says it is something, &lsquo;Without definite limits, as of duration or amount.&rsquo;

Note that a common element across these and other definitions of open-endedness is that they do not generally relate to an object. Instead, they recognise that being open-ended is an action suggesting that by definition an object, whether a loose part or not, cannot be &lsquo;open-ended&rsquo; &ndash; it is the action that is applied to them that is.

Nicholson describes loose parts as things that can be transported, manipulated and combined but he does not refer to them as being open-ended. In some settings this open-ended element of loose parts has become almost a mantra, and this can be an issue when trying to answer that &lsquo;how should I use this&rsquo; question. That is because not only can it conflict with that literal training that some educators have received (producing confusion) but also because it misses an important point. One that actually does hold the answer to the question.   

There is a test you can apply to this idea if you like. Take any object that you consider to be open-ended and place it on the floor in front of you. Now sit back and watch for a while and see how many innovations it manages to come up with on its own. 

Do you get the point? The object without an actor is useless.

A little philosophy

There is a philosophical explanation behind this idea. Twentieth Century philosophers such as Heidegger and Gadamer questioned exactly &lsquo;where&rsquo; understanding takes place within an individual. The classical tradition of philosophy would argue that understanding occurs in the mind, whereas more modern philosophy would disagree saying that understanding takes place in an &lsquo;in-between space&rsquo;.

In Truth and Method, Gadamer gives an example of this, describing a kitten playing with a ball. It starts when the kitten accidentally touches the ball which then rolls away. Surprised, the kitten follows it. It becomes curious and reaches out to touch it again; once more the ball rolls away and now the kitten begins to actively play with it. Whatever discovery has been made here is not in the ball and not in the kitten &ndash; it is in the interplay between the two. The object (ball) requires an actor (the kitten).

The trouble is, whatever understanding occurs in that in-between space is going to be dependent on what actually happens in that space, and that could be radically different from individual to individual, and so we simply cannot guarantee what will happen until the actor interacts with the object. 

It is an idea that does not really work well with a &lsquo;do this, and this will happen&rsquo; approach because that tends to focuses our thinking into a narrow set of predefined outcomes. It is when people recognise this ambiguity that the confusion arises and it can result in us using loose parts in an equally narrow way. Instead, the approach that works best in this context is more &lsquo;do this, and don&rsquo;t worry about what happens next.&rsquo; 

It means the real answer to the question, &lsquo;How should I use this?&rsquo; is just put it somewhere and then walk away. That requires a mindset that can pose a serious challenge to the training that many of our educators receive. 

 

Marc Armitage 

------

Part 2 of this blog piece will look at what happens with loose parts once we have walked away. 

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

 www.twitter.com/marcatplay

www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay
]]></content>
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<pubDate>15 May 2019 01:54:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[In conflict with adults children usually lose]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[850 words about conflict between child-space and adult-space in local communities. 

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;It seems to be a truism that when children and young people come into conflict with adults in their local communities it is the adults who invariably win. This is especially true with the allocation of space as can be seen from the vast number of complaints made by adult residents against local playgrounds every year.&quot; 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

It seems to be a truism that when children and young people come into conflict with adults in their local communities it is the adults who invariably win. This is especially true with the allocation of space as can be seen from the vast number of complaints made by adult residents against local playgrounds every year. 

This conflict takes many forms,  including the fear that a playground might attract people from &lsquo;outside the area&rsquo; and increase crime levels; that a new playspace might reduce house prices (it doesn&rsquo;t&rsquo; the reverse is true ); and even that it might be too brightly coloured.

Possibly the most high-profile complaint of late, of course, came recently from a London housing developer deciding that children living in social housing should be segregated from those living in privately owned homes on the same housing development. 

Unsurprisingly, though, chief amongst the complaints raised, is about noise.   

These conflicts are nothing new. In fact, I have been called on many times to mediate in neighbourhood disputes over play spaces in my time and the vast majority of them have been about noise. 

Some years ago, for example, I was asked by a local council to produce a report on a local playground that had been subjected to a number of complaints.  It was situated on the edge of a small country town within a well-defined neighbourhood area. 

Suspicious Briefs

My brief was to make an assessment of nuisance and make recommendations on possible nearby locations the playground could be moved to. The latter point was unusual, and I confess it raised my suspicions of the motives behind this brief. But rent to pay, food to eat, etc. etc. 

The first task I preformed was to make a &lsquo;play value&rsquo; assessment, in other words an assessment on how popular a playspace might be based on a number of predefined criteria. At first glance it was typical of many local council provided playspaces &ndash; a jumble of mixed, mainly metal playground features, which despite an appearances of &lsquo;quality&rsquo; usually scores quite low. In other words, looks good but not that good in play terms. 

Yet this one was slightly different. 

Despite being physically quite small and having few pieces of fixed play equipment and no clear distinction between spaces for &lsquo;younger&rsquo; and &lsquo;older&rsquo; children it actually scored quite well in terms of play value. 

This is not insignificant as those play spaces scoring higher in play value tend to receive more use that those that do not. Yet, in this case the elements increasing the score were not necessarily deliberate design features. 

The site was not a plain rectangle, which is the norm, as it had a bit of a bend in it that had clearly been shaped to wrap around a small clump of low growing trees roughly central to the site. These trees, the main branches of which were laying horizontally along the ground, displayed a lot of signs of wear and tear of play use and were therefore clearly popular. 

More significantly in terms of usage, this playspace was in just the right place for its local community. 

The report

I had been asked to provide a written report that would be presented to the local recreation committee but I discovered that if the report was short enough I could deliver a summary of the results verbally in person. So, I &lsquo;accidentally&rsquo; forgot to present a draft of the report to the department before delivering.

At the meeting, the room was (shock horror) occupied by an exclusively male group of serious-looking suit-wearing councillors and officers. I set up for my allotted ten minutes of talking time, got my set of transparencies for the overhead projector ready (this been before the days of PowerPoint) and launched in.

I pointed out that (literally) all of the complaints noted were coming from one strip of homes that ran alongside the playground. These were all bungalows &ndash; a form of housing generally occupied by retired and older people (older people and playgrounds rarely mix).

I then showed maps of the area and pointed out the relationship of the small playground to the neighbourhood and how it was on a transit route for both the local primary school and high school as well as how close it was to the homes of local children using this space, all points which will increase popularity and average usage rates. 

I also said that moving such a playspace was fraught with difficulties which were exacerbated by the current popularity of the space, and yet there was an obvious solution to the issue, which coincided with my wish to deliver the report verbally rather than in written form. 

I finished with, &lsquo;I note that the row of bungalows from which the current noise complaints are coming from were built after the construction of the playground. My recommendation, therefore, is move the bungalows.&rsquo;

I sat down.

Silence.

No questions asked. 

The playground is still there

--------

Marc Armitage

---------

photo &ndash; a No Ball Games slap bang in the middle of a community space - very typical of the UK

Please feel free to comment and share as you wish.

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/in-conflict-with-adults-children-usually-lose_111s62</guid>
<pubDate>28 Apr 2019 06:44:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/that-first-day-of-school_111s61</link>
<title><![CDATA[That first day of school]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[850 words about my first day at school.

a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

&quot;I have a vision of standing beside the kind of sand and water tray that would not out be out of place in any early year&rsquo;s centre today and pretty much staying there not daring to move.&quot;

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

I don&rsquo;t know about you, but I distinctly remember my first day at school - or to be more accurate, I have memories of having memories of my first day backed up with subsequent conversations with my parents (principally my mother). My suspicion is that most of my memories will be stereotypical. I remember, for example, the walk to school, because walk we did.

At the time, we lived in an old part of an old city in densely packed housing that dated from shortly after the enactment of the 1832 &lsquo;Great&rsquo; Reform Act. That piece of legislation had dramatically extended the right to vote to anyone in an urban area who owned their own home or who held property to the value of &pound;10 and so the new idea of the &lsquo;housing association&rsquo; appeared. These bodies allowed signed-up members to purchase homes built by the association with a mortgage which meant that effectively they &lsquo;owned&rsquo; those houses and therefore had the right to vote in local and national elections. 

But I digress

On that first day at school we became part of a chain of people walking the same route. Everyone in the neighbourhood went to the same infant school (Thomas Stratton Infants) and so at roughly the same time every day a snake of people formed all heading towards the school. 

I also distinctly remember, on that first day, not moving for an entire morning. I have a vision of standing beside the kind of sand and water tray that would not out be out of place in any early year&rsquo;s centre today and pretty much staying there not daring to move. I was an only child and I think the shear presence of so many other children quite freaked me out. In fact, my only real memory of that morning involved a boy called Trevor who at one point stood on a table, dropped his trousers and wiggled his woggler for all to see. I remember his name mainly because I bumped into him again in high school where I gleefully reminded him of this at every possible occasion.

And then, mother returned. We walked home for lunch and although I remember there were questions, I don&rsquo;t remember the answers I gave. I do, however, remember being shocked to my core when she mentioned that we had to go back again in the afternoon! Again, stereotypical, I think. 

Overall, though, my memories of infant school are very positive. I remember being happy there. I remember particular friends of the time, although none of them followed me to my next school and I have had no contact with them since; I remember many of the games we played and the metal &lsquo;jungle gym&rsquo; tubular steel feature that sat in one corner of the playground, next to the outdoor toilet block that had a &lsquo;spooky ghost&rsquo;. 

Santa and the moon landings

I also remember the day my class teacher, Mr Banacek, rushed to the windows of our upstairs classroom and excitedly pointed into the sky saying that he could see Santa on his sleigh. As we ran to the window his finger crossed to the next batch of windows and the next! We followed his pointing and despite craning our necks to see him we had clearly just missed seeing him. Maybe, said Mr Banacek, he has landed in the playground and is making his way to the hall, so we ran excitedly to see if this was true &ndash; and sure enough, there he was in all his red-cloaked and white-bearded glory.

Other key memories include watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon live in a very grainy image on one of those huge TVs on wheels in a side room of the main hall (yes I&rsquo;m really that old); and also standing in a line to wash hands at a long line of taps and sinks before entering the main hall for assembly. 

Years later, just before my old school was demolished, I had the chance to visit the interior and take some photos. It had long been derelict by this point and so was a shell of its former self and yet there were still highly recognisable features: the line of sinks and taps leading into the hall, the long line of outdoor toilets, and, most of all, there was the little side room that I had sat on the floor of and watched fascinated at two people walking on the moon.

Why is everything so small?

That last chance to visit the building brought back possibly the most common of shared memories of this event: I suddenly though, wow, isn&rsquo;t everything so small! The rooms, the furniture, the doors &hellip; everything! 

I suspect that the first day we spent at school is etched on the mind of most of us yet whether everyone is lucky enough to have the kind of positive memories I have, I don&rsquo;t know. But I&rsquo;d love to find out. What are your memories of that day?

Marc Armitage

-------

photo &ndash; me, the year before starting school, with my old mum.

Please feel free to comment and share as you wish.

For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play

 www.twitter.com/marcatplay

www.instagram.com/marcatplay  

www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay

 

 

 

 

 

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>22 Mar 2019 13:57:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/great-moments-in-a-darked-room_111s60</link>
<title><![CDATA[Great moments in a darked room]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

850  words about a memorable, exciting moment in a darkend room with a loose parts element. 

&quot;This may sound silly, but my hands were shaking a little as I opened the envelope and a waft of a familiar smell leapt out ...&quot;

 

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Some years ago, I was in the technical library of the University of Sheffield thumbing through an old card index when something caught my eye. &lsquo;Interesting&rsquo; I thought, &lsquo;&hellip; wouldn&rsquo;t mind a look at that.&rsquo; And so, distracted, I set off to look for my discovery.

I confess I am easily distracted by interesting things, especially in libraries and archives, and I&rsquo;ve had a number of great moments in a darkened room. For example, while once in the British Archives in London researching the origins of the first national regulations covering school playgrounds I found myself sat with a mound of original documents and bound volumes on the desk in front of me.

In the main these documents were quite dry, written in a typical governmentese kind of language that can be hard to decipher, and although these papers were telling me &lsquo;what&rsquo; decisions were being made they didn&rsquo;t give me many clues as to &lsquo;why&rsquo;. After ploughing through a dozen or so volumes I picked up the next one from the pile, opened a few pages to make a quick scan of the contents and literally jumped as if hit by an electric shock!

This bound collection of papers included an agenda and a number of supporting papers for a meeting of the Council of the Board of Education held in 1908. The meeting discussed the results of a recent nationwide inspection of new local school building which examined how faithfully new facilities were being constructed in terms of the then national building regulations.

This is different  

What was exciting, though, was that this was the copy of the then President of the Board and the margins were chocked full of hand-written notes detailing his own thoughts and the progress of the meeting. It was informative beyond description and a complete surprise. 

I was hoping that the day in the darkness of the university library in Sheffield was going to be similar but unfortunately it wasn&rsquo;t to be. The listed document I had discovered reference to was nowhere to be found.   

I&rsquo;m not completely sure of the year this took place, but I estimate it would have been between 1999 and 2001 and I confess I soon completely forgot about my distraction. However, in 2011, I found myself back in the same library and remembering my previous trip. This time the library index had been greatly revised and fully computerised, so I easily found reference to my earlier discovery. I was a little surprised though to find that yet again when I went to the shelf the document was listed at it was not there. 

This in itself is telling as it suggests that this particular document had been missing since at least the time of my first visit and as a result it had probably not seen the light of day for some considerable time. I was determined to find it. 

It&#39;s easy to lose things

You might be surprised to learn how easy it is for books and documents to go missing from libraries and archives and the greatest cause for disappearances is not theft but when things are put back in the wrong place.   It&rsquo;s very easy to do and can cause havoc. At least this time I had a much clearer idea of what I was looking for as the revised index now listed the document as a manila envelope; and after a significant amount of digging around, I found it. 

This may sound silly, but my hands were shaking a little as I opened the envelope and a waft of a familiar smell leapt out as, despite the fact that I knew roughly what the envelope was meant to contain, I was not completely certain as to what was actually in there. 

The answer was four copies of a simply typed, four-page handout reproduced on an old stencil duplicator also known as a mimeograph. These hand-cranked copy machines printed papers in a distinct blue ink that easily comes off on the fingers and has this very particular smell. Each of the copies were held together with a rusty paper clip and were clearly spares of those that had been given to participants at a seminar held at the department of architecture in the university in 1970. 

And here&#39;s the point

The author was one Simon Nicholson, and the title of the paper was &lsquo;How not to cheat children &ndash; the Theory of Loose Parts.&rsquo; This, was one of the first versions of his theory that Nicholson had put to paper and it was a clear precursor to the version that finally made it into print the following year in the journal &lsquo;Landscape Architecture&rsquo; (p30-34) &ndash; a significant paper that launched an entire approach to working with children and their playing.

But there was more. Tightly jammed into the envelope along with the stencilled copies was the original typed version of this paper. And I got to hold it in my hand. 

Now that was an exciting day in a darkened room.

Marc Armitage

-------

photo - one of my many trips to the darkend room of the British Archives in London.

Please feel free to coment and share as you wish.For more information and to follow Marc on other platforms head over to www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play  www.twitter.com/marcatplay  www.instagram.com/marcatplay  www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>01 Mar 2019 10:34:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/what-exactly-am-i-supposed-to-be-doing_111s59</link>
<title><![CDATA[What exactly am I supposed to be doing?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ 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.

&quot;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 &lsquo;teacher&rsquo; has, in many respects become the &lsquo;educator&rsquo;, for example, and that has clearly been a considered move; and yet &lsquo;educator&rsquo; still implies &lsquo;educate&rsquo;.&quot; 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

It seems like a simple enough question to ask: &lsquo;While there are children playing all around me, what am I, the adult in this space, supposed to be doing?&rsquo; And yet, when we try to embed a more play-based style of working into our settings this proves to be a question that comes up often and clearly reflects confusion. Thing is, it&rsquo;s the wrong question to be asking.

This confusion is particularly true when people are first introduced to a playwork style of working and after professional development sessions with non-playworkers this is possibly the most frequent question I am asked, followed closely by questions as fundamental as where should I stand and, should I even be standing in the first place?

These are questions that should not be dismissed as trivial. They get down to the real nitty gritty about a play-based approach versus a more didactic approach; they are also fundamental to the way that playwork operates. To be honest, it&rsquo;s not until we can successfully answer these question that we can get anywhere to explaining the difference between a playwork approach and other styles of working, so this is an important one to tackle.

Take this often-misunderstood quotation, by Jonas Bertelsen, for example that appears in Arvid Bengtsson&rsquo;s 1972 book, Adventure Playgrounds. Acknowledged as being the world&rsquo;s first adventure playground-based playworker at the 1943 founded Skrammellegepladsen (junk playground) in Emdrup, Denmark, Bertelsen writes &ldquo;&hellip; I cannot, and indeed will not, teach the children anything.&rdquo; (:20)

On face value you can see why someone employed in a learning capacity might have problems with this idea &ndash; &lsquo;cannot and will not&rsquo;? What does that mean? After all, are we not employed specifically to enable learning to occur and yet Bertelsen&rsquo;s quotation seems to call this very idea into question?

There are clues to what he is saying when we go deeper. He continues by saying, &ldquo;I am able to give them [children] my support in their creative play and work, and thus help them in developing those talents and abilities which are often suppressed at home and at school.&rdquo;

Do you see the potentially uncomfortable idea there?

In fact, it gets worse because he goes further suggesting that the ideal playworker should also appear to be &lsquo;not too clever&rsquo;, in other words make it plain that they don&rsquo;t know everything. In many respects he is advocating an approach similar to that of Vygotsky (whose influence was beginning to be felt in the Scandinavian countries around the same time). This is effectively Vygotsky&rsquo;s idea of the MKO &ndash; the more knowledgeable other.

It is at this point that many educators will be tempted to say, &lsquo;ah yes, we take this approach too &ndash; we step back&rsquo;. But there is more because, &lsquo;stepping back&rsquo; and recognising the importance of someone who knows more than you might be an obvious one, yet in the sense of what Bertelsen and Vygotsky are saying there is an issue with who that person is.

Try doing a web search for images relating to the MKO online and you will see that it throws up a whole raft of diagrams and photos in which the more capable person is almost exclusively a parent or educator. Yet in the context of both Vygotsky and Bertelsen, this individual was not only possibly a peer but was more likely to be so than not. The adult in this context is not one that just stays very much in the background &ndash; they are also one who allows other children to take on the more knowledgeable role at the expense of the adult. That&rsquo;s hard to do.

In a playwork context the idea that the adult was not the main source of innovation very quickly took hold. For example, despite Bertelsen being referred to as the &lsquo;playleader&rsquo; in the 1940s it did not take long for the alternative form of &lsquo;playworker&rsquo; to appear and eventually become the norm (a point I think Bertelsen would have approved of). Bob Hughes, for example, elder statesman of modern playwork, says &ldquo;At its most fundamental level, the play space dynamic is the property of the children, it is nothing to do with the playworker.&rdquo; (:163)

A clue

And this maybe gives a clue to where some of our confusion arises because in a modern learning context this idea is not only still relatively new but it also goes much further than many educators are used to or feel comfortable with.

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 &lsquo;teacher&rsquo; has, in many respects become the &lsquo;educator&rsquo;, for example, and that has clearly been a considered move; and yet &lsquo;educator&rsquo; still implies &lsquo;educate&rsquo; &ndash; I have to be engaged directly because I am the more knowledgeable other.

On top of that, we may also be facing a backlash against this approach too in part because of an assumption that if children are busy playing and are totally in control of what they are doing then there really is no role for the adult &ndash; they might as well not be there. Non-playworkers who see playworkers in action for the first time often remark on this, assuming that the playworkers are &lsquo;doing nothing&rsquo; because they are seemingly not doing &lsquo;anything&rsquo; &ndash; no direct engagement, no extending, no scaffolding.

And yet, this is not what is happening in playwork because the point that is often being missed is who is the more knowledgeable other and therefore who is doing the engagement that potentially leads to scaffolding?

Answer that question first and then it becomes possible to answer the more fundamental question of what we, the adult, should be doing around those who are actively playing.

Marc Armitage

-----

Photo: this is my prized copy of the Arvid Bengtsson book that the Bertelsen quote above comes from. Slightly water damaged and yet this book is a rare as hens teeth. So, before you ask &hellip; no.

-----

Are you following me on other platforms? Find me here: www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play     www.twitter.com/marcatplay    www.instagram.com/marcatplay    www.soundcloud.com/marcatplay
]]></content>
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<pubDate>17 Sep 2018 13:04:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/caging-the-wild-animal_111s58</link>
<title><![CDATA[Caging the Wild Animal ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

900 words about the deep suspicion there appears to be for &#39;play&#39; in the American kindergarten classroom.

&quot;Restricting particular types of play, or learning, into a predesignated &lsquo;corner&rsquo;, &lsquo;area&rsquo; or &lsquo;station&rsquo; is like putting a wild animal in a cage and thinking that&rsquo;s helpful. It&rsquo;s not.&quot;

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

In a recent online discussion, several early educators expressed frustration that their licencing bodies were not only insisting that their spaces be organised around centers or &lsquo;learning stations&rsquo; but also that they should be clearly labelled as such: the &lsquo;science station&rsquo;, the &lsquo;drama station&rsquo; etc. Confusion was expressed over where the word &lsquo;play&rsquo; fitted into this idea.

These educators were exclusively American and although some other parts of the world organise spaces in this way too it is much more common to find this type of set up in the U.S.A. than in some other contexts. It is also fair to say that this idea is defined in a much harder way in the U.S. than possibly elsewhere and that American early educators face some real struggles when it comes to the idea of play-based learning as well. These two points may be connected.

By &lsquo;harder way&rsquo; I mean that these organised stations are not necessarily seen as mere starting points from which children can begin and then move taking their play with them. No, they frame expectations on what sort of thing these educators, and more importantly the licencing people, expect to see happening in those spaces.

Some participants in the discussion said that they label their stations in terms of the sorts of play they expect them to generate yet many more said that they are ether distancing themselves from labelling them as &lsquo;play&rsquo; or are being actively discouraged from doing so.

A purpose behind all play

In a 2015 paper in the Journal of Play, Megham Lynch explored the thoughts of classroom organisation with American kindergarten teachers and found that, &ldquo;Some teachers stated they needed to label activities to give them an academic tone, instead of a playful one. Rather than calling areas in the classroom &lsquo;play centers,&rsquo; these teachers encouraged others to call the spaces &lsquo;developmental centers&rsquo; or &lsquo;work centers,&rsquo; or to describe play as &lsquo;active learning.&rsquo;&rdquo; (:355).

She goes on to say that some have also received instructions from &lsquo;the system&rsquo; to avoid having any form of free play in their classes. This was, they had been told, because, &ldquo;&hellip; there needs to be a purpose behind all play activities.&rdquo; (:358). Clearly, that purpose has to be learning and to be seen to be learning. 

We may be getting to the nub of the confusion here &ndash; it turns out that these stations have nothing to do with &lsquo;play&rsquo;.

The underlaying problem seems to be either a significant misunderstanding on the place of play in a learning context, or a deep suspicion of it &ndash; or possibly both.

In a system dominated by Piagetian ways of thinking about education (of which the U.S.A. is one) this should probably not come as a surprise. In a very simplistic form, Piaget, and many subsequent psychology-dominated theorists after him, have tended to see learning as taking place in essentially a straight line with the learner passing through various stages before finally arriving at a defined educational goal or outcome.

Piaget and the Wild Animal

For years, many of our educational systems, especially at the primary or elementary school level, have been dominated by this type of thinking and in recent decades this idea has begun to influence early education too. It shapes the way our learning outcomes are formed, the way curriculum is written and assessed, how our educators are trained and subsequently how our spaces are organised to support the system. None of this bodes well for play.

I&rsquo;ll make a broad claim here: &lsquo;play&rsquo; simply does not fit in an environment based largely on Piagetian lines and attempting to organise our spaces by restricting particular types of play, or learning, into a predesignated &lsquo;corner&rsquo;, &lsquo;area&rsquo; or &lsquo;station&rsquo; is like putting a wild animal in a cage and thinking that&rsquo;s helpful. It&rsquo;s not &ndash; it&rsquo;s restrictive and it&rsquo;s unnatural.

Some might claim that organising our space into &lsquo;stations&rsquo; like this provides some structure or starting point for play yet that is really to miss the main point which is that this idea is an attempt to control what is happening or is about to happen in a way that fits a predetermined outcome and timescale. It is less to do with learning, more to do with teaching and nothing at all to do with play.

Suspicion 

This might be close to explaining why in some other educational systems, like those of the Nordic countries for example, the straight-line dominance of Piagetian thinking doesn&rsquo;t really exist. It is partly because they recognise that learning in the early years rarely works in nice, neat, predictable straight lines.

It may also explain the suspicion behind play and a play-based approach to early learning.  

Using such an approach requires an acceptance that once the wild animal of play has been released, it needs its freedom to roam and be itself to be fully effective. The most important requirement for that is time and patience.

In other words, defining the &lsquo;Science Centre&rsquo; as such implies that there will be &lsquo;science&rsquo; going on and what licencing people seem to be looking for is evidence of this predetermined way of seeing a space organised &lsquo;for learning&rsquo; (which can be controlled) and not &lsquo;play&rsquo; (which cannot).

It&rsquo;s a trap. Don&rsquo;t fall into it.

This is nothing less than a display of mistrust over the power of play and the effect it has on our children. If we trusted them and the possibilities in play more, we would soon see that such &lsquo;stations&rsquo; are hindering their learning not enhancing it. Far from caging the wild animal we should be setting it free.

Marc Armitage

------

photo: this is an image of a friend of mines younger daughter kindly reproduced with their permission. 

-----

Please feel free to leave comments here and also share to whatever platforms you wish. For more about Marc check out these social media platforms 

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play 

www.twitter.com/marcatplay 

www.instagram.com/marcatplay 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>10 Sep 2018 01:46:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-ugly-side-of-loose-parts_111s56</link>
<title><![CDATA[The ugly side of loose parts]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

900 words about Simon Nicholson&#39;s &#39;Theory of Loose Parts&#39; that asks if we are missing something in our interpretation of his ideas.

&quot;Pretty collections of beads and shells, plastic shapes and buttons, stored neatly in nice wicker baskets or storage tubs, etc. do indeed constitute loose parts, there is a slight problem here. Becoming fixated with seeing &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; as just these small aesthetically pleasing things at the expense of others that might be less attractive to the adult eye really misses the major idea behind Nicholson&rsquo;s original theory.&#x200B;&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

Have you ever considered the interesting connection between the ideas of the naturalist Charles Darwin and the work of Simon Nicholson of &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; fame? No? Well, it&rsquo;s this:

There are those that mistakenly believe that Darwin &lsquo;invented&rsquo; the idea of evolution and the term - except he didn&rsquo;t - the general concept of evolution had been in existence for many centuries before Darwin published his, &lsquo;On the Origin of Species&rsquo; in 1859. Similarly, we hear of people who believe that Nicholson came up with the idea of &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; - except he didn&#39;t - as Nicholson himself acknowledges, the term had already been in use for at least a decade before the publication of his seminal 1971 paper, &lsquo;How Not to Cheat Children: the theory of loose parts&rsquo;. The term itself actually originates within the 1960s &lsquo;Discovery Method&rsquo; educational movement.

The unique contribution that both made to their field was to add the words &lsquo;theory of&rsquo; to the equation. In scientific terms the word theory relates to a framework of ideas that provides an explanation of how something works, and in the case of both individuals their contribution has been about explaining how their respected concepts work.

In the context of &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo;, play settings as diverse as nurseries and early learning centres, schools and adventure playgrounds have always had an element of improvisation and recycling with the materials used (we call it being sustainable now), so in that context we could claim that the idea seriously isn&rsquo;t new. But Nicholson added that degree of explanation &ndash; the theory &ndash; behind the idea that up to 1971 was sorely lacking.

Despite that and the practical application being wide-spread, the theoretical aspects of &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; are not necessarily well understood. We can see this in the way that &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; are often perceived and discussed.

Within a learning context, and especially within early learning, we seem to see them as primarily (though not exclusively) associated with art and craft, small construction (making garages and zoos for toy cars and animals for example) and as more acceptable replacements for out-of-the-catalogue teaching materials.  

And yet, whereas pretty collections of beads and shells, plastic shapes and buttons, stored neatly in nice wicker baskets or storage tubs, etc. do indeed constitute loose parts, there is a slight problem here. Becoming fixated with seeing &lsquo;loose parts&rsquo; as just these small aesthetically pleasing things at the expense of others that might be less attractive to the adult eye really misses the major idea behind Nicholson&rsquo;s original theory. Let&rsquo;s talk about the ugly side of loose parts.

The ugly side of loose parts

The most often quoted passage of Nicholson&rsquo;s paper is the one about variables and the importance of having things in both number and kind for promoting inventiveness and creativity &ndash; that one (you can find it on page 30 of his paper). Yet there is another often over-looked yet possibly more important passage within the paper. And it&rsquo;s about caves.

Using a cave as an analogy for exploring various philosophical questions about perception, truth and knowledge is as old as the hills, and social-anthropologists often use the idea of the cave when explaining concepts of community involvement.

Nicholson takes this idea on with a generalised analogy along the lines of &lsquo;children like caves&rsquo;. The implication being that to study a question like &lsquo;why do children like caves&rsquo; (for caves read loose parts) we might be tempted to observe children in the cave and see what they do whilst there to draw our conclusions from. However, he goes on to say:

 &hellip; the study of children and cave-type environments only becomes meaningful when we consider children not only being in a given cave but also when children have the opportunity to play with space-forming materials in order that they may invent, construct, evaluate and modify their own caves. (:31) [italics in original]

In other words, these &lsquo;space-forming materials&rsquo;, by which we mean &lsquo;big loose parts&rsquo; &ndash;  such as wooden planks, pallets, old sheets, rope and netting, etc. &ndash; are an essential element in a play setting if children are going to get the best out of using loose parts as these are the materials with which children make their own caves. The problem is, these things are often not very nice looking, they can be rather dull in colour, are big, take up more storage space and can look out of place. Once a few of them have become strewn around the play setting there is also a temptation to see them as making our spaces scruffy, unkempt (ugly even) and looking like a rubbish tip. That genuinely puts some people off.

The &lsquo;small loose parts&rsquo; (such as beads and shells) are still important as they often act as the props that are taken &lsquo;inside the cave&rsquo;, contributing to a pretend play episode taking place there. But without the big ugly looking stuff the power in those more aesthetically pleasing, neat, tidy small loose parts is diminished. Playing needs a context and often that context is the cave. Without it, playing with loose parts will not reach the potential Nicholson&rsquo;s theory sees in them, and for that we need to embrace the ugly side of loose parts.

Marc Armitage 

-----

Photo: &#39;the cave&#39; created with large &#39;loose parts&#39; and small &#39;loose parts&#39; taken inside as narrative props, at The Treehouse Primary School, Bruges, Belgium (photo taken by Marc)

-----

Please feel free to leave comments here and also share to whatever platforms you wish. For more about Marc check out these social media platforms 

www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play 

www.twitter.com/marcatplay 

www.instagram.com/marcatplay 

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>02 Sep 2018 05:08:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/when-is-a-good-research-paper-not-a-good-research-paper_111s55</link>
<title><![CDATA[When is a good research paper not a good research paper ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

900 words asking when is a good research paper not a good research paper, highlighting issues with one recently published piece on the play of school playgrounds.

&quot;A good research paper, even when it produces a counterintuitive conclusion, can slice through the bias of an emotional response better than a hot knife through an organically produced, seed-oil based butter substitute.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[
a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

It is a habit of mine to ask for a reference or citation when matters of fact are quoted with no source simply because a research based approach to working with children and young people should be the norm in developing good practice &ndash; emotive anecdotal comments should be the exception. This is especially true in the field of play and playing as it can sometimes become an emotive topic and a good research paper, even when it produces a counterintuitive conclusion, can slice through the bias of an emotional response better than a hot knife through an organically produced, seed-oil based butter substitute.

Unfortunately, this recent paper &lsquo;Individual and environmental correlates of school-based recess engagement&rsquo; published in the journal, Preventative Medicine Reports, just isn&rsquo;t (vol 11 Sept. 2018 p247-253).

The paper begins well enough by acknowledging that recess periods in the school day have been in decline in school districts throughout the USA and concludes that this is not a good thing. It goes on to say that this is not a good thing because, &ldquo;The school day &hellip; is a prime opportunity to promote PA [physical activity].&rdquo;

And that&rsquo;s where we hit the first problem.

The First Problem

This paper is a classic of the physiological type of research that is concerned exclusively with the health benefits of children being physical activity to the exclusion of all else. The introduction sets its overall aim out very clearly when it says, &ldquo;Physical activity is important to help curb high obesity rates amongst today&rsquo;s children.&rdquo;

Methodologically it&rsquo;s a very tight paper and no doubt well intentioned. The research involved more than 8,000 children in seven schools in which one part of the study held observations of &lsquo;recess activity engagement&rsquo; while in another data from the wearing of a Fitbit activity monitor were taken and the two sets of data then combined and analysed. The tabulated results are clearly laid out and easy to read.

It is the conclusions that the paper reaches that are worrisome, though: It concludes that girls tend to be less physically active during recess periods than boys &ndash; and that&rsquo;s no surprise as most similar research has drawn the same conclusion. Yet it is how this is stated that starts the alarm bells ringing as its says that more than a quarter of children (particularly girls) were observed in &ldquo;sedentary activities (e.g. talking with friends).&rdquo;

The bias is beginning to peek out

The paper also quotes previous research on the topic stating that it found, &ldquo;&hellip; adding more playground equipment and providing a structured recess yielded the largest effect on [physical activity].&rdquo; This paper seems to agree with that. In fact, the reference to &lsquo;sedentary activities&rsquo; above shows very clearly that the researchers are seeing the potential benefits of playing purely in the context of increased physical activity &ndash; sitting play bad, running around play good &ndash; and the major conclusion it reaches is that the involvement of adult-initiated and structured activity is essential to getting the desired increase in physical activity:  

&ldquo;&hellip; in the current study, adult engagement and supervision was identified as the most salient recess level predictor of engagement for boys and girls. Thus, in considering how to take advantage of limited [recess] time for PA &hellip; adults can be more than passive observers assigned to monitor recess, but can also be active participants, and even beneficial role models, for children on and around the playground.&rdquo;

It&rsquo;s almost as if the research has been funded by an organisation with a vested interest in adult-led playground intervention projects, isn&rsquo;t it?

Yet at one point, the paper makes an almost throw away comment that might lead to an alternative conclusion. It notes that recess in the study schools accounted for approximately 5.6% of the school day and then, shock horror, finds that, &ldquo;Interestingly, recess length was a significant predictor of both MVPA [moderate-to-vigorous physical activity], and steps per minute taken during recess. This finding suggests that extra recess time not only increases opportunities for physical activity, but that children are more active with the time they have when this is increased.&rdquo;

So, to increase physical activity simply increase the length of recess time, right?

The Big Problem

The big problem behind this paper is that it has a clear bias in its approach paradigm that seriously narrows any possible conclusion. At one point the authors claim, &ldquo;To date, no study has concurrently examined the contextual features of the environment and what students chose to do during recess in a systematic way.&rdquo;

Oh, really? I could lead them to a decent sized metaphorical warehouse full of research relating to school recess periods that has done just that except these are from alternative paradigms to that of the authors who appear to have no previous knowledge of other approaches &ndash; all except one of the extensive references cited are from a physiological perspective.

Much of this non-physiological research quotes the benefits of recess that goes beyond the purely physical (see just about anything by Peter Blatchford and Anthony Pellegrini, for example) and not the least amongst those benefits is the value of unstructured time away from adult imposed activity rather than arguing for more.

So, when is a good play research paper not a good play research paper? When it may, even with the best intentions in mind, make the reality of play for children harder to achieve rather than easier. That&rsquo;s when.

Marc Armitage
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/when-is-a-good-research-paper-not-a-good-research-paper_111s55</guid>
<pubDate>24 Aug 2018 02:45:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/when-is-a-good-research-paper-not-a-good-research-paper_111s107</link>
<title><![CDATA[When is a good research paper not a good research paper]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[It is a habit of mine to ask for a reference or citation when matters of fact are quoted with no source simply because a research based approach to working with children and young people should be the norm in developing good practice &ndash; emotive anecdotal comments should be the exception. 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[It is a habit of mine to ask for a reference or citation when matters of fact are quoted with no source simply because a research based approach to working with children and young people should be the norm in developing good practice &ndash; emotive anecdotal comments should be the exception. This is especially true in the field of play and playing as it can sometimes become an emotive topic and a good research paper, even when it produces a counterintuitive conclusion, can slice through the bias of an emotional response better than a hot knife through an organically produced, seed-oil based butter substitute.

Unfortunately, this recent paper &lsquo;Individual and environmental correlates of school-based recess engagement&rsquo; published in the journal, Preventative Medicine Reports just isn&rsquo;t (vol 11 Sept. 2018 p247-253).

The paper begins well enough by acknowledging that recess periods in the school day have been in decline in school districts throughout the USA and concludes that this is not a good thing. It goes on to say that this is not a good thing because, &ldquo;The school day &hellip; is a prime opportunity to promote PA [physical activity].&rdquo;

And that&rsquo;s where we hit the first problem.

This paper is a classic of the physiological type of research that is concerned exclusively with the health benefits of children being physical activity to the exclusion of all else. The introduction sets its overall aim out very clearly when it says, &ldquo;Physical activity is important to help curb high obesity rates amongst today&rsquo;s children.&rdquo;

Methodologically it&rsquo;s a very tight paper and no doubt well intentioned. The research involved more than 8,000 children in seven schools in which one part of the study held observations of &lsquo;recess activity engagement&rsquo; while in another data from the wearing of a Fitbit activity monitor were taken and the two sets of data then combined and analysed. The tabulated results are clearly laid out and easy to read.

It is the conclusions that the paper reaches that are worrisome, though: It concludes that girls tend to be less physically active during recess periods than boys &ndash; and that&rsquo;s no surprise as most similar research has drawn the same conclusion. Yet it is how this is stated that starts the alarm bells ringing as its says that more than a quarter of children (particularly girls) were observed in &ldquo;sedentary activities (e.g. talking with friends).&rdquo; The bias here is beginning to peek out.

The paper also quotes previous research on the topic stating that it found, &ldquo;&hellip; adding more playground equipment and providing a structured recess yielded the largest effect on [physical activity].&rdquo; This paper seems to agree with that. In fact, the reference to &lsquo;sedentary activities&rsquo; above shows very clearly that the researchers are seeing the potential benefits of playing purely in the context of increased physical activity &ndash; sitting play bad, running around play good &ndash; and the major conclusion it reaches is that the involvement of adult-initiated and structured activity is essential to getting the desired increase in physical activity:  

&ldquo;&hellip; in the current study, adult engagement and supervision was identified as the most salient recess level predictor of engagement for boys and girls. Thus, in considering how to take advantage of limited [recess] time for PA &hellip; adults can be more than passive observers assigned to monitor recess, but can also be active participants, and even beneficial role models, for children on and around the playground.&rdquo;

It&rsquo;s almost as if the research has been funded by an organisation with a vested interest in adult-led playground intervention projects, isn&rsquo;t it?

Yet at one point, the paper makes an almost throw away comment that might lead to an alternative conclusion. It notes that recess in the study schools accounted for approximately 5.6% of the school day and then, shock horror, finds that, &ldquo;Interestingly, recess length was a significant predictor of both MVPA [moderate-to-vigorous physical activity], and steps per minute taken during recess. This finding suggests that extra recess time not only increases opportunities for physical activity, but that children are more active with the time they have when this is increased.&rdquo;

So, to increase physical activity simply increase the length of recess time, right?

One of the real problems behind this paper is that it has a clear bias in its approach paradigm that seriously narrows any possible conclusion. At one point the authors claim, &ldquo;To date, no study has concurrently examined the contextual features of the environment and what students chose to do during recess in a systematic way.&rdquo;

Oh, really? I could lead them to a decent sized metaphorical warehouse full of research relating to school recess periods that has done just that; but they have done so from alternative paradigm to that of the authors who appear to have no previous knowledge of other approaches &ndash; all except one of the extensive references cited are from a physiological perspective.

Much of this non-physiological research quotes the benefits of recess that goes beyond the purely physical (see just about anything by Peter Blatchford and Anthony Pellegrini, for example) and not the least amongst those benefits is the value of unstructured time away from adult imposed activity rather than arguing for more.

So, when is a good play research paper not a good play research paper? When it may, even with the best intentions in mind, make the reality of play for children harder to achieve rather than easier. That&rsquo;s when.

Marc Armitage
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/when-is-a-good-research-paper-not-a-good-research-paper_111s107</guid>
<pubDate>27 Jan 2018 04:04:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/all-teenagers-are-obnoxious_111s54</link>
<title><![CDATA[All Teenagers are Obnoxious]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

500 words about abnoxious teenagers and how we all went through a phase of being rude, destructive and apparently unthinking. And yet, we all did it ... didnt we. 

&quot;It was dark at the time as we climbed commando style over the fence and I confess I don&#39;t remember feeling concerned about this. Curiosity had got the better of us.&quot;

 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

I remember the very first time I &#39;twagged off&#39; school (our local term for escaping the institution for the day) and it did me no good at all - I got bit by a horse. I won&#39;t bore you with the details but suffice to say that coming home with a badly torn shirt and blood pouring down your shoulder is a bit of a giveaway that you haven&#39;t been sat in a maths lesson all afternoon.

But that is probably not the worst thing I remember from those days.

As a small crowd of early teens my friends and I once travelled from the big city (population 275,000) to a village on the outskirts called Sutton for a bit of late night exploration. Things proved pretty uneventful until one of us noticed something a little odd in one of the house gardens. We gathered around the boundary fence trying to make out what it was but it was partly hidden so we did the obvious - we all climbed over the fence to get a better view.

It was dark at the time as we climbed commando style over the fence and I confess I don&#39;t remember feeling concerned about this. Curiosity had got the better of us. We gathered around &#39;the thing&#39; in a bit of disbelief as none of us had the slightest idea what it was. I do remember, however, someone muttering. &quot;Look at the size of that orange!&quot; It wasn&#39;t an orange though - it was a pumpkin (as I learned many years later) and it was huge! Someone, I can&#39;t remember who, suggested we should take it home. That was obvious too!

It took some time to dislodge it and it was a lot heavier that we&#39;d expected so getting it over the fence proved tricky. We pushed and pulled, some from under the &#39;big orange&#39; and others from on top of the fence, and we were clearly making a lot of noise as suddenly a door of the house opened, light poured out and a voice shouted out &quot;Oi!&quot;

By this point we had managed to get it on top of the fence but in shock we dropped it and it hit the pavement with one hell of a thump and broke apart. Quite what the immediate consequences of this we didn&#39;t know as we all took to our heals and ran off but in the following days &#39;the great pumpkin raid&#39; even made it into the local press. We laid low and were never questioned about the incident but it did crop up in conversions occasionally amongst those in the know from time to time.

This was me being an obnoxious teenager which, if we are honest, is a stage all of us went through. We did not do this as an act of wanton damage but simply out of an overexerted sense of curiosity; yet I confess that I doubt that the person who had spent months maturing that &#39;big orange&#39; will have agreed. I do wonder, though, what stories he might have had about his own teenager years.  

 

Marc

---- 

&#x200B;attached photo - from an exhibition at the Sustainability Education Centre in Hobart TAS (August 2017)
]]></content>
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<pubDate>14 Aug 2017 04:02:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-wear-and-tear-of-everyday-life_111s53</link>
<title><![CDATA[The wear and tear of everyday life ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

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.

&#x200B;&quot;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.&quot;
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

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, an unexpected example of &#39;Forensic Playwork&#39; - the act of reading and interpreting the physical signs that playing leaves behind - popped up.

We visited a prison museum in country Victoria which was first built in the 1860s as a general prison but was quickly redesignated as a prison for the criminally insane - a role it continued to hold until as recently as the late 1980s.

To say it is a grim building would be a slight understatement and it has changed little from its original days. It is cold, dark and harsh and still bears some of the physical signs of its long history. For example, there are numerous pieces of graffiti scratched into the stone walls and buildings by long gone inmates, as well as the more general physical signs of extended use on everyday features. There obvious wear and tear marks on the most used parts of things like metal handrails and the heavily worn away steps on stone stairs.

Outside, in the prison yard the guide on our tour pointed out one particular small patch of tall, dark stone prison walls. This, he explained, was the only part of the exercise yard to receive sunlight throughout the whole day, so not surprisingly it proved to be a popular spot for generations of inmates to gather to escape the chills of winter days. They called it &lsquo;The Leaning Wall.&rsquo;

This is where it happened

While our guide was busy explaining all this a girl in our party of about eight or nine years-old suddenly exclaimed, &quot;Ooo look - the stone is all shiny here&quot;.

From about shoulder height on me down to hip height there were distinct patches of stonework on this part of wall which from a certain angle were clearly shiny in a stark contrast to the rest of the wall. These patches were also smooth to the touch.

It is easy to imagine more than a hundred years&rsquo; worth of inmates shoulders and backs creating these distinctive markings in this place and it reminded me greatly of not just the more recent signs of playing that Forensic Playwork can reveal but also the more historical aspects of play in the past.

Without any irony at all (prison yard vs schoolyard) it made me think of those places on primary school playgrounds that are used in chase games where peple caught are &#39;locked up&#39; in a jail/prison/cells. With a little practice the technique of Forensic Playwork enables us to read the very distinct signs of wear and tear that this form playing leaves behind on physical features. 

I sometimes have an internal debate with myself about whether the act of reading such signs in a play context is a science or an art; but either way the wear and tear of everyday life leaves behind subtle clues to the actions of people that are no longer present,  whether that everyday life is playing or being institutionalised, yesterday, last year or a decade ago.

What I also found deeply interesting in this example, of course, was that it took a nine-year-old to spot this and point it out.

Marc

----

Attached photo: &lsquo;The Dungeon&rsquo; used by children at an East Yorkshire primary school as their &lsquo;jail&rsquo; during chase games. 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>28 Jul 2017 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/scary-headlines_111s52</link>
<title><![CDATA[Scary Headlines]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

500 words about scary news headlines, ignorance about the reality of children at the play, and the right and wrong questions to be asking.

&ldquo;Shocking&rdquo; and &ldquo;unbelievable&rdquo; 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 &lsquo;chicken&rsquo; in the road.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&lsquo;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

We all love a good, scary headline, don&rsquo;t we?

&ldquo;Shocking&rdquo; and &ldquo;unbelievable&rdquo; 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 &lsquo;chicken&rsquo; in the road.

On the surface, this story appears to be about a dangerous behaviour carried out by some unthinking children and yet the incredulous comments being made in the article, and others on the same story, are clearly from people who have no idea of the reality of playing because this form of play is well known and points to a need and not a deviation.

In a Playwork context we would describe this as an example of Deep Play &ndash; playing in a way in which children know it is placing them in some form of tangible danger. It is as old as the hills, which if nothing else is an indication that it serves some purpose.

Even very young children engage in Deep Play as they climb higher, jump further, spin faster, pushing themselves and their bodies to the limit. Trouble is, at that age such play is often subtle and so easily overlooked but with slightly older children it becomes more obvious as they jump from bridges into rivers and canals, scale heights that could make your head spin and, yes, play &lsquo;chicken&rsquo; on roads and railway lines. We even continue this as adults as can be seen in the popularity of roller coasters and strapping yourself in to some device connected to the world only by a big bit of elastic band. But that&rsquo;s &lsquo;fun&rsquo; eh!

This form of play is happening for a reason and it is the reason that needs addressing not the act itself. So, comments such as &ldquo;children are risking their own safety&quot; and, &quot;parents should know where they are and what they are doing&quot; are simply wrong headed, both of which apear in this aricle.

The real comments should be in the form of questions along the lines of, &lsquo;You police officers and local councillors - how often did you play &#39;chicken&#39; as children and can you remember why you did it?&rsquo; and, 

&lsquo;What access have these children to effective play space close to their own homes &ndash; and no I don&rsquo;t mean a football pitch or a public playground made of unrelated metal stuff surrounded by a fence.&rsquo;

And then let&#39;s also ask about the decimation of the Playwork sector in the north of England in general and in the Tyne area in particular. Let talk about the mass closure of neighbourhood junk adventure playgrounds where children have been able to satisfy the need for this essential form of play for decades, now made impossible in many areas because such provision becomes a victim of austerity. These are the real issues here, not screamy, scary, blaming headlines.

But no! Let&#39;s blame the children themselves for unsafe behaviour and shame their parents for not knowing where they are or what they are doing and ignore the ignorance of those that actually have the power to do something about it: that would be those councillors and police officers who are the ones actually doing the complaining.

Fix it.

 

Marc

----

See the BBC News Online version of the story here [7/7/2017] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-40491760
]]></content>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/scary-headlines_111s52</guid>
<pubDate>07 Jul 2017 05:18:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/knives-forks-and-strange-childhood-family-rituals_111s51</link>
<title><![CDATA[Knives, Forks and Strange Childhood Family Rituals]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

&#x200B;500 words about childhood family rituals and oddities and the importance they place in making us &#39;family&#39;.

What family rituals can you remember? What little oddities do you still have in your family?
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

When I was a child we had a number of very specific family rituals that had been there for as long as I can remember. These odd foibles were either top-secret and limited only to those in the know or they were so innocuous that those outside the family might not even spot them. The most significant of these was possibly the one involving knives and forks.

At mealtimes, whether taken at the table or on trays in the living room, each of us, mam, dad and me, had a completely different knife and fork unique to us. Dads was a proper old-fashioned &lsquo;Sheffield&rsquo; steel and bone handled knife and fork that was probably getting on a bit. Mams, on the other hand, was a much smaller stainless-steel combo with an intertwined flower pattern on the handles. Mine, also stainless-steel, were plain and shiny.

We even had &lsquo;guest&rsquo; knives and forks on the occasions anyone else turned up for tea but they were part of an all identical set of cutlery; and if ever anyone not familiar with this little quirk set out the table for a meal and got the cutlery layout wrong one of us was bound to quickly jump up and correct it before eating began.

I know, and knew at the time, that other families had their own little foibles and funny way of doing things too and I think as a child I accepted these very personal differences at face value but also with a recognition that it was something that bound different families together and gave them their shared identities. I see now a great deal of importance in the continuity that these kind of childhood rituals provide and I marvel at the fact that for us they continued so long. Even when my parents were in their late-seventies this ritual was repeated whenever I was &lsquo;home&rsquo; for dinner.

I often wonder if this is why I feel very uneasy about the standardisation of life outside the family group. Just the other day, for example, I remarked how in yet another shopping mall in some small town on my travels all the shops and food stores were of well-known and familiar brands. Perhaps the uniqueness of family rituals is an antidote to that, both then and now.

I have no idea what happened to Mam and Dads knife and fork set after I cleared their house out some years ago but I know exactly where mine are. I don&rsquo;t eat with them anymore because the neck of my old fork is so thin that the head may snap off any day but they both have a pride of place on one of my bookshelves and every time I spy them it brings a smile to my face.

 

Marc

----

WHAT DO YOU THINK &ndash; What were your family rituals as a child? Have any of those continued into adult life or with your own family? How did these make you feel at the time? What rituals do you still have now?

----
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/knives-forks-and-strange-childhood-family-rituals_111s51</guid>
<pubDate>29 Jun 2017 03:16:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/a-history-of-play-in-photos_111s50</link>
<title><![CDATA[A History of Play in Photos ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

500 words about the differences and similarities that can be found in thirty-years worth of photographs of children at play.

Do you have photos of you playing as a child? Can you see any differences/consistencies?
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

I&#39;ve been sifting through a lot of my own photos recently in preparation for indexing them and putting them &#39;in the cloud&#39;. This is no mean feat as I have a lot because of being very, very old. The collection of these photos of children at play date from the early 1980s and go right up to the present day (almost exactly).

While browsing through them there are obvious differences through the decades and the quality of images gradually gets much better as camera technology improves so detail becomes clearer; but the main differences are the usual historical ones: clothes, hairstyles, featured toys, etc. You would think that such a relatively long-term collection like this would show significant changes in the detail of children&#39;s play too and in some respects it does, yet there are far more consistencies than differences.

One image, taken in the playground of a small rural primary school and dated 1986, shows two boys laying down on the playground over lunchtime playing a game of &#39;battleships&#39; on a rudimentary electronic gaming machine. A big difference to the Hi-Tec electronic devices of today but a dated sign that something &#39;new&#39; has arrived on the playscene. It is the earliest photograph I have showing such an electronic device being played with in this way and yet I don&rsquo;t recall any popular or media panic over this at the time.

Despite that there are many more consistencies in the collection. For example, there are dozens of photos of children playing with hoops, ropes, stilts, beanbags and balls both in the 1980s, 90&rsquo;s, the naughties, and more recently. Quite how they are being played with is very similar too. This is despite the feeling that some people may have that such playthings will have lost children&#39;s interest and been superseded by the electronic.

In a historical sense, there exist images of children playing with balls in paintings dating back centuries and stretching back even further on the design of ceramic pots and plates. Yet a ball, is a ball, is ball and if the nature of the thing has not significantly altered then the likelihood is that it will be used in the same way through time, as it appears it has.  

Possibly the most recurring images in the collection, though, are of children playing with yet another recurring plaything &ndash; natural materials, such as grasses, flowers, sticks and stones, etc. And the reason for that is likely to be the same as for the ball above.

For example, I&#39;m looking at an image taken just this year in a New South Wales primary school of a child playing with a stone and in a way that is near-identical to a another photo I took in a UK school in the early 2000s, and yet a third from the mid-1980s showing much the same thing. Stones have not altered. Children have, yet the fundamental nature of what makes play &lsquo;play&rsquo; has not. That is the most significant finding from these photos and other, much older collections.

Everything has a history and assumption is the great deceiver but the camera never lies.

 

Marc

----

QUESTION &ndash; How far back do your photos of children at play go? Do you have photos of you playing as a child? Can you see any differences/consistencies?

----

This expanded and revised version was first published on www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play 17/12/2016
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/a-history-of-play-in-photos_111s50</guid>
<pubDate>16 Jun 2017 00:53:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/eclectic-bookshelves_111s49</link>
<title><![CDATA[Eclectic Bookshelves]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

500 words about the importance in having an eclectic collection of books for the serious researcher on play and playing.

How eclectic are you bookshelves? Where have your unexpected influences come from?
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

It&#39;s a sunny Saturday but so far I haven&#39;t stepped foot outside yet. I&#39;m still deep in cataloguing the collection of work books of which there are quite a lot and there has been a lot of book buying of late. New shelf space has had to be set up and a reorganisation is called for. As always, I&#39;m struck by how eclectic this thing called play is.

I have in front of me just the letter &#39;T&#39;s and among them are books on the sociological history of childhood, the importance of incorporating risk in to the design of playspaces, teenagers use of the public realm, and one on game design. A mix indeed and yet all about &lsquo;play&rsquo;.

It&#39;s taking me forever to finish this task because as I pick up book up to add to the index I find myself forced to leaf through it which leads to far too many being set aside with a &#39;I&#39;ll read more of that one later&#39;. It&#39;s seriously messing up the alphabetical order on the shelf and taking up far more time than I&#39;ve got available!

Even more amusing is reading some of the notes I&rsquo;ve made in pencil in the margins or on enclosed pieces of paper that fall out of books as I move them. The single words, &lsquo;Yes!&rsquo; and &lsquo;No!&rsquo; appear to be quite a theme whilst other comments are almost essay length. But as I have had many of these books for a long while I can also see evidence of my own developing understanding on the subject in these scribblings and that degree of reflection is proving very useful.

Quite where our ideas come from can be a bit of a fuzzy memory sometimes, largely because they are often from an amalgam of sources that only make sense when put together. At other times, it may be more straightforward coming either from a particular speaker or something specific in a given book. The point is, the more eclectic is your reading then the more eclectic is your thinking and those multi-directional influences create odd, unexpected connections that open-up possibilities that otherwise might not have been found.

There is one other very pleasant thing that has become apparent while I&#39;ve been doing this too: there are significantly more books available now with the word Playwork in the title than just ten years again. That, is a very good thing and it makes me very proud to see the names of many of my Playwork friends and colleagues represented on these shelves joining this eclectic bunch of writings.

 

Marc

----

QUESTION &ndash; How does this compare to your bookshelves? How eclectic are they? What have been your greatest written influences? What was your most unexpected read?

----

This expanded and revised short-read was first published on www.facebook.com/marc.armitage.at.play 10/12/2016 
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/eclectic-bookshelves_111s49</guid>
<pubDate>04 Jun 2017 01:52:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-loss-of-playfulness_111s48</link>
<title><![CDATA[The loss of Playfulness]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;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?&quot;

----

a \&#39;l&#x252;&#x14B;- r&#x113;d&#39;\ 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 &#39;playfulness&#39; and touches on the importance  of being able to conquer self-consciousness when working around the playing child.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[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?

A tribute to Bernie DeKoven

The very first major training day I attended as a new playworker in my home city of Hull in Yorkshire was a New Games training day with Howard, the face of New Games UK. This was the British arm of a world-wide organisation, the New Games Foundation. It&rsquo;s fair to say that it came as a bit of a culture shock.

Howard was a bouncy, loud, colourful mass of hair, beard and enthusiasm for his craft. New Games, sometimes called cooperative games, are about a very particular way of playing that is centred on the relationship between the game and the people playing it. His two-day New Games training session included not just playing lots and lots of games but also explained the philosophies and practice of New Games, the way they were put together, the flexible nature of change that was inherently built into the games, the idea of the &lsquo;play community&rsquo;, and more. These and other ideas, to be quite honest, were mind-blowing.

It had been only a few weeks before that I had found myself in a noisy portakabin surrounded by polyester shirt wearing engineers in their forties contemplating whether or not I wanted to turn into one of them in twenty years&rsquo; time. I decided not. So I walked out of what was meant to be the start of a long-term career into the uncertainty of Thatcher&rsquo;s unemployment queues.

An accidental Playworker

This first playwork job of mine was part of a one-year government funded training scheme with a local organisation I had never heard of before called the Hull Community Playschemes Association. It was completely by accident. I simply had no idea what the job was except that it was &lsquo;something about kids&rsquo; but I took it and after a short time I began to seriously question if I had made the right choice. The New Games training day was the first time I actually started to open up to the possibilities in this job.



Photo: My two battered, well-thumbed copies of the New Games &#39;bibles&#39;, original duck-caller (essential equipment for the player/referee) and my also original hand-typed games aide memoire dated 1992 (always in the back pocket, just in case of the imptomptu games session)

What surprised me more than anything else during the day was the apparently unseen effect it was having on the people taking part. Howard had explained that part of the aims of the day was to show some of the techniques of New Games as well as the actual playing: concepts such as creating the play community, game flow, game energy, game change &ndash; these were concepts and practices that went on to be the taxonomy of my every working day. Everyone there was completely enveloped in what was happening to them, totally engrossed and involved in the group and what they were doing &hellip; except me that is.

When listening to music I&rsquo;ve always had a habit of listening through the rhythm to get to the pulse and the beat, concentrating on the back-end of the music. With theatre and film, I&rsquo;m often looking at the wings and backstage instead of the action. I like how things work and even more I like how things are made to work, subtly, in the background, invisibly. So, I found myself being fascinated in what Howard was doing when no one was really looking. It was like watching a magician made all the more fascinating because the rest of the room was apparently oblivious to the subtle hand that was shaping the day. I was hooked.

A travelling New Games player/referee

The fascination of that day led to a long period of devouring everything I could learn about games and playfulness from the origin and history of New Games, the key originating names in the movement, the developers, the shapers. That led further to an interest in studying other forms of games ancient and modern adding a historical element to gaming and playfulness through the ages and in multiple cultures.  I explored how people had used games, in what circumstances, what their effect had been and eventually this led to a period of about eight years of freelance, bicycle travelling games work around the UK and further afield providing a mixture of New Games sessions with children and adults, workshops on traditional games and toys, and training people in the techniques and practice of running their own games sessions. In effect, I became a Howard and in that eight-year period there was hardly a day went by without playing.



Photo: Me as a travelling New Games player around 1988 - and leave it! Those shorts were the fashion of the day.

For me, game playing became as much of an intellectual exercise as a practical one. For example, there has been, and still is, a long running debate on what constitutes &lsquo;play&rsquo; and &lsquo;game&rsquo;: are they the same thing, do both perform the same function, is one a natural element of life and the other more contrived, is it a child only thing or does it involve adults too? These are questions that have been a deep topic for philosophers, folklorists, anthropologists and sociologists from Plato to Roger Callois via Johan Huizinga, Alice Gomme, Iona and Peter Opie, and others.  To this list of notable names, we should add Bernie DeKoven.

Bernie DeKoven was one of those at the heart of creating what became The New Games Foundation, established first in the United States in the early 1970s and then spreading around the world. He was an instigator in what ultimately led me to that hot day in a school hall with Howard years after. What Bernie and others such as Stewart Brand, George Leonard and Andrew Flugleman managed to do was take that potentially dry, academic discussion about games and playfulness and make it playful!

These people became my heroes and, although they might not realise it, their philosophy behind playfulness influenced many playworkers of my generation and ultimately became one of the building bricks in creating the attitude behind playwork as the professional movement it was at that point in time.

Playfulness

I became a playworker by accident but I have remained a playworker by deliberate choice. It did not take long for me to realise that what I signed up to was not actually &lsquo;a job&rsquo; &ndash; it was more of a lifestyle taking place within a very playful community of like-minded people. In part that might be just the nature of the job (providing opportunities for other people to play) but I suspect there is more to it than that. It is noticeable that those who seem to take playing seriously are themselves playful people; and that those of us who have been able to remain in this type of work for so long could credit being surrounded by this sense of playfulness as being an important part of our own personal journey. A journey that has made us the people we are today, personally and professionally.

I distinctly remember that work meetings and training days amongst our playwork staff were a joy rather than another day on the time sheet &ndash; they were fun, they were chilled, they were playful. Even after work hours the playing didn&rsquo;t stop, and at conferences and gatherings and the pub after work this playful spirit thread its way through continuous game playing and silliness fitted seamlessly in between serious discussion and study.



Photo: sharing a coffee with Bernie in his local cafe in 2016 - I rank him as one the greatest influences on my working practice and a true hero-figure, which is something I don&#39;t say lightly!

If this is something you find difficult to appreciate through the written word, try this and you will get it: just go and watch any group of children and young people in their own company and watch the sense of playfulness breakout &ndash; constantly &ndash; including during times when it may not be totally appropriate. That easy community amongst friends and strangers that just seems to appear out of nowhere, that&rsquo;s playfulness. Children seem to have it naturally and they find it difficult to switch it off. It creates laughter and smiles, true, but that&rsquo;s just on the surface &ndash; below that, deep down below it is producing a timeless sense that everything is well with the world, that anything is possible and that friendships last forever.

It is we adults that seem to struggle with this concept possibly because as we grow older we become more conscious of ourselves, those around us and how others perceive our actions. We become more self-aware, easily embarrassed. In this context, to be playful seems to be about being able to recognise the innate, often unconscious desire to play, and consciously, actively giving in to it. Some people find this easier than others; many require a skilful individual to draw it out of us and relax the chains of self-awareness.

The most playful person I know

Yet can you imagine what the world might be like if we could maintain the natural curiosity and playfulness of our child-self through into our adult life and on to the end of our days? As a society of adults when we lose this sense of playfulness in everyday life, seriousness takes over. This is not a good thing and if we look closely we can see the effect of this lack of playfulness in our lives and it is not a positive effect. But it can be done. Bernie DeKoven has done it.

He was and still is the most playful person I know and his life has been full of being that skilled individual that allows playfulness in others to take-off. What made him a hero to a young playworker more years ago than he cares to remember and what keeps him being a hero to this day has been his ability to maintain this playful-self in everyday life. Can you imagine what the world might be like if our world leaders and the decision makers, the lawmakers and the doers succeeded in doing what Bernie has done? To maintain that inner playfulness, to work on it, build on it and more importantly encourage it in others to contribute to a broader playful society.

Imagine what that might be like - a world of genuine playfulness.

Just imagine.

 

Marc Armitage

November 2015

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK - How do you feel about your level of playfulness? Is it something you had but have now lost? If you still have it, how does it manifest itself?

 

NOTES:

Bernie will be presenting a keynote address at the Second National Play and Playwork Conference in Melbourne, Australia on 24/25th March 2017. For more information about Bernie see his website www.deepfun.com

UPDATE 

Since writing this piece, Bernie has left our world and gone on to take his playfulness elsewhere. He didnt make it to keynote our playwork conference in Australia as he was too ill to travel, and personally I didn&#39;t realise that that day sharing coffee with him would be the last time I would see him in person.

Vale Bernie DeKoven (15 October 1941-24 March 2018)

 
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-loss-of-playfulness_111s48</guid>
<pubDate>28 Jan 2017 16:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/i-made-a-three-year-old-laugh-today_111s47</link>
<title><![CDATA[I made a three-year old laugh today]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[a \&#39;sho&#x307;rt-r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

1,000 words on describing a chance encounter that resulted in a genuine, deep-down, fighting for breath belly-laugh.

What uncontrived moments have you shared with children and young people? Where were they? What were the circumstances?
 
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[A genuine, deep-down, fighting for breath belly-laugh.

I made a three-year old laugh today. I was out for my afternoon constitutional close to where I live (that&rsquo;s a &lsquo;walk&rsquo; to you) when I crossed paths with said three-year old and her grandmother. They were coming out from grandma&rsquo;s house and crossing the footpath to reach the pocket park opposite with the little girl, head down, concentrating on balancing on her scooter.

I have a habit of giving way to children especially when they are so busy that they cannot fully pay attention to what is happening around them so I veered around the youngster and grandma so as not to interfere with their route or the amount of concentration being shown. Unsurprisingly, grandma saw me so said,

&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s watch out for this man, shall we?&rdquo;

Three-year old looked up, eyes almost covered by helmet and tongue sticking out in effort, and said loudly,

&ldquo;Sorry!&rdquo;

Clearly the scooter trip to the park had been only one part of the day with grandma because her face had a fair covering of chocolate on it and without really thinking about it I answered her apology by saying,

&ldquo;That&rsquo;s ok, chocolate-face.&rdquo;

That&rsquo;s when it started. She let out such a belly-laugh that I thought she might wet herself. And it was no contrived, over the top laugh either &ndash; it was a genuine, deep-down, fighting for breath belly-laugh. We had just shared a natural, spontaneous moment of no real importance that no doubt in time will be forgotten. But for at least some time to come I could picture this three-year recounting the story among her three-year old friends with a, &ldquo;And then he said &hellip; &lsquo;That&rsquo;s ok chocolate face!&rsquo;&rdquo; and ending with a snort. It was an unpretentious, uncontrived and agendaless moment.

Photo: the scene of the &#39;chocolate incident&#39; - Darling Square, Melbourne Australia

The true test

One of the true tests of an individual working with children of all ages is in the nature of the interactions we have with them and that includes children who we do not usually work with. That may be with our own children and those of close relatives but the real test of our ability to relate comes from those interactions with children that we do not really know and who do not know us.

It is not difficult to see adults struggling with this. I remember being at a family occasion many years ago when one of my younger relatives pointed to someone and said, &ldquo;Who is that?&rdquo; I told him that it was a relative of ours from another branch of the family. &ldquo;Is she a teacher?&rdquo;, he asked. She was, and he could tell. We just seem to present this aura that children can sense and it can make them feel uneasy and guarded in their moments when we are present.

When children and teenagers are in an uncertain social situation or have people around them that they do not know very well their interactions with each other can appear artificial too; they will laugh hysterically and loud in a forced over the top-way on hearing something funny &ndash; we&rsquo;ve all heard it and sometimes we scoff at it. But spend some time watching the same children when they are in each other&rsquo;s company without the need to feel guarded and their laugh may still be loud but it becomes more subtle and real. It&rsquo;s the same with their conversations and sharing, turn taking, supporting, helping, and a whole host of other interpersonal actions and reactions within a group of peers. The less contrived the situation the more likely they are to be spontaneous and real.

Tricky and contrived

Working with children in many organised settings can appear tricky in this context: an institutional setting is in itself a contrived circumstance full of smaller contrived situations that we, as the adult,  are largely in control of;  our very work-role and job description may be encouraging us to act in this contrived, deliberate manner in our interactions because we have an agenda and the children around us know that. This tends to make us rather guarded too in our exchanges with them.

Yet the interaction between us and children need not be so contrived. If we appear to our children as simply one of a group of people that happen to be in a shared space at the same time, without an apparent agenda, whether it be kindergarten, school, adventure playground or just on the street opposite a public park, then there is more possibility that we will occasionally, when these uncontrived moments occur, just possibly be part of them. These occasional moments are not in themselves special &ndash; they are just natural and spontaneous which is of course the very thing that makes them &lsquo;special&rsquo;.  

I&rsquo;ve lost count of the number of times children in schools and other settings have accidentally called me &lsquo;dad&rsquo; (and in some cases &lsquo;mum&rsquo; too) yet the real indication of a successful relationship between child and adult comes not when they see us accidentally as a parent figure but when we simply become another person sharing a moment. This is not the same thing as trying to become &lsquo;a friend&rsquo; or even seeing ourselves as another child because not only is this impossible (as we are still an adult and no degree of relationship building will change that) but because such interaction itself can still be contrived.

When, however, we are seen as someone who is simply sharing a &lsquo;moment&rsquo;, then the relationship changes completely. What has actually happened is that for a brief moment the aura surrounding us has disappeared and it has allowed everyone involved &ndash; everyone &ndash; to let that slip that uneasy guard.

 

Marc Armitage

28/12/2016

What uncontrived moments have you shared with children and young people? Where were they? What were the circumstances?

 
]]></content>
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<pubDate>26 Dec 2016 15:04:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/all-children-are-philosophers-because-all-children-play_111s45</link>
<title><![CDATA[All children are philosophers because all children play &nbsp;]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Anyone who says children do not think critically has never watched a two-year-old pick up some new object for the first time and stare at it.&quot;

----

a \&lsquo;l&#x252;&#x14B;- r&#x113;d&rsquo;\ piece

A 2,100 word piece that asks if you have any books on philosophy on your shelves becasue there is a real, and ancient, link between play and the thinking science. Critical Thinking gets a mention as does Monty Python and famous internet meme.

A PDF version of this essay is available for download in the text.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Anyone who says children do not think critically has never watched a two-year-old pick up some new object for the first time and stare at it

Have you seen this quotation which is credited to a famous philosopher at all recently on any one of a dozen memes flying around the internet? &ldquo;You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.&rdquo; You have, haven&rsquo;t you? Do you know who said it?

The quote seems to imply that playing somehow speeds up the process of understanding or at the least has a central role in the development of it, which makes sense. So, let&rsquo;s explore this idea and the link with children, their play and philosophy. At the same time we will also highlight a bit of a problem with the above quotation.

You may not think of philosophy as a hot bed of play research but at some a point in history pretty much all &lsquo;research&rsquo; was philosophical and only philosophical. In addition, much of the oldest surviving written material we have about play comes from the writings of the classical philosophers of around 2,500 years ago. They noticed that all children ran, jumped, skipped, climbed, etc; and they noticed that in a social context there were common themes running through children&rsquo;s play. They saw these as patterns and patterns have to be explained and they so applied the greatest philosophical question of them all to the issue of play: why.



Photo: did you guess it right?

The above quotation is credited to one of these classic philosopher: Plato (428-348 BC) &ndash; did you guess right? He is probably one of the three great ancient philosophical names that most people recognise even without a formal training in philosophy (along with Socrates and Aristotle) if only because Monty Python made them and the names of a number of other famous philosophers difficult to forget. He wrote, among other works, the great books Republic and Laws both seen at the time, and after, as instrumental guidance in organising the modern society of the day. As an aside, it&rsquo;s interesting to note that Plato also founded one of the earliest known organised schools, the Academy, just outside of Athens in Greece. 

In fact, philosophers before and after Plato have had a lot to say about the topic of play and this has produced some very interesting ideas including exploring the role of daydreaming, the link between play and ethics and the development of culture, among others. More recently, philosophy has again become closely associated with play and even with Playwork. The Playwork Team at the University of Gloucestershire has now held three international conferences on the theme of the Philosophy of Play (with a fourth imminent) and have published a book of proceedings from the first. And a fine read it is.

The modern-day philosopher and ethicist John Wall was a keynote speaker of the first of these conferences in 2011 and for me (as I was there) the most intriguing point I took from his keynote was the idea that &lsquo;play&rsquo; is something that is all around us all the time but which only becomes &lsquo;real&rsquo; when we engage with it. A deeply philosophical idea and one which makes perfect sense in a Playwork perspective.  

Photo: Plato, Socrates and Aristotle

Critical Thinking

But perhaps the most significant connection between philosophy and children&rsquo;s play comes in the phrase &lsquo;critical thinking&rsquo;. This is a relatively recent phrase, which we are all likely to recognise even though we may not realise the connection, but it has its roots in classic philosophy. The ability to think critically is central to the development of concepts and thus to understanding. When children are playing this thinking process is at the centre of what they do and this is what makes all children philosophers.

All understanding relates to concepts as a starting point: things happen to us; we happen to things and so patterns develop which encourage us to consider them and draw conclusions. We can consider these to be &lsquo;knowns&rsquo; from which we extend our understanding. This may be as simple as the discovery that if I let go of an object it falls to the ground. Which becomes all objects that are dropped fall to the ground. Which further becomes this object is fragile and if I let go of it, it will fall to the ground and break.

Then one day, I let go of something and rather than it falling to the ground, it floats away &ndash; upwards. Something new has happened, some &lsquo;unknown&rsquo; has broken the pattern, and my overall concept of letting go/dropping down/possibly breaking has to be revised.

A deliberate act

To &lsquo;think critically&rsquo; simply means to consider objectively what has happened and draw conclusions. Yet this is not an accidental process &ndash; it has to be deliberate and when it is we can actually see it happening because what differentiates this from serendipitous discovery is simply a question of focus. Anyone who says children do not think critically has never watched a two-year-old pick up some new object for the first time and stare at it. That stare, that focus, is critical thinking.

Serendipitous discovery and the development of understanding are obviously related (how did we come about the object in focus in the first place, for example) which also suggests that any effective play space for children of all ages must contain both knowns and unknowns to which they can apply and revise their current understanding about the world of which they are part.

But it would be wrong to think that such understanding is only about physical objects and the material properties of the world. Children apply the same critical thinking to understanding personal and social issues too and as a result can often tackle complex social situations which tax even many adults.  

For example, some years ago a fellow researcher called me from a primary school while conducting some field research on friendship groups. She had called about a specific topic she had not encountered before and asked, &lsquo;Do you think it&rsquo;s possible for an eight-year child to be gay and not know even though all her friends seem to know?&rsquo;

This was a genuine question and it had come from comments made by children informally on the playground and in more formal interviews that she was conducting. Conceptually, for children the idea seems fairly straight forward that you are either a girl or a boy. It becomes a known but what if one day, something unknown happens?

Photo: the University of Gloucestershire have taken the link between philosophy and play and Playwork to a new places recently

The &#39;girl-boy&#39;

The idea of the &lsquo;girl-boy&rsquo; is something that I had come across before in fieldwork with children. This is not the same thing as the stereotypical idea of the &lsquo;tom-boy&rsquo;, i.e. a girl who prefers what might be perceived as more male orientated traits. This is something else.

I&rsquo;ll have to paraphrase here but the first time this idea was mentioned in my own school fieldwork it came completely out of the blue in an interview group discussing what people played during lunchtime at their school. The discussion, which was with an all-boy group of nine-year old&rsquo;s, had turned to the question of whether girls played different things to boys.

A specific girls name was mentioned at this point and the group agreed that she played boys games rather than girls games. I asked if other girls joined in with boys play too. The reply was, &lsquo;yes, but she isn&rsquo;t really a girl&rsquo;. These boys could not exactly pin down what they meant by this but they were adamant that they were not saying that she was a girl who liked playing boyish games but rather she was actually a boy.

I&rsquo;m not saying that this girl was gay or even that it was any display of masculinity that indicated that she even might be. But what I am saying is that these children literally considered her to be a boy. As a concept this may or may not have had anything to do with her sexuality but has everything to do with the concept of her identity as an individual within a peer group. An identity that she herself considered accurate.

A box of knowns

This was a question they had considered, in depth and critically and it may well be that for most if not all of them this was a new situation &ndash; an unknown &ndash; but they had the understanding of peer relationships with other boys in their box of knowns. They considered the issue, made what they felt was an objective judgement and concluded that they understood it. It therefore became a new known and they subsequently applied that understanding to their ongoing relationship with her as a member of their peer group.

This application of critical thinking became an essential element in them understanding the social world of which they were a part though interestingly the adult researcher &ndash; who was not a part of that peer group and therefore had not taken part in this critical thinking &ndash; struggled with understanding this concept at first. In other words, she had not previously been in a position to cause her to consider her current understanding on this one and possibly revise it.

This is an issue that has occurred more than once in fieldwork of mine and has involved identity concepts with boys and with girls and in each case children have dealt with this element of their social-world in exactly the same way as they have done with their physical-world: by thinking about it critically and revising their understanding to suit. If I drop something it will fall &ndash; sometimes. Girls do girls things and boys do boy things &ndash; sometimes.

Photo: to know more about play learn more about philosophy

Complacency

Complacency is the enemy of critical thinking and in practice that means that the more we take on face-value the more fixed and unmoving our concept base may become and revising our understanding becomes suppressed. Critical thinking is a process that requires active consideration (focus) and depth (time to focus) and as we become adults and our store of knowns becomes greater there is a temptation to forget this, to take more at face-value and thus make greater assumptions.

Here is a very simplistic but telling example.

That Plato quotation that we all know and love, the one above about, &lsquo;You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.&rsquo; This Plato guy seems to have had a very positive view of the role of play, no? But are you taking this meme on face value without applying any critical thinking to this idea?

Why do I ask? Well, because Plato did not say the above &ndash; it&rsquo;s a paraphrase of something said by Richard Lindgard in a book first published in 1907, which is a little after Plato&#39;s time yet it is still accredited to him despite not being found in any of his writing. He did have a lot to say about play and this has undoubtedly contributed to our understanding of the topic yet ultimately much of what he had to say about it was negative. He believed that play gave children ideas and that those ideas might threaten the status quo in society. Thus, play was something that needed controlling.

Plato was most definitely not a friend of children&rsquo;s play. Does this knowledge change your understanding of Plato&rsquo;s consideration of play? Would it encourage you to learn more, to think critically about words credited to him?

By taking a meme such as the above and blindly accepting it as fact we are not acting as individuals who apply critical thinking to our exploration and discovery. We are taking things at face-value. This might be seen as a negative trap for our children to fall in to yet we seem to easily fall into the trap of doing so as adults.

Homework

So here is your homework: if Plato did not say the above about play what did he say about it? What was his attitude? How did that manifest in his writing? Go and find out, apply some critical thinking on this one and by doing so you will be linking the worlds of play and philosophy together.

Oh, and by the way: just don&rsquo;t get me started on that George Bernard Shaw quote about growing old &hellip; because that&rsquo;s one is not real either.

Marc Armitage

 

What do you think about the role of critical thinking in play? What philosophy have you read? Do you have any philosophy books on your bookshelves?

This essay is available for download as a PDF document [here]
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<pubDate>03 Dec 2016 02:57:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/play-is-a-child39s-work-or-is-it_111s44</link>
<title><![CDATA[Play is a Child&#39;s Work - or is it]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I can see the reasoning behind saying play is the child&rsquo;s equivalent of work &hellip; but it isn&rsquo;t, and saying it is doesn&rsquo;t help.&quot;

----

a \&#39;l&#x252;&#x14B;- r&#x113;d&#39;\ piece

An 1,800 word piece that points out that those who don&#39;t know their history are doomed to make the mistakes of the past. So, this piece links the topics of play and history together and traces a line of thought through some significant names.

A PDF version of this essay is available in the text.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[I can see the reasoning behind saying play is the child&rsquo;s equivalent of work &hellip; but it isn&rsquo;t, and saying it is doesn&rsquo;t help

Have you ever heard the saying, &lsquo;Play is a child&rsquo;s work&rsquo;?

It is a very well-known, well-intended saying that is often cited as a quotation in writings about children&rsquo;s play. But what does it actually mean, where did it come from and does it help?

As a concept it seems to make sense at first glance because adults, generally speaking, take the consequences of their work and their profession seriously and although they might also take their recreation and leisure pursuits seriously as well, work and leisure are somehow different &ndash; especially in the eyes of other people. If, therefore, we want to persuade &lsquo;other&rsquo; people to take children&rsquo;s play seriously then the idea is that maybe we should equate work and the play of children together. That&rsquo;s how most people seem to understand the phrase.

But I think it misses the point

The concept is often credited as being a relatively modern idea that has come from a desire to elevate the importance of play as learning and thus as being something valid in kindergartens and school classrooms.

Many people also believe that the idea can be credited to a specific individual but pinning down quite who that person might be may be more challenging than expected. But let&rsquo;s try.

I&rsquo;ve seen it written that the originator is the American educator and TV host Fred Rogers (1928-2003) who said in his book You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor, &ldquo;Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.&rdquo; His name on this quotation seems to rule the internet.

It&rsquo;s a brave person that challenges ideas relating to the great Mister Rogers but it appears that he was repeating an already established concept rather than originating it, and yet we find the above quotation as evidence that he is the originator of this idea in many books and webpages.

In recent decades a number of other relatively modern writers have been credited with this quote too but if we push back a little further in time the idea is still there. If we give it, say, 100 years or so we find the German neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) credited with the concept which some people feel is linked with his idea that human life is made up of an interweaved combination of work, love and play.



photo: time to play spot the theorist

There are yet others who quote Jean Piaget (1896-1980) the massively influential Swiss child psychologist as the originator, which might seem to make more sense than Freud because of his very explicit link with education and children. &ldquo;Play is a child&rsquo;s work&rdquo; we see in meme&rsquo;s across the internet with Piaget&rsquo;s name alongside. But try and find the original quotation where he says that. Go on, try and find it.

Maybe it is not Piaget, then. Maybe he said it but not because he was personally originating this idea but instead was just quoting the Italian educator Maria Montessori (1870-1952). In fact, she is possibly the most often cited originator of the idea as, &ldquo;She felt that children would instinctively rather choose to acquire knowledge than to engage in senseless play. Thus, when given the opportunity to choose the activity, what can be seen as play to some because of the freedom involved, is actually considered work for the child to Montessori&rdquo; as it says on her entry on pgpedia.

Well, ok, maybe it&rsquo;s not her idea either but instead it originates, as yet others claim, with her contemporary, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) the Austrian educationalist and philosopher and creator of the Waldorf-Steiner system of schooling. Steiner schools often quote him saying, &ldquo;Play is the work of childhood. When children play they are experiencing the world with their entire being&hellip;&rdquo; Just have a look at some of their school websites.

Are we getting closer?

No we are not. Both Montessori and Steiner are still well-known and significant figures in the field of early education largely because their respective philosophies have survived intact and there are still schools around the world that bear their name and follow their basic system of schooling. Yet they were both following in the footsteps of another &ndash; Frederick Fr&ouml;bel (1792-1852) the acknowledged originator of the kindergarten concept. Not surprisingly he too is often credited with creating the concept of play-equals-work saying, &ldquo;The play of children is not recreation; it means earnest work.&rdquo;

Except he didn&rsquo;t originate the idea.

Surely it must have been Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) of whom Montessori, Steiner and Fr&ouml;bel were followers and advocates. Guess what? Not surprisingly Pestalozzi is sometimes named as the originator. His famous book (actually a collection of letters) How Gertrude Teaches her Children launched the career of many an early education pioneer around the whole world and so he seems to have as good a reputation as any to have coined a phrase that has survived through generations of playing children. And yet he very rarely mentions &lsquo;play&rsquo; specifically in his writing. Again, go and have a look at what he wrote.



photo: Rousseau ... everything comes back to Rousseau

It does not end there, though. We have to go further back still to Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) the Swiss-French philosopher (of whom I remember lecturers in my early university days saying, &lsquo;it all comes back to Rousseau in the end, you know, absolutely everything comes back to Rousseau&rsquo;).

In his book Emile, Rousseau says, &ldquo;Work and play are alike to him; his plays are his occupations, and he sees no difference between the two&rdquo;. Seems compelling evidence. Until we realise that Rousseau was heavily influenced by the English philosopher John Locke (1632&ndash;1704) and we have to look to him before we start to get anywhere near the source of this concept.

And there we hit a problem. Locke would not have agreed with the play-equals-work analogy. As a staunch advocate that &lsquo;liberty&rsquo; in all forms of life, including education and in children&rsquo;s play, is essential, Locke wrote specifically about work and play saying in his essay, Some thoughts on education,

&quot;Children should not have any thing like work, or serious, laid on them; neither their minds, nor bodies will bear it. It injures their healths; and their being forced and tied down to their books in an age at enmity with all such restraint, has, I doubt not, been the reason, why a great many have hated books and learning all their lives after. &rsquo;Tis like a surfeit, that leaves an aversion behind not to be removed.&quot;

The Work Ethic

Ah. The trail seems to have gone cold, at least in the naming of a single originator. Or maybe not. Because there is a single, named person who we really could accredit this idea to, albeit indirectly. And that is John Calvin (1509-1564) the originator of the branch of Christianity that bears his name.  

Locke and Rousseau faced the prevailing 17th century idea of the Protestant, or more accurately Calvinistic, work ethic of their day &ndash; the idea abounded that success is earned by hard work and that any diversion from that should be discouraged. Frivolity and idleness were the roots of damnation and were thus to be avoided at all costs; work, on the other hand, was the root of salvation into the next life. This is a central tenet of Calvinism. It means, basically, that play-equals-work is about saving souls.

Locke rejected this idea and perhaps not insignificantly also moved away from his early Calvinistic roots, though he was still heavily religious; Rousseau, despite also personally rejecting Calvinism, was clearly still influenced by some elements of it and so was attempting to justify an apparently negative and purposeless activity by giving it some positive purpose. It would appear that Calvinism is the start of a pattern, the effect of which can still be felt today.



photo: a pair john&#39;s - Calvin and Locke

As the modern-day play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith (1924-2015) points out in The Ambiguity of Play, &ldquo;&hellip; the puritan ethic of play has been the strongest and most long lasting of all the rhetorics of play in the past four hundred years.&rdquo; It survives to this day in the well-meaning idea that we justify children&rsquo;s frivolous play-life by equating it with adult&rsquo;s serious work-life. We see this as a positive thing but unfortunately what we are actually doing with this play-equals-work analogy is unconsciously promulgating the Calvinist idea that work is good and play is not.

Well ok, if we want to take this play-equals-work analogy seriously maybe we should go full blast at equating the two together: maybe we should take a lesson from the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen (1771-1858) who campaigned for a maximum working week for British workers in the early 19th century coining the slogan, &ldquo;Eight hours&#39; labour, Eight hours&#39; recreation, Eight hours&#39; rest&rdquo; and from whom we get our modern version of the working week and contracted working conditions.

Maybe, if we really see play as the work of children, we should look at it in the same way and protect it in the same way. Maybe we should guarantee a maximum time in which they should be playing &ndash; not as recreation but in addition to their recreation and rest &ndash; &lsquo;Eight hours&rsquo; playing, Eight hours&rsquo; recreation, Eight hours&rsquo; rest&rsquo;. Maybe we should enshrine that in a written contract and, dare I say it, even pay them a fair wage for it.

Perhaps adults would then begin to take time for playing seriously because a contract and pay really does equal work. To do anything less seems very unfair. And yet for many I suspect that this, the logical conclusion of the play-equals-work analogy, is a step too far.

It doesn&#39;t help

I can see the reasoning behind saying play is the child&rsquo;s equivalent of work &hellip; but it isn&rsquo;t, and saying it is doesn&rsquo;t help. It&rsquo;s a distraction. It is belittling play and giving in to the adult world idea that play is only of worth because it has product, an end-result. If we want to hold up a quotation that mentions the words &lsquo;play&rsquo; and &lsquo;work&rsquo; together I think we would be much better suited to choose one by the American writer, Mark Twain (1835-1910) who wrote in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, &ldquo;Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.&rdquo;

The very fact that children spend so much energy and time on a behavior that has no overt obligation to doing it is the very thing that makes it so important and the very reason that should be uppermost in our minds whilst we advocate for it.

Marc Armitage

What do you think about this play-equals-work analogy? Is it helpful? Why do you think this idea has pesisted so long?

This essay is available for download as a PDF document [here]
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<pubDate>26 Nov 2016 12:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Welcome to thoughtcrime]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Thoughtcrime on marc-armitage.com is now online.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[If we want to know more about play then we need to know about more than play

Welcome to the new thoughtcrime site at marc-armitage.com. This is not a blog page, so what is it? It&rsquo;s a place for writing, that&rsquo;s what. &lsquo;But isn&rsquo;t that the same as a blog page?&rsquo; I hear you ask, and the answer is, well, not really, no.

In a day of social media and electronic communications we have become used to a diet of short, pithy pieces that often skim a subject or which provide a soundbite of news and opinion. Although there might at times be short and observational pieces on here this is a place to read more substantial, referenced essays with a bite. The average length of an essay on here will be about 1,800 words which would take most people around 10 minutes to read.

But it is about more than reading: it is about reflection, engagement and sharing.

Play, playing and playwork.

One of the most significant things about this thing called play is that it is of interest to so many different groups of people, not the least of whom are children and young people. Play is a topic that has fascinated professionals and laypeople alike for centuries and literally millions of words and miles of audio and video tape have been allocated to it. Yet there is a problem.

As academics or practitioners we have a habit of trapping ourselves inside a bubble that limits our appreciation of play to the dominant perspective of our approach. Thoughtcrime is going to dare us to reach outside that bubble because to gain a real understanding of play requires a multi-disciplinary, multi-approach study. We quite simply have to read outside of our comfort-zone bubble and dip into pieces and authors who we might not ordinarily consider, or even know of, because if we want to know more about play then we need to know about more than play.

Expect to see pieces about the link between play, playing and playwork with sociology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, zoology, history, geography, liminality, economics, linguistics, neuroscience, forensics, politics, art, logic, engineering, psychology, physiology, folklore, pedagogy, freedom, community, evolution, policy, health, crime, design, music, media, ethics, affordance, technology, culture, myths, irony, forensics, aesthetics, power, anarchy and more.

Challenge

Our guide will be the books and the people that have influenced and continue to influence my own working life; your challenge is to join in, reflect, share and engage. We will start subtle and after some time will begin to introduce guest writers who will add their own perspective.

Please introduce others to this page, share it, talk about and engage with it. Ask questions, express your opinion. You can join by hitting the RSS feed on the top right of the Home Page that will alert you to new pieces by email and comments can be added at the bottom of each page. The archive tab includes a selected number of pieces from my old blog page and they too are open for comment and critique.

Strap yourselves in for the ride and enjoy. First published piece comes out tomorrow, Sunday 26th 2016 ... read it bed with a cup of hot chocolate.

 

Marc Armitage

26th November 2016

 

 

 

 
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<pubDate>20 Nov 2016 18:59:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Playing, obesity, well-meaning adults, a bit of history and a dose of reality ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;The approach that often well-meaning campaigns, such as the latest Irish &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s take on childhood obesity&rsquo; campaign, adopt in relation to children playing, often leaves me cold.&quot;

This piece describes how assumptions about children&#39;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.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Good advice is not always guaranteed to be listened to.

The approach that often well-meaning campaigns, such as the latest Irish &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s take on childhood obesity&rsquo; campaign, adopt in relation to children playing often leaves me cold.

This current Irish campaign takes on the slogan &lsquo;Bring Back Play&rsquo; and helpfully lists a number of good old favourite games that parents should reintroduce to their children. Games such as, &lsquo;Duck, Duck Goose&rsquo;, &lsquo;Kerbs&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Kick the Can&rsquo;. It asks parents to, &ldquo;Introduce your kids to the games you played at their age [which] is a great way for everyone to get exercise and have fun.&quot;

I find this insulting

Initiatives like this promote the idea that if, and I emphasise here, if children are not playing enough to maintain a healthy weight then it is clearly their own fault. It seems that all we need do is just encourage them to start playing and Bob&rsquo;s your uncle: fit kids!

As well as insulting this approach is also ignorant on a number of levels as it assumes that children obviously don&rsquo;t already know these &lsquo;traditional&rsquo; games so need to be taught them. This is completely at odds with the reality of children&rsquo;s daily lives and ignores the very nature of how play works and how childlore in the form of games and playforms are transmitted down the generations.

Me, I&rsquo;m annoyed and insulted at such campaigns but those who initiate them should be embarrassed. As penance I think they should be forced to wear a sign around their necks for a whole year that reads, &lsquo;I am attempting to fix something of which I know nothing.&rsquo;

&#x200B;photo: those who dont know their history are bound to repeat the failures of the past - so read a book

There are and have been of course a number of similar initiatives that have not taken this negative view and it is noticeable that this is often down to the knowledge of those involved in crafting them. But good advice is not always guaranteed to be listened to.

I was once invited to present to a team meeting in a department of a certain not-to-be-mentioned university in Wales (but didn&rsquo;t we have a lovely time on our day trip there). They were in the process of developing a psychology/physiology based project that would reward primary school children with vouchers and trinkets for being &lsquo;physically active&rsquo; during their playtimes and lunchtimes at school.

The team said this was important because it was these periods of the day in which children had become inactive whereas they had once been full of beans. They engaged me because they were keen to learn what &lsquo;traditionally&rsquo; active games they could reintroduce to the playground via coaches and laminated cards as they firmly believed these forms of play had died a death and that bribes (sorry! incentives) could be used to revive them.

Didn&rsquo;t we just hear this above?

During an hour long briefing session full of video, photographic and historical evidence it was pointed out how inaccurate this view was of the modern school playground and it concluded by pointing out that the average amount of time given over to these freely chosen periods of the school day had been halved in recent years suggesting that maybe a tactic for increasing physical activity might simply be to lengthen them again.

Moreover, it was suggested that increasing the time spent in more active forms of play and games with artificial rewards might remove time for equally important yet less physically active forms of play, like the cognitive stuff for example. The reaction I got was along the lines of, &lsquo;Hmmmm, very interesting&rsquo; but it was in one ear and out of the other. I never heard from them again yet the now well-funded programme went ahead anyway with its operant conditioning.

No doubt this project could go on to provide compelling evidence of its success but then, you see, there&rsquo;s another slight problem: interpreting the evidence. For example, some years ago I prepared an independent evaluation of a nation-wide (England) project that involved providing schools with a large bag of sports-type play equipment and a series of laminated cards with instructions for games that could be played with each equipment type. The bags had been developed from a series of similar sports bags themed around rugby and cricket. The plan was for school staff (mainly the non-teaching lunchtime assistants) and trained child-coaches to deliver the games they contained in a timetabled session over the lunchtime and thus raise activity levels.



photo: children without an adult or laminated cards apparently &#39;not&#39; playing physically 

Wait a second, I thought we&rsquo;d said we&rsquo;ve heard this already?

Sure enough, it did seem to raise activity levels among those who took part. However, it soon became apparent that where the bags were proving most successful in encouraging children to make use of their contents was when this policy and the laminated cards were ignored and a school just plonked the open bags on the playground for people to take their pick, or not, of the goodies inside.

This was resulting in more children using the equipment than the more structured approach. In other words, what children in the evaluation schools seemed to need to extend their playing was not the involvement of &lsquo;coaches&rsquo; or cards to introduce them to new and long-lost games but just stuff. Unfortunately, that finding was apparently outside the brief of the evaluation so didn&rsquo;t seem to merit a mention in the final report.

Rather than campaigning or actively attempting to &lsquo;Bring Back Play&rsquo; with children we would all be better served by a campaign to &ldquo;Stop-Adults-from-Stopping-Children-from-Playing-when-they-Need-to-Because-Unknown-to-You-Well-Meaning-Folk-they-Already-Know-How-to-Bloody-Well-Do-It-if-you-just-Give-Them-Some-Space-and-Time-to-Get-on-with-It&rdquo; kind of campaign.

As the Opie&rsquo;s once said, those great collectors of children games and play in the latter half of the twentieth century, (and I paraphrase here) &lsquo;The best thing we know that kills playing stone dead is the involvement of an adult&rsquo;.

Quite. Perhaps we could add the words &lsquo;well-meaning&rsquo; and &lsquo;ignorant of reality&rsquo; to that list too.

Marc Armitage
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<pubDate>28 Apr 2014 01:03:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/stones-pockets-and-mystics_111s31</link>
<title><![CDATA[Stones, Pockets and Mystics]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Anyone who works with children, particularly younger children, knows that some of the objects that find there way into pockets no matter how small or seemingly incidental are clearly more than meaningless.&quot;

This piece links one particular element of children&#39;s play with mysticism and the importance of objects in children&#39;s lives.  A psychologist gets a mention ... but not in a good way.

QUESTION - What things have you been brought by children? What objects have you seen them collect and keep? How have they used these things?
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Anyone who works with children, particularly younger children, knows that some of the objects that find there way into pockets no matter how small or seemingly incidental are clearly more than meaningless

Let&rsquo;s face it, I don&rsquo;t do face to face work very much anymore. I&rsquo;m one of those fancy consultant fellers now. What I do is &hellip; hang on, I&rsquo;ll just read the blub &hellip; erm, it&rsquo;s &lsquo;travel the world advocating, imparting knowledge and enthusing people around children playing&rsquo; (not play notice, important point there). Glad we got that settled.

But something happened the other day after a visit to an environmental park and playground in Perth, Australia, that I liked. A visit that took place with a pair of children unfamiliar to me and me to them. It took me back to my face to face work particularly with younger children yet it was subtle and fundamental, a deep kind of thing and I liked it. Let&rsquo;s start at the beginning.

Over a year ago a concerned mother, let&rsquo;s call her Candice (because that&rsquo;s what her actual name was) wrote a question to an online discussion board about her four and a half year old daughter who she said was,

&ldquo;&hellip; hiding things in her pockets to play with while she is supposed to be sleeping. It varies [from] crayons, food, things that she should not have. When I ask her why these things are in her pocket she says &ldquo;I don&#39;t know&rdquo;. I have taken the pants off her and took out what was in them and told her to put them back on. I have told her that she should not have these things in her pocket and they don&#39;t go upstairs with her.&rdquo;

Candice is worried. She asks if this &lsquo;is normal&rsquo;

I&rsquo;m pretty sure my mother wondered if I was normal too. Mothers do. Mine told me it was normal not to drop litter. She was adamant when I was a child that it was somehow fundamentally &lsquo;wrong&rsquo; and so I would come home from wherever with pockets full of stuff - bits of this and that because I simply felt that to just throw it away was, well, just wrong. I still do this now.* Thanks mum (I think). It became a habit. But the objects in my pockets were not important to me. This was trash, rubbish, the normal detritus of the day that accrued in my pockets.

Anyone who works with children however, particularly younger children, knows that some of the objects that find there way into pockets no matter how small or seemingly incidental are clearly more than meaningless.

Okay, so children seem to have a natural habit of collecting things which in their middle years might be swap cards, or some kind of Japanese nonsense (also usually cards or, well, things with weird faces and special powers) but ask a younger child as they leave the setting to show you what they have in their pockets and it is likely to include (amongst the fluff and tissue) sticks, feathers, seeds, leaves and all manner of odd stuff. Chief amongst them, stones.

&#x200B;photo: stones fascinate children - Bronte Primary School, Sydney NSW

Stones have meaning for adults too and across countries, cultures and indeed over time where archaeologists have often ascribed ritual (yup, the archaeological catch-all) and mystical meaning to collections of and of individual stones sometimes precious, rare, and different but at other times ordinary and mundane.

At first the very idea of any connection between such mystic connotation and the pockets of a typical modern four-year old might seem tenuous but wait: the derivation of the very word mysticism with its Greek origins is one of &lsquo;concealment&rsquo;, a special something, a meaning hidden from general view that can only be discerned via a combination of special knowledge and searching.  Once attained however it becomes a way of life.

Mystic Stones

Now, I&rsquo;m not religious (quite the reverse in fact) and even though mysticism has a finger in the development of most of the theistic religious (three, for example, is a magic number as we all know) there&rsquo;s something else going on here aside from the purely secretive nature of knowledge. It&rsquo;s about ascribed meaning &ndash; why is THAT object important to THAT person at THAT time.

When Candice&rsquo;s daughter reported that she didn&rsquo;t know why she was collecting these objects to play with secretly a &lsquo;psychologist&rsquo; on the discussion group said that, &ldquo;Her answering &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know&rsquo; is more of a way to get out of trouble.&rdquo;

No it isn&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s because she genuinely doesn&rsquo;t know. It&rsquo;s an impulse, and a strong one which is why we see children in various countries and cultures and through history similarly collecting special objects; and why some might speculate that such collections, particularly the stones, combined with this &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know why but&rsquo; element could itself be at the root of mysticism. 

One of the things I used to find fun when working in early year&rsquo;s establishments was asking children just before they left for the day to show what things they had in their pockets, describe them and explain what they were. The reactions varied: some would clam up completely and be clearly embarrassed at the very idea that they might have stuff in their pockets; others would hesitate but show their stone before quickly putting it away; a few, very few, would go into great detail about where their finds had come from, what they had done with them throughout the day, and what they had planned for them next.

Whatever their reaction, these objects have meaning and any mysticism that lays in them for these children may be transitory (for them) but at the time any meaning they contain is as mystic as anything the major religions can throw up yet also deeply personal.

What is also magical (and I use that word deliberately) I think, is that adults in such establishments report that they frequently find things in their own pockets too &ndash; things not put there by them. Children it seems share these special, mystical finds of theirs and this sharing is often part of a very special bond &ndash; they believe, simply, that some adults understand the importance of these objects and their importance to them and so they share them.

Why does all this mysticism come to mind? Because the other day while here in Perth visiting this park and playground with two unfamiliar children I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  We walked through the bush lined paths together, played in the water throwing stones and making dams, climbed VERY high towers and looked down on the world, made dens and cubbies, and generally lounged about and had a seriously great time.

And when I got back to my apartment at the end of the day there in my coat pocket was a stone, a small very water smoothed stone. And I didn&rsquo;t put it there. 

Marc Armitage

27/6/2013
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/stones-pockets-and-mystics_111s31</guid>
<pubDate>26 Jun 2013 22:24:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/toy-guns-and-robbers-real-or-un-real_111s38</link>
<title><![CDATA[Toy Guns and Robbers: Real or Un-real?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;It is not enough for adults to just explain reality in a real world context to children &ndash; to make sense of our type of reality children must do so in their own way and that means playing it through in their own non-adult reality.&quot;

The topic of war, weapon and superhero play is a thorny one that can be divisive yet there is one easily overlooked, sometimes ridiculed element of such play that should inform us on what our attitude towards it should be.
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<content><![CDATA[It is not enough for adults to just explain reality in a real world context to children &ndash; to make sense of our type of reality children must do so in their own way and that means playing it through in their own non-adult reality.

Playmobil, the German based toy manufacturer, have produced a new play set. And the Daily Mirror is outraged.

The official name of the set is the Bank with Safe set in which &ldquo;Money can be drawn from the functional ATM/cash machine.&rdquo; But The Mirror, and a number of other media outlets, have described the set as a &quot;Bank Raid Toy Set&quot; in which &ldquo;Gun-toting action figures mean four year olds can act out bank robbery.&rdquo;

Moral outraged was expressed - from a newspaper that on the same day&rsquo;s online front page showed (in addition to this story) a photograph of the heavily pregnant Coleen Rooney in a bikini, a story headlined, &ldquo;Rihanna&rsquo;s two fingers to Grammys rules as she shows her nipples&rdquo;, and &ldquo;Cole scores!&rdquo; The story of Ashley Cole&rsquo;s latest &ldquo;topless bisexual nymphomaniac&rdquo; girlfriend.

Methinks the Daily Mirror protests too much. But there is a serious point here as some have expressed concern over the fact that this set includes a robber figure and this character has a gun.

Toy Weapons

The concern over war, weapon and superhero play is nothing new but it has clearly taken on a new direction since the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary School. There have been a number of high profile cases in recent weeks in which children have been reproached, or worse, for playing with toy weapons in US schools and kindergartens.

Even aside from the obviously highlighted fears resulting from Sandy Hook though it seems a given that play which involves violent themes and imaginary or toy weapons simply must be a bad thing. But the reality of the situation is not as clear cut as that. The &lsquo;gun&rsquo; in this Playmobil set is &lsquo;not real&rsquo;. That may sound like an obvious point and people may be tempted to add, &lsquo;Well, yes but that&rsquo;s not really the point&rsquo;. But it is. It is very much the point.



photo: Playmobil Bank with Safe set and the &#39;gun&#39; (photo from The Mirror used as fair use)

In a Vygotskyian context the toy gun is a prop or a prompt that allows for a particular situation to occur in a given play episode. Below the age of about three children cannot conceptually make use of one prop to replace a real object unless it very closely resembles the intended object. A Hobby-Horse, which is essentially just a stick with a horse&rsquo;s head on can be &lsquo;a horse&rsquo; and be played with as such but take the head away and all very young children see is a stick.

This changes over time and the point at which one object can successfully represent another is an important conceptual point in human development and it leads to an explosion in the development of increasingly complex skills. More importantly, once children reach this point they also become surprisingly good at making a distinction between what is real and what is not. More so than is obvious at first sight.

The psychologist Paul L. Harris, who has specialised in exploring children&rsquo;s understanding of reality, points out that, &ldquo;Young children appear to have a firm grasp of the distinction between fantasy and reality.&rdquo; Which explains how when children play (even very young children) they are capable of moving repeatedly from the real to the un-real and back again, continuously.

Adults find this tricky

This is a difficult one for we adults to empathise with fully simply because we are adults. Our brains work in a very different way and despite the fact that we have all been young children ourselves it is incredibly difficult for us to put ourselves into the same mind-set that they are experiencing in this continuous liminal movement &ndash; more often than not we don&rsquo;t even see the joins between the different states.

This is also why it is not enough for adults to just explain reality in a real world context to children &ndash; to make sense of our type of reality children must do so in their own way and that means playing it through in their own non-adult reality to make it work. This is where the friction can arise between the seemingly obvious view that toy guns must be harmful in the long-term and the objective view that in the vast majority of play episodes they are not. Because they are &lsquo;not real&rsquo; in the sense that we understand &lsquo;real&rsquo;.

As Brian Sutton-Smith, probably the world&rsquo;s leading play theorist, observes,

&ldquo;Life in the ludic (the playful) lane can never be understood simply in terms of that which it interprets realistically, the so-called real world. It must also be about mockery as well as mimicry . . . Children know that they are manipulating their thoughts about reality, not reality itself; and they know that their play self is not the same as their everyday self&rdquo;. 

To learn what if any role toy weapons might have in children&rsquo;s play requires understanding them in the context of being a prop. Pointing a toy gun at another individual and saying &lsquo;Bang, bang&rsquo; is not about violence and aggression: it is using a prop that allows children to explore the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad. Children cannot explore a concept like this without there being props that signify &lsquo;good&rsquo; and &lsquo;bad&rsquo;, &lsquo;right&rsquo; and &lsquo;wrong&rsquo;. It is the interplay between the two that allows exploration and understanding to occur.

This is the point of the toy gun and it is easy to see how important this is to them in the fact that children cannot stop themselves, even at the risk of adult displeasure, from making toy guns from Lego, sticks and even their fingers in order to explore this.

Making Sense

In the case of the Playmobil Bank with Safe set it only really makes sense when seen alongside one of the other play sets in their new range - The Police Station with Alarm System for which the blurb on the company&rsquo;s website says,

&ldquo;There&#39;s a criminal on the loose, but don&#39;t worry- the alarm system will catch him. Help the police catch and interrogate the bad guy with the help of the Playmobil police station, complete with a working alarm system. With a realistic police station at your command, you can set the scene for an exciting chase and capture. A real working alarm system with a flashing light is set off when it detects movement, and there are three police officers for teaming up to find the bad guy.

&ldquo;Once he&#39;s been caught, take him to the interrogation room for questioning and hold him in police custody in the barred cell overnight. With over fifty accessories, there&#39;s hours of fun to be had with the Playmobil alarmed police station.&quot;

This duality of the real/not-real world clearly works and it would be easy to test this by putting these two play sets together. If that were to happen it would be the robber with the gun that would land up in jail because it is the robber that is the baddy and the playing child would work that out all for themselves.

Marc Armitage

12/2/2013
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/toy-guns-and-robbers-real-or-un-real_111s38</guid>
<pubDate>12 Feb 2013 01:19:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/fuzzy-and-headless-children_111s36</link>
<title><![CDATA[Fuzzy and Headless Children ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;It now seems routine that not only is TV news footage of children altered to disguise identity but so are images of children gathered for other reasons too.&quot;

Fuzzy and headless children are everywhere and we think it is contributing to making children&#39;s lives safer but it is not. The real effect is a negative one and it affects more than just children.
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<content><![CDATA[It now seems routine that not only is TV news footage of children altered to disguise identity but so are images of children gathered for other reasons too.

Some months ago I was half-watching the midday edition of the news on BBC television when a story came on about a school issue. The story itself was not particularly significant, certainly not to this tale anyway. No, what was significant were the images of the children on screen in support of the story.

They were what I call &lsquo;fuzzy and headless children&rsquo; &ndash; shots of children&rsquo;s legs only or images of children that are so fuzzy that individuals cannot be identified. Fair enough you might say, child protection and all that, except that the same story was repeated on the evening edition of the news on the same day using the same film footage &ndash; without the fuzziness.

Was this a mistake, I wondered? I have written and lectured about the &lsquo;fuzzy and headless&rsquo; issue before but this was the first time I had seen the same piece of film used both fuzzied and un-fuzzied. Curious, I called the BBC, as you do (more on that later).

These fuzzy and headless images on TV are only one part of a broader issue on the use of images of children in general. It now seems routine that not only is TV news footage of children altered to disguise identity but so are images of children gathered for other reasons too. Failing that, the taking of images is banned out-right.

Data protection duck-out

Parents have been prevented from taking photographs and video of their own children at nativity plays, concerts, graduation ceremonies and sporting events, often on the grounds of child protection, with schools and childcare settings citing legislation as the justification.

David Smith, the UK Director of Data Protection at the Information Commissioner&rsquo;s Office (ICO), calls this &ldquo;The data protection duck-out&rdquo;. He goes on, &ldquo;If there is something people don&#39;t want to do, but they can&#39;t explain it easily, they say it&#39;s because of the Data Protection Act.&rdquo; In this respect it sounds similar to health and safety regulations being wrongly invoked to push through unpopular decisions.

The ICO produce guidance that says,

&ldquo;The Data Protection Act is unlikely to apply in many cases where photographs are taken in schools and other educational institutions. Fear of breaching the provisions of the Act should not be wrongly used to stop people taking photographs or videos which provide many with much pleasure.&rdquo;

Nor is the issue restricted to schools and childcare settings. A father, Chris White, was approached by a security guard after taking a photo of his own daughter eating an ice cream in a Glasgow shopping centre in 2011. The guard told him it was illegal to take such photos in a shopping mall (something which is not true) and that he, the security guard, had the power to demand that the images be deleted (also not true). When Mr. White refused the police were called.

&ldquo;I explained I had taken two photos of my daughter eating ice cream and that she was the only person in the photo so didn&#39;t see any problem. I also said that I wasn&#39;t that willing to delete the photo&#39;s and there seemed little point as I had actually uploaded them to facebook.&rdquo;

The police officer, by now on the scene, told him that he had the power to demand that the photos be deleted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (once again not true). Mr. White stood his ground and he was allowed to leave the shopping centre, photos intact, with his daughter who by this point was in tears. A successful Facebook campaign forced the shopping centre to re-examine its policy.

BBC policy

And what about the BBC example we opened with? I spoke to and asked the BBC picture library about why the same film clip might be shown fuzzy at one point and not fuzzy at another and was told that clips are requested by editors and are sent by the library un-fuzzy. It is the editor, following BBC Policy, that decides if an image should be disguised or not. That decision comes down to whether there is a perceived risk to those involved, and clearly that decision seems to be a subjective one.

It would be wrong, however, to believe that those that cover the images of children in the news, at school or kindergarten with opaque blobs or black lines over the eyes (which always reminds me of comedy villains), or who enact photo policies that call for all images held to be destroyed after a period of time (sometimes as little as two years) are part of some massive conspiracy to make the world&rsquo;s children bland and anonymous. No, they are almost always well-meaning and have nothing but the protection of their young charges in mind. After all, pedophiles are everywhere.

Or are they, because the pedophile concern seems not to be a strong one.

Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the US Family Online Safety Institute, says &ldquo;Research shows that there is virtually no risk of pedophiles coming to get kids because they found them online,&rdquo; and he calls the fears most people have over this issue &ldquo;techno-panic.&rdquo; In writing this Blog I asked a serving child-protection officer with the Humberside Police about this issue and his first reaction was puzzlement over why I should ask such a question in the first place. In eleven years of service he said he had never come across a case in which a random photo of a fully clothed child taken at such an event had been an issue.

However, there are times when children that we work with genuinely need their identities, personal details and location keeping quiet &ndash; children who are currently housed in family refuge centres or places of safety, for example. But a blanket ban on the use of images of children in most circumstances, particular children playing, is counter-productive.

Exceptions not the norm

My policy on using such images in training, conference speaking, blogging, facebooking, webbing, etc. is this: if I don&rsquo;t have permission to freely use an image unaltered in a public forum then I don&rsquo;t use the image. Full stop. There are exceptions &ndash; there are always exceptions &ndash; and I have sometimes used images in which the identity of the individual concerned has been disguised. But the point is that they are exceptions not the norm. To do anything other does more harm than good.

Failure to apply a modicum of realism to this issue confuses and upsets children in the present who do not understand why they cannot have their photo taken while playing Shepherd Number 4; it also runs the risk of families and individuals being denied access to valuable childhood memories at some point in the future. And by insisting that images held be destroyed after a period of time we are also depriving ourselves of a valuable future source of social history.

Of most concern though is that it does not lead to children living safer lives. If anything, its effect is to build and maintain an atmosphere of suspicion and fear that ALL images of children are dangerous &ndash; as are the people that take them.

Marc Armitage
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<pubDate>30 Nov 2012 00:36:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/risky-play-is-not-a-category-its-what-children-do_111s42</link>
<title><![CDATA[Risky play is not a category &#150; it&#39;s what children DO]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;We often throw around the term &lsquo;risky play&rsquo; as though it was a category of play like social play or gross-motor play. But it is not. Taking risks is simply one of the things children do when they are playing and, because a significant amount of playing is about pushing boundaries and extending ourselves, it turns out that most play is risky in one way or another.&quot; 

This is a longer than usual piece as it was originally something published in the Barnados Ireland journal. It questions our approach to guarding against the risks and hazards that children face in institutional settings and suggests four particularly risky experiences that all children should have access to.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[We often throw around the term &lsquo;risky play&rsquo; as though it was a category of play like social play or gross-motor play. But it is not. Taking risks is simply one of the things children do when they are playing and, because a significant amount of playing is about pushing boundaries and extending ourselves, it turns out that most play is risky in one way or another. 

The problem is we have over a number of years gradually become a risk averse society. We have simply become very wary of anything labelled risky and have been encouraged to avoid it in any form. The newspapers for example are full of stories of this being banned and that being stopped on anti-risk, health and safety grounds.

The issue seems to be largely confusion over our use of the word &lsquo;risk&rsquo; and we can see this when reading documents such as the Irish National Quality Framework (S&iacute;olta) where for example Component 2.4 &lsquo;The environment promotes the safety, both indoors and outdoors, of all children and adults&rsquo; asks the question: &ldquo;In what way is the indoor environment/equipment designed to reduced risk of injury to children?&rdquo; [my italics].

The wider component goes on to give numerous examples of these &lsquo;risks&rsquo; to be avoided such as not having sharp corners on furniture, electrical sockets being out of reach and non-slip flooring for example &ndash; all of which are hazards in this context not risks. There is further confusion when the Health Service Executive (HSE) uses the unhelpful phrase &lsquo;safe risk&rsquo; in its guidelines. So, it is no wonder people are confused when it comes to the question of risk, what is risky, what is not, what we can do and what we can&rsquo;t.

In the United Kingdom this is something which has been tackled very effectively by the Playwork sector which has taken back control over defining risk in play and childcare settings. The document &lsquo;Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation Guide&rsquo; produced by the UK Play Safety Forum has been endorsed by the equivalent HSE body in that country and gives lots of practical guidance and common sense advice on risk in a play context. This document has, quite simply, revolutionised the idea behind risky play.

For &lsquo;taking risks&rsquo; we should read &lsquo;making mistakes&rsquo; and being able to make mistakes at a young age is vitally important in terms of learning and development. Rather than shying away from being risky in our childcare settings we should actually embrace it! 

Below are four &lsquo;risky&rsquo; things that we could all provide access to, as do many play and childcare settings around the world. 

Experience height and depth



photo: height and depth at Felix Road Adventure Playground, Bristol UK

We often associate risky play with big pieces of fixed play equipment and the first piece of equipment that comes to mind is usually some kind of climbing frame. And that&rsquo;s good, but there is more to experiencing height than just climbing. The desire to get off the ground is a powerful one from a very young age and so children in a setting will climb on things even where nothing is provided for them to do so. Fences, gates, tables, window ledges, each other will all be pressed into use as they try to gain height. But a &lsquo;climbing frame&rsquo; is limited in the experience it can provide because once you&rsquo;re &lsquo;up&rsquo; then what?

Watching the world go by from a height attracts children (as does being able to see outside of the setting) so a climbing feature that has some kind of viewing platform works well. Being able to physically &lsquo;look down&rsquo; on things is an experience children rarely have an opportunity to do unless they live on the side of a mountain and such a platform can keep their attention for a significant length of time as they see the world (literally) from another angle.

But there is more: it is not a coincidence that those climbing features which are the most popular in public playgrounds with children of all ages are also those with multiple platforms and levels and with multiple ways of getting onto and off it. Children often play chasing games on these types of features and complex pretend games as well as just climb up and then down again. Multiple levels allow children to experience different levels of height and that provides multiple opportunities for challenge. 

In safety terms the real concern here is likely to be how high such a feature should be but &lsquo;height&rsquo; is not the issue &ndash; it is &lsquo;fall height&rsquo; that is important, in other words is it possible to fall out of or off the feature and if so onto what surface do we fall.

The European Playground Safety Guidelines (see below) recommend critical fall heights of no more than 3m high for any piece of play equipment. That is not to say that such a height will be appropriate to all but a feature which is very low and with only a single level is not going to provide the degree of experience that will give a sense of challenge and that does not represent good value for money. If we are going to use our limited resources on something big we should make sure we go for something that works. 

Talking of money, if a setting which has limited space can buy or have bespoke built a fixed play feature that has platforms, levels and viewing points, and build that feature on sand as the main surfacing material (rather than on rubber which has no play value in itself) with maybe a play house built under on the ground level , we will have provided four or five different opportunities for play combined within a limited ground area and usually lower cost than if everything was provided separately.

Such a feature properly constructed, in the right place with the correct surfacing and policy and procedures around its use, satisfies both the need of our children to experience height and depth and satisfy our legal responsibilities under the European Playground Safety Guidelines. 

Experience movement and speed



&#x200B;photo: the joy of free movement at Kerikeri Kindergarten, New Zealand

Being able to run around is by far the simplest, cheapest and amongst the most popular ways of experiencing movement and speed. And it&rsquo;s clearly important as children will often spend up to a quarter of all their time at play running around. But running around can interfere with other forms of play that does not involve movement. There is no point in the world, however, in simply telling children NOT to run around.

Just like the need to experience height they must move around and they simply cannot stop themselves from trying to do so. And there are good health and safety reasons for making sure they can.

During the 1980s many British playworkers visited and worked in orphanages and schools in a number of the failed European communist states setting up play and childcare facilities for children of a broad age. Many of them began to report that they found teenage children with very poor levels of balance and coordination while moving (they would, for example, stumble when playing chasing games). This was the effect of being brought up in confined, mainly indoor, spaces with little opportunity to run around. As movement is how we develop and maintain our sense of balance these children had missed out on a valuable, never to be repeated experience. 

Our children must experience movement and speed and preventing them from doing so for health and safety reasons at a young age is hazardous to their longer tem well-being. In other words there are strong health and safety reasons for ensuring that children can run around. 

Running around does not satisfy the need for free movement through the air though and nothing provides for this sensation better than a swing. These are play features rarely seen in childcare settings, often because of concerns of children falling off them. But falling off a swing is not the real hazard &ndash; it is being hit by a moving swing that is the problem and that is easy to deal with by enclosing the swings in a coral fence with limited access.

Then there is the question of what type of swing. We might feel that very young children need a swing with a bucket seat to keep them firmly in place but a swing with a cradle or large platform instead provides a feature that can be used by all ages and abilities AND by multiple people at the same time &ndash; another example of making best use of limited space and limited budgets.  

A well-sited swing can provide lots of challenging movement. However, it can also be expensive and take up lots space. A tree swing, on the other hand, can be both cheaper, temporary (moveable in other words) and an exciting alternative.

We are often guilty of ignoring the trees that some of us are lucky enough to have on site or at times actively keep children away from them over safety fears. In fact, the idea of a rope in a tree for swinging may seem very hazardous &ndash; but not when it&rsquo;s done properly. The organisations London Play, and Monkey Do have produced a technical guidance document that shows how to do this in a practical, cheap and exciting way (see below). This document goes into detail about what type of trees are suitable for swings, what type of rope and knots to use, how to fit them and how to maintain them in a way that satisfys health and safety requirements. 

Experience den building and using tools



photo: cubbies/den building at Smithfield Plains Kindergarten, Adelaide South Australia

The adventure playground movement (which is very strong in the UK, Germany and Japan in particular) has its origins in a Danish form of play called the &lsquo;Junk Playground&rsquo;. The concept is very simple &ndash; it is that children should have a degree of control of their physical environment and have the ability to change it and add to it. 

Den building is one obvious way of being able to do this and many childcare settings already provide access to this form of play by providing loose-parts for building them (improvised materials such as old sheets, netting, rope and poles etc.). But a &lsquo;den&rsquo; is not just a structure &ndash; it also becomes a centre of very complex pretend play involving narrative and cooperation. Before it gets to that point though it needs building and building is very satisfying in itself and very popular with children. In fact, it is not uncommon to see children spend a great deal of time building a den only to then abandon it and move onto something else as soon as it is finished.

Building other things are also very popular &ndash; making ramps for wheeled toys, gullies to run toy cars and balls down, making carts and trolleys that can be used to transport yet more materials and people around the setting. Making small playthings too such as cars, airplanes, boats and spaceships is also popular, and often these are made by combing other things.

The experience of building dens and these smaller things can be limited though by both a lack of access of available materials to combine in the first place (this is true where bought toys dominate our play boxes for example) and more so by limited ways of being able to fix things together. To develop this we need tools.

We get an extra dimension to building things by providing access to tools. Adventure playgrounds typically provide supervised access to tools which allow children to saw, screw and hammer things, which increases the complexity of building and creating. This can result in more substantial dens such as those typically found in Norwegian childcare settings which are built to last for weeks.

Access to &lsquo;real&rsquo; tools, as opposed to plastic hammers and saws, also adds a sense of realism to building play which enhances the experience hugely. Being able to play with &lsquo;things&rsquo; is important but playing with things you yourself have made is much more satisfying. In addition, using a toy hammer and pretending to nail two pieces of wood together is nothing compared to the experience and the sounds of using a real hammer to bang a real nail into a real piece of wood.

Experience fire

&#x200B;photo: fire at Eikefjord Kindergarten, Norway (Kierna Corr)

We are very keen on promoting the importance of the natural world and access to the elements in our childcare settings, as can be seen in the increasing mentions of playing outside in good practice documents and guidelines. But while we don&rsquo;t seem to have a problem with earth, air and water we do seem to have a problem with fire. In fact, of all the forms of potentially &lsquo;risky&rsquo; play this is probably the one that raises the most concerns and is almost always absent in Irish settings. But this is not the case in other cultures around the world.

In the Scandinavian and Nordic countries in particular it is common to see fire pits in the outside spaces of childcare settings. Fire is a particularly important cultural element in these countries which celebrate just about anything you can think of by lighting candles and setting fire to things. Where we have a very negative attitude to fire, seeing it as destructive and harmful, the Scandinavians see it as a vital, life-giving element that should be respected but not feared.

It is interesting to note that instances of deliberate fire damage by teenagers in Sweden, for example, are virtually nil whereas in Ireland and the UK fire damage is common. At least part of the reason for that is that Scandinavian children know not only how to light a fire but how to control it and how to put it out. A significant number of arson attacks by teenagers here are actually fires that simply get out of control.

Access to fire is another common element of the adventure playground movement and there are numerous courses available in the UK on fire play. Easier to access though are a number of useful guidance notes on how do this including one produced by Martin KingSheard of Play Wales the national organisation for play in Wales.

Fire is unique &ndash; there is nothing like it for the noise it makes or how it looks or the obvious power it has &ndash; and that fascinates children who want to experience it. A properly constructed and located fire pit can allow them to experience this in a controlled way and at the same time enhance the outdoor experience in a great variety of ways, especially during the darker and colder winter months.   

Cooking around a fire pit is very different to making biscuits indoors and cooking them in the oven &ndash; in this case we can actually see things cooking in front of our eyes and changing from one thing into another. Story telling is also a completely different experience when huddled around a warm, crackling fire adding to a unique story telling atmosphere. In fact, the most important element of all in a communal fire pit is the sense of gathering and the light and heat it produces, all of which makes for a welcoming atmosphere. After all, when we visit friends homes at winter time we don&rsquo;t gather around the fridge, do we?

So there you have it &ndash; four risky play experiences that will enhance our children&rsquo;s experiences during play. All we have to do now is overcome the greatest barrier to risky play ... and that is the unwillingness of us adults to take risks ourselves. 

 

Marc Armitage

9/11/2012

 

&#x200B;This piece was originaly written for the children&#39;s charity Barnardos in Ireland and was published in their journal, Child Links (issue 3/2011). It was written specifically for those working in early years settings in an Irish context. All photos by Marc with the exception of that of children around the fire which was taken by Kierna Corr. 

 
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<pubDate>08 Nov 2012 15:52:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/from-space-hero-to-pop-star_111s30</link>
<title><![CDATA[From Space Hero to Pop Star ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;When I was living and working in Sweden, a friend and fellow PhD student of mine with the H&ouml;gskolan i Halmstad (the University of Halmstad) called Anders Nelson, now Dean of the University, told me a story about his young son Viktor.&quot;

In a piece that mixes a superhero, a punk rock star and Eric Morecambe we explore one tiny experience that reminds us how easy it is for adults to forget how earth shatteringly amazed we could be as children to discover something new and profound.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[When, I wonder was the last time we experienced a similar shock of discovering that something we were absolutely convinced about actually turned out to completely wrong?

When I was living and working in Sweden, a friend and fellow PhD student of mine with the H&ouml;gskolan i Halmstad (the University of Halmstad) called Anders Nelson, now Dean of the University, told me a story about his young son Viktor.

At one stage Viktor had a thing about Buzz &lsquo;To infinity and beyond&rsquo; Lightyear &ndash; and frankly who wouldn&rsquo;t? Buzz was a movie star (first in the film Toy Story, then later in the follow-up Toy Story 2, and more recently in the imaginatively titled Toy Story 3). He was a space explorer, he was fearless and he could fly (or at least so he thought), he had flashing lights, futuristic sounds, and he was on TV. In short, Buzz was a modern media hero with an old fashioned bent.

Viktor was engrossed with him. He had the toys, the bedclothes, the pyjamas, the books, the films - the lot and Buzz formed a central part in Viktor&rsquo;s playing for a good two years. What caught my imagination about this story the most was that Anders said the then five/six year-old Viktor was more than playing WITH Buzz Lightyear - he WAS Buzz Lightyear. This was a character that was clearly important to Viktor&rsquo;s play world.

Until one day something happened

Viktor happened to see a strange person on the TV: a tall, thin, rock star with spiky purple hair and a guitar. This was the musician Per Gessle, a name that to many of you might mean nothing but to others will be better known as the male half of the massively successful Swedish pop act Roxette (Marie Fredriksson being the other half).

Viktor&rsquo;s fascination changed. His penchant for Buzz Lightyear disappeared practically overnight and he now became Per Gessle. He wanted to dress like Gessle, he wanted the same spiky hair style, and perhaps most significantly he acquired a toy guitar and spent hours strumming and singing along to Gessle&rsquo;s CDs perfecting his act.



At this point it&rsquo;s probably important to note that Per Gessle is a bit of a local hero in Halmstad where he was born, bred and went to school before finding fame and fortune both with the duo Roxette and his own band Gyllene Tider (The Golden Times). When Gessle performed with Gyllene Tider in Halmstad for the first time in many years at the end of the 1990s practically the whole town (45,000 people including me) attended at least one of the two gigs held in a massive outdoor venue.

Viktor&rsquo;s passion for Per Gessle become as significant as it had earlier for Buzz Lightyear until one day he took out the little booklet from inside one of his CDs. Inside the booklet were photographs of buildings that he recognised which made him curious so he asked his father, &lsquo;Why are these photographs here in this little book?&rsquo; Anders explained to him that these were photographs of buildings in Halmstad because Gessle lives here in Halmstad.

Viktor was suddenly wide eyed and shocked. Eventually he stammered, &ldquo;You mean, Per Gessle is a REAL person?&rdquo;

He genuinely hadn&rsquo;t realised

His hero Buzz Lightyear was larger than life but he wasn&rsquo;t real and he knew that. To now discover that the equally bigger than life Per Gessle however WAS real - can you imagine the shock?

When, I wonder was the last time we experienced a similar shock of discovering that something we were absolutely convinced about actually turned out to completely wrong?

I, for example, distinctly remember discovering that Eric Morecombe&rsquo;s trick with the paper bag was just that &ndash; a trick (remember that?). Back then I simply refused to believe it. I&rsquo;m still not sure.

As we become older and wiser and more knowledgeable the possibility of those moments seems to grow less likely and our ability to be profoundly taken aback rarer.

Personally I&rsquo;m not sure that&rsquo;s such a good thing.

 

Marc Armitage

13/10/2012

 
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/from-space-hero-to-pop-star_111s30</guid>
<pubDate>12 Oct 2012 15:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/who-has-the-right-to-smack-whom_111s32</link>
<title><![CDATA[Who has the right to smack whom? ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I have absolutely no objection to people smacking children under any circumstances. None. On one condition.&quot;

There is a fierce battle curently underway in the United States of America between a group of people who wish to see the rights of children upheld and extended, and another group who see this as a threat to their familiy life. There have been some significant developments since this piece was first written which are highlighted in a new postscript.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[I have absolutely no objection to people smacking children under any circumstances. None. On one condition.

Delaware, the first US State and oldest of the original 13 colonies, has become the first to prohibit corporal punishment (the smacking of children) by their own parents (26th September 2012). Thirty-one of the fifty States plus the District of Columbia have previously banned corporal punishment in schools (including Delaware in 2003) but this is the first case of a State banning corporal punishment of children in all circumstances. 

It is interesting how many proponents of the parental right to smack, particularly in the United States, cite the pernicious encroachment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) often referred to as the most global of international legislation having being ratified by every nation on earth except two (three since the creation of the new state of South Sudan in 2011). 

One of those is the United States of America. A situation President Obama is reported to be embarrassed about.

The failure of the US to fully ratify the Convention is often felt to be linked to criminal policy in the US particularly in relation to the death penalty. But since the US Supreme Court decision Roper vs Simmons (2005) which ruled against the death penalty for juveniles this has been less of an obstacle.

The most persuasive reason is undoubtedly a perceived risk to parental and family rights. The UNCRC, particularly Article 12 (the right of the child to express their views), Article 15 (freedom of association) and Article 16 (right to privacy) are seen by many as no less than an assault on the family.

Anti UNCRC opinion

&#x200B;photo: Parental Rights members in the USA discuss the &#39;threats&#39; of the UNCEC on Youtube

A campaigning group, Parental Rights has become a focus for anti-UNCRC opinion and is actively campaigning for an Amendment to the US Constitution that is aimed squarely at preventing the UNCRC from taking hold. Their proposed Amendment states:

&ldquo;The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right&rdquo; (section 1) and that,

&ldquo;No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article&rdquo; (section 4).

I am trying to be objective and fair at assessing people&rsquo;s opposing views to this one but frankly I&rsquo;m struggling and you might be able to see why in the following examples.

A video interview with two key members of Parental Rights available on YouTube is taglined with the statement, &ldquo;If the US Senate ratifies an international UN treaty [the UNCRC] all American parents will lose the right to make fundamental decisions in the upbringing and education of their children.&rdquo;

At one stage in the video we are told that

&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s say your daughter is hanging out with an older male, sort of an unsavoury character, if you know what I mean? Let&rsquo;s say you say, &lsquo;You know what? This person has a proven track record. This is someone I don&rsquo;t want you associating with&rsquo;. You could find yourself facing a social worker and going before a Federal judge for interfering on Article 16&rsquo;s* right to freedom of association.&rdquo; 

[Note that the speaker here says article 16 but clearly means article 15].



photo: unicef and Parental Rights - two organisations with aims that could not be more opposite

Okaaaaaaaay

There are those that agree with this view. Here are two comments from parents in reaction to the Delaware decision for example. First, Theresa Bobko of her three year-old daughter

&ldquo;If my child will die from a car hitting her because she ran in the street, then jail me RIGHT NOW for the spanking she will get to save her from it ... nuff said. Same for touching the stove, jumping in water unattended, putting something in the socket ... etc.&rdquo;

And this from John Smith (yer, right like that&rsquo;s a real name)

&ldquo;You greatly understate the future situation. All hell is going to break loose across the face of the globe as the world rapidly disintegrates into utter chaos. Riots and home invasions will be commonplace as the undisciplined generations to come take what they want, when they want, murdering anyone who dares to so much as speak out against them.&rdquo;

Ummmmmmmm. Certainly describes the situation we see in Europe and elsewhere where the UNCRC has been ratified. Not.

But it would be wrong to think of this as purely an American issue, or a right-wing one, or even a religious issue. Just thirty-three of the roughly 193 countries on this world (16%) have constituted a total ban on corporal punishment against children.

An argument that transcends nationality, politics or religion

My personal opinion on smacking children has not changed for some years. I have absolutely no objection to people smacking children under any circumstances. None. On one condition: that we also have the right to smack any adult that annoys us for whatever reason as a similar means of corrective education.

There will be some that say this position is preposterous: this is about parents being able to raise their children in the way they see fit and should not be taken lightly. It applies only to our own children and within the family. Fine. But why should this attitude not continue after the child has reached eighteen? Surely, once a parent always a parent and if my 20-odd year old son steps out of line what&rsquo;s wrong with a good slap to correct his behaviour?

I&rsquo;ll tell you what&rsquo;s wrong. As an adult there&rsquo;s a good chance he&rsquo;ll slap me back, that&rsquo;s what. Hitting is a power issue. Full-stop. Our attitude to hitting adults bigger than us is very different to hitting children who are not, and frankly if it&rsquo;s fair for one it has to be fair for the other.

Here&rsquo;s an irony to end this story with. The newest nation on earth, the aforementioned South Sudan (one of the three countries that have not yet ratified the UNCRC); a nation beset with decades of war, famine and effectively no economy, has however outlawed corporal punishment against children.

It&rsquo;s newly agreed Constitution states,

&ldquo;Every child has the right &hellip; (f) to be free from corporal punishment and cruel and inhuman treatment by any person including parents, school administrations and other institutions ...&rdquo;

I&rsquo;m not playing politics here at all, but if South Sudan doesn&#39;t see a problem in doing this, why do we? 

 

Marc Armitage

3/10/2012

 

Postscript

Since originally writing this article the UNCRC has now been accepted by every nation on earth with the exception of the United States of America. The number of nation states around the world that have outlawed corporal punishment of children has now risen to 50 states or around 26%. Unfortunately, South Sudan has recently fallen back into civil war and the Constitution noted above suspended and is no longer available online.
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<pubDate>02 Oct 2012 22:47:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-power-of-water-and-wasted-opportunities_111s39</link>
<title><![CDATA[The power of water and wasted opportunities ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I realised how tempted I was to point out to these two adults why their boys could not contain themselves and note that they themselves were creating an impossible situation for themselves and their sons - but it would have been ugly. So I didn&rsquo;t.&quot;

Parents and other adults can be oblivious to the effect their actions can have on the children around them and can sometimes sap the wonder from children&#39;s experiences. This story describes two such examples - one conscious the other not.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[I realised how tempted I was to point out to these two adults why their boys could not contain themselves and note that they were creating an impossible situation for them and their sons - but it would have been ugly. So I didn&rsquo;t.

I saw a couple of good examples of the powerful fascination water holds for children the other day while taking some time off in Tasmania, the island State of Australia (just thought I drop that in).

The first took place around the quayside in Hobart where a girl of about five years old was clearly fascinated by the reflections on the water being cast by a sunny morning. She was walking along the boardwalk beside the quay some way in front of her parents occasionally stopping and fixing a stare on a particularly interesting thing out in the waters but always set back from the actual edge.

During one of these pauses she suddenly took a few cautious paces forward to peer directly over the edge of the quayside &hellip; and immediately took a double take. She looked around seemingly desperate to tell someone something before looking back into the water. She almost didn&rsquo;t notice her parents catching up with her as they strolled along chatting away but once she did she immediately turned to them, pointed into the water and exclaimed, &ldquo;Starfish!&rdquo; before looking back to the water again.

It was only afterwards when I reached this spot myself that I could see what she was talking about: the water was quite shallow and clear at this point and you could indeed see dozens of starfish &ndash; some big ones clambering over each other and others, much smaller, dotted around the seabed. She was right to be fascinated.

I took photos!



photo: a fuzzy photo of the actual starfish

The second example took place later that same day on an area of decking jutting out into the Coal River slightly downstream from the oldest standing bridge in Australia in the town of Richmond (this &lsquo;oldest&rsquo; bridge is dated 1825 which, I&rsquo;m sorry Ozzy chums, but that made me chuckle a bit). On the decking were a couple with their four boys and at one point father and all four sons laid down on the decking and leaned over the edge together to peer into the water at close quarters which was immediately followed by a number of ooo&rsquo;s and ahhh&rsquo;s. Which is when the tirade began.

&ldquo;Josh, head only over the edge, no shoulders&rdquo; and, &ldquo;Robby, no hands, take your hands out of the water!&rdquo; The stream of instructions was constant and constantly negative. Lots of &lsquo;don&rsquo;ts&rsquo; and &lsquo;if you don&rsquo;t do as your told&rsquo;s&rsquo;. The boys simply could not resist the temptation though and they paid for it.

One by one they were told to come away from the edge for some misdemeanour and sit with their mother on the bank until eventually with a final, &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t understand why you can&rsquo;t behave yourselves and do as your told!&rdquo; the last of the boys was banished from the water&rsquo;s edge (they had already been told off before the decking incident for paddling in a little slipway at the side of the river too).

I didn&#39;t take photos.

The last I saw of this family was a sight of four bemused boys and two irate parents packing their stuff away to head off home because the boys &ldquo;Could not be trusted&rdquo; (that was just one of the muttered comments made as they stormed off). I had moved away from the decking before it got to this point because I realised how tempted I was to point out to these two adults why their boys could not contain themselves and note that they were creating an impossible situation for them and their sons - but it would have been ugly. So I didn&rsquo;t.

I&rsquo;m not having a go at these parents, really I&rsquo;m not (who in their right mind would not agree that four young sons is a bit of a challenge) but what these adults failed to acknowledge was just how powerful the attraction of this mysterious substance called water is for the inquisitive mind and body.

Starfish Girl didn&rsquo;t come off much better either. After exclaiming and pointing at the starfish her father, walking and talking behind her without missing a beat, took hold of her hand and gently pulled her away from the edge of the quay and continued walking and chatting, towing a silently reluctant five year old with him. He didn&rsquo;t even notice what it was she had discovered.

In both of these cases water held a powerful fascination for these children and it lead to discoveries. And no small wonder because water is a unique material: nothing looks like it, feels like it, creates the colours, patterns and reflections that it does. Unfortunately, both these pairs of parents had an alternative agenda that day which overrode that of their offspring and without thinking they both wasted a fantastic opportunity to share in a little bit of wonder.

 

Marc Armitage

5/9/2012
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<pubDate>05 Sep 2012 01:38:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/disclosure-a-revelation-of-abuse-or-harm_111s29</link>
<title><![CDATA[Disclosure: &#145;a revelation of abuse or harm&#39; ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;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&rsquo;s happiness is nothing but a modern fad that has no real bearing on the real world. You&rsquo;re an idiot.&quot;

Some aspects of Playwork are harder than others. This story highlights one of the most profound.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[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&rsquo;s happiness is nothing but a modern fad that has no real bearing on the real world. You&rsquo;re an idiot.

Whist working with a group of primary school children recently one of them made a disclosure to me. This is something that all of us working with children and young people know may happen and so we should make sure we know the local procedure to be followed and how best to react to such a thing. But those of us in Playwork, particularly those working in a peripatetic sense travelling from venue to venue never staying long but consistently enough to establish a relationship with the children we are working with, possibly experience this more than some others might.

It is largely about the transitory yet close relationship we build-up but it is also because we blur the boundary between being adult and being child. The fact that we are neither teachers, nor carers or parents is also a key point and although we can never &lsquo;be&rsquo; children, if we get it right we can become as close to a trusted peer as might be possible.

When I was working as a travelling games worker in the 1980s the nature of the relationship being formed between me and the children I was working with made it ripe for disclosures - not every day you understand but certainly a handful of times a year. And it got to me every single time to the extent that on a number of occasions I seriously considered leaving that type of work behind.

The nature of my work now means that these disclosures have not happened for some time, we could measure it in years in fact; so when it was clear that it was going to happen this time I wasn&rsquo;t sure how I was going to react.

I knew in advance it was going to happen

It was with a small group I had been working with for around five months and while we were out walking around the playground making some decisions about where new areas should be created one of the group, an eight-year old girl insisted on holding my hand. As we heading off back into the school buildings she pulled me to one side and asked if she could whisper something in my ear. &#39;Here it comes&#39;, I thought.

I had already gone through in my head and reminded myself what the disclosure procedure was and I had already rehearsed what I was going to say: something along the lines of, &ldquo;Thank you for telling me that. That must have been a hard thing to do. It&rsquo;s very important that we tell someone this and please don&rsquo;t worry but I must tell other people that you have told me this.&rdquo;

When I bent down she actually lifted my long hair up so she could whisper closely in my ear. What she said wasn&rsquo;t quite what I was expecting but in some respects it was much worse. She simply said, with tears in her eyes, &ldquo;Marc, I&rsquo;m very, very unhappy.&rdquo;

When she expanded on this she said no-one at school would play with her and that at both school and home she spent a large amount of time on her own. She is quite recognisably a quiet girl but clearly she didn&rsquo;t want to be.

A message

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&rsquo;s happiness is nothing but a modern fad that has no real bearing on the real world. You&rsquo;re an idiot. This child was unhappy on a day to day basis and it was tearing her apart.

It was recorded, it was passed on and for the few remaining weeks of the project I made a point of asking how she was doing and what was going on. In the long term some of the changes we were about to make at this school will help her and in the future I think it&rsquo;s unlikely that she will ever remember holding up the hair of an aging playworker to whisper a secret into his ear.

But he will remember because one thing that proved no different this time to any other time such a thing has happened to him in the past was that it quite got to him. It still does as he writes this now.

 

Marc Armitage

25/6/2012
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<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/disclosure-a-revelation-of-abuse-or-harm_111s29</guid>
<pubDate>24 Jun 2012 17:41:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/converse-shoes-the-playwork-badge-of-office_111s34</link>
<title><![CDATA[Converse shoes &#150; the playwork badge of office ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I&rsquo;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 &ndash; even in a suit (true story). Today, I explain one of the reasons why.&quot;

Shoes. It comes down to shoes. Interestingly, this piece has been one the most commented on, most sharied pieces I&#39;ve ever written. Here it is brought up to date with a new crucial piece of information in a postscript.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[His parents had stressed to him &lsquo;never talk to strangers&rsquo; and in this case this policy has seriously backfired.



I&rsquo;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 &ndash; even in a suit (true story). Today, I explain one of the reasons why.

This last week I have tied neck-ties onto two primary school boys about to have their school photos taken (trickier than I thought as I&rsquo;ve never actually a put a tie on someone else) and tied up the shoe lace of another younger boy in a day-care setting. In both these cases they approached me and asked if I could help. There is another common factor in these two examples in that none of these children really knew who I am. They&rsquo;ve seen me around because I have been working at both these settings for a while &ndash; but not directly with any of these children and not on a very regular basis.

Quite some years ago I was stopped outside my local shops by a very nervous eight-year old boy. It was early evening towards the end of the year and so it was already dark. He told me he was lost and that he and his family were from out of town visiting his grand-mother but after heading for the local shops with his older brother they had become separated and he was lost. There followed some very clever questioning (by me, you know) to work out where he might have come from:

&lsquo;Was his grand-mothers house very far away?&rsquo;

No.

&lsquo;Which direction was it in?&rsquo;

That way. I think.

&lsquo;Was it a house or a bungalow?&rsquo;

House.

&lsquo;Was grand-mothers house down a street or round a square?&rsquo;

On a square with other houses.

&lsquo;Was there anything near her house you can remember or something you passed on the way to the shops?&rsquo;

There was a big field behind her house like a playing field.

That narrowed it down

It could only be up near the local primary school. So, we set off to find it with me saying keep watching and anything that rings a bell let me know.

We chatted all the way. He was from London, he had an older brother, it wasn&rsquo;t his grand-mother&rsquo;s birthday (or maybe it was he wasn&rsquo;t sure), his mum was there too &hellip; and suddenly, &ldquo;There!&rdquo; He pointed to a square of houses with the school field to one side. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s there!&rdquo;

And he was off. He ran straight across the square and up to one of the houses not waiting to knock on the door or ring a bell he just opened the door and went straight in. No word to me, no backward glance &hellip; just straight in. I waited for a bit longer just to make sure no old lady appeared on the doorstep with a puzzled expression on her face and then turned back for home.

The thing I haven&rsquo;t told you about this story was that he had said he had been standing outside the local shops for some time getting increasingly agitated (he thought at least twenty-minutes). His parents had stressed to him &lsquo;never talk to strangers&rsquo; and in this case this policy has seriously backfired because all he could see around him were strangers. He told me he had thought of going into one of the shops to ask for help but found that an even more frightening prospect than being lost.

But then, he saw someone wearing black and white Converse shoes on his feet and this turned out to be significant. It was this one simple thing that prompted him to approach me and ask for help and I&rsquo;ve worn my black and white converse like a badge of office since then.

This harks back to the question of trusting adults being essential in creating playful communities that I touched on in my last piece A Tree and a Boy and the importance of &lsquo;someone&rsquo; knocking on a few doors as part of that.

Perhaps that is what happened here: was there some unspoken, unconscious door knocking going on on my part; something tangible enough to enable a child to ask a stranger if I could tie a noose around their neck, do up their shoe laces, or help them when they are lost? It&rsquo;s not something I did consciously and I admit I&rsquo;m not quite sure what it was &hellip; but it can&rsquo;t just be a question of footwear, surely?

 

Marc Armitage

19/6/2012

 

POSTCRIPT

There is something to add to this piece that I did not mention in the 2012 original.

At one point this eight-year old asked me if I was a Playworker. Frankly, I was rather taken aback at this &ndash; I am but how did he know?! He explained that he was a regular attender at an adventure playground in his home town of London and the playworkers there wore black and white converse. This is the reason he approached me - the playworkers he knew back home were good people, so maybe I was too.

The photo above is of a bunch of British Playworkers (including me) sat on the back row at a professional development day at the University of Gloucestershire.
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<pubDate>18 Jun 2012 23:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/a-tree-and-a-boy_111s40</link>
<title><![CDATA[A Tree and a Boy ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;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 &ndash; two of us in the same house.&quot;

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.
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<content><![CDATA[It happened because someone made the effort to knock on a few doors, introduce themselves and explain a few things.



 

Mike Lanza at Playborhood recently wrote,

&ldquo;Most children, particularly young ones, don&rsquo;t care at all about privacy in their yards. Rather, they want to play, and when they reach a certain age, they&rsquo;re very keen to find playmates to share in their play. Most parents ignore this fact when they erect high bushes and fences for privacy.&quot;

 

That&rsquo;s a very good point and in general I agree but want to share one example of where this was not the case.

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 &ndash; two of us in the same house.

We had a garden round the back of the house hidden from the street by a combination of high walls and overgrown bushes which was quite small, very wild and overgrown and had as its centre-piece an enormous tree. It reminded me greatly of my own favourite place to play when I was younger (which was not a million miles away from this spot).

As children we had called it &ldquo;The Jungle&rdquo; because it was an equally wild space full of odd plants and linking paths. I don&rsquo;t recall ever seeing any adult in the Jungle at all but I do remember spending a lot of time there meeting and playing with my friends. I didn&rsquo;t discover until well into my adult years that the Jungle was actually the gardens of four enormous old houses which had long since been demolished but the gardens remained and had simply grown into each other producing a curious mix of domestic garden plants and wildness &ndash; hence the name we had given it.

The tree in my 1980s garden was a fantastic climber and so combined with its general wildness it is probably not surprising to learn that it was very, very popular with local children as a place to play. At times there would be hordes of local children playing in the garden and parents would quite often turn up at our front door to ask if their own kids where there.

Do your parents know you are here?

There was no knowing when children would turn up. They always came in small groups rather than individually and the period immediately after school on a week-day seemed to be the most popular time. When children did turn up I would usually ask, &ldquo;Do your parents know where you are today?&rdquo; and if the answer was &lsquo;no&rsquo; (or at times &lsquo;yes&rsquo; but clearly &lsquo;no&rsquo;) we would chuck them out, tell them to report in at home and then come straight back.

When we discovered new children who we didn&rsquo;t know we always made a point of going round to their parent&rsquo;s house to introduce ourselves and explain that we were playworkers, that our rough garden with its tree had become a very special local playspace, and that they were free to use it when they wished.

We never once had to advertise the garden amongst local children despite its hidden location. They all knew it was there and they all knew it had a great climbing tree, long grass, and a pair of playworkers that fed them on biscuits and juice on hot days. Importantly they also knew that there was a good chance their friends would be there if they randomly called round.

It was one of these random occasions when I could hear someone in the garden &ndash; obviously children &ndash; so I thought I&rsquo;d better pop my head round and say hello, just to check who was there really. There were a good half-dozen of the usual suspects climbing the tree and generally enjoying themselves but there was also one boy that I didn&rsquo;t recognise. He seemed to be getting on with everyone so I wasn&rsquo;t too worried but there was this unwritten rule that we should always know who was in the garden. So I asked one of the regulars, &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s your new friend?&rdquo;

&ldquo;Him?&rdquo;

&quot;Him?&quot; he said, &ldquo;no idea!&rdquo; And it turned out none of the others had any idea who he was either or where he&rsquo;d come from. But at some point during the day he had tagged along and they had just accepted him as one of their group. It turned out they didn&rsquo;t even know his name.

As a group of adults living down that street it didn&rsquo;t really bring us closer together as a community (although I know plenty of other examples where similar things have). But what it did do was bring the children living in that street together. The boundaries that had been removed here were not the physical ones of fencing and bushes (quite the reverse in fact): it was the boundary of adults trusting each other. It didn&rsquo;t happen by chance. It happened because someone made the effort to knock on a few doors, introduce themselves and explain a few things.

Local communities need places where children can meet and those places can be private gardens as much as the park or the street &ndash; if they are accessible. High bushes and fences can, as Playborhood say, be a barrier but the greatest barrier of all is a lack of trust amongst local adults. Getting that back is the first step to rebuilding playful communities.

 

Marc Armitage

10/6/2012
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<pubDate>10 Jun 2012 01:43:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/the-importance-of-touching-stuff_111s33</link>
<title><![CDATA[The Importance of Touching Stuff ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;He momentarily lost his balance but once he&rsquo;d recovered he put the stick back on the fence and carried on plinking and plonking.&quot;

Adults can help and adults can hinder. It&#39;s as simply a matter of attitude.
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<content><![CDATA[He momentarily lost his balance but once he&rsquo;d recovered he put the stick back on the fence and carried on plinking and plonking.

Some years ago I related an observation made in a neighbourhood street in a paper I wrote for a conference. In front of me was a young man, of maybe four going five, who was walking along the footpath with a stick in one hand and his (what I presume) was his mothers in the other.

He reached a metal fence on his side of the path, one of those with upright iron bars with spikes on, and did exactly what you might expect a five year old with a stick in his hand to do &ndash; he started running it along the fence making a bumping, plinky, plonky noise. The adult with him subtlety pulled him away from the fence. He momentarily lost his balance but once he&rsquo;d recovered he put the stick back on the fence and carried on plinking and plonking.

Once again the adult pulled him away but this time stayed just far enough away to make it impossible for him to reach the fence. And this is when it got interesting because despite clearly being told twice (without a single word being used at any time) to &lsquo;stop it&rsquo; he endeavoured to carry on, stretching his arm out and his stick as far as he could to try to make contact with the fence again.

He never did succeed even though he wound up leaning at a distinct angle away from his mother in the attempt. I couldn&rsquo;t see his face but I could image his tongue sticking out in concentration and effort.

At the time I wrote about this I was questioning what was going through the mind of the adult in this case. His need to touch this fence with his stick and go plink plonk was clearly very powerful and he made a big effort to continue doing it despite being physically restricted by his (presumed) mother.

Monday Mornings

The reason I mention this is because of something else I saw this morning, just now, in the local shopping centre buying the bread, bacon and milk that make Monday mornings bearable. In the centre there is a coffee shop which is currently closed and undergoing refurbishment and so is surrounded by one of those jolly shiny poster things that aims to say &lsquo;we are not closed really, honest &hellip; opening again soon.&rsquo; 

As I was leaving the centre there was coming towards me another young man, this one maybe two going three, being pushed along in his pushchair by (what I also presumed) was his mother. As they passed the shiny poster thing he reached out to touch it - but it was just that little bit too far away. The adult noticed this and what did she do? She steered the buggy inwards just far enough so that he COULD make contact with the shiny poster thing. He ran his hand along the entire length of that poster stroking every last bit of it and, at the very end, withdrew his hand and flashed a massive smile on his face.

I doubt very much whether the (presumed) mother with him realised the importance of what she had done in that very subtle little movement.  It was clearly deliberate, as was the subtle movement in the first example that had had the opposite effect.

The need to touch stuff is clearly important for young children. Yes, it has a lot to do with sound and texture and all that but the bottom line is it&rsquo;s about the actual physical sensation of touching something and experiencing it through our body that makes it so powerful &ndash; it&rsquo;s a link between us and it.

And if the above examples teach us anything it is that providing for that to happen, or preventing it, takes just the same amount of subtle effort. 

 

Marc Armitage

5/5/2012
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<pubDate>04 May 2012 23:22:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/should-children-have-access-to-facebook_111s41</link>
<title><![CDATA[Should children Have Access to Facebook? ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Why is it that a legislator feels the necessity to legally protect the rights of adults in relation to privacy and social networking but not of children and young people?&quot;

This is not a question of new fangled technology and the need for the latest electronic gizmo. It&#39;s about independence and recognising that the children and young people of today live different lives to that which we did and have opportunities available to them which we may not fully understand.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[Why is it that a legislator feels the necessity to legally protect the rights of adults in relation to privacy and social networking but not of children and young people?

Following a spate of stories showing prospective employers demanding job interviewees hand over their Facebook passwords, the US state of Maryland has become the first to pass a Bill that would make this practice illegal. But there&rsquo;s a problem. The media has been full of similar stories of school pupils being banned from having social media pages or likewise facing demands for their passwords from school authorities but the Bill mentions this not.

We are not talking of a simple telling off here either as some of the punishments inflicted by schools for non compliance might appear a tad draconian. For example, a Catholic high school in the Philippines recently banned a 16 year girl from graduating because of disapproval of a photo which appeared on her Facebook page showing her wearing a bikini and smoking a cigarette; and an orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn also threatened (and enacted) fines of $100 or potential expulsion if students did not delete their on-line profiles.

Both these examples are of schools with a strict religious affiliation and using &lsquo;modesty&rsquo; to legitimatise their stance so perhaps this should not come as too much of a surprise but there are plenty of examples of secular schools taking similar action too so it&rsquo;s not all down to a defined sense of what is and what is not decent. Either way, school pupils all over the world are finding their access to social media restricted and their privacy in this respect questioned.

What&rsquo;s the difference here, I wonder

Why is it that a legislator feels the necessity to legally protect the rights of adults in relation to privacy and social networking but not of children and young people?

It may be because, from the school perspective, those that have implemented some kind of ban seem to feel firmly in the right and are justified in their actions. Aside from the modesty defence, for example, child protection and a desire to eliminate cyber-bullying has been another of the common reasons given for restrictions or an outright ban - and how can we fail to see the logic in that?

But whereas no one can deny that bullying is serious issue for some children or that cyber-bullying presents practicalities that can be difficult to challenge, the question of bullying by electronic means needs to be placed into context with the whole issue of bullying. There is also recognition that the solution to cyber-bulling may lay in the very media in which it is being practiced.

It is also a little uncomfortable to acknowledge the fact that a fear of cyber-bullying seems to take on a different dimension when related to bullying of teachers by pupils or sometimes by their parents. This is an issue that has engaged teacher organisations and trade unions which are powerful bodies that quite rightly do not shy away from calling for action in defensive of their members. In this context teachers are on record as saying they often fear the Facebook backlash more than they fear their school inspections. 



photo: Maryland Senate Bill 433 and &#39;Teachers fear Facebook more than inspectors&#39; 

A brief trawl of online stories relating to social media and cyber-bullying seems to produce many more child/parents-on-teacher stories than child-on-child which presents the possibility that an outright ban or close monitoring of pupil Facebook pages is more about protection of the teacher than of the pupil.

To be fair this issue bites both ways as a group of teachers from my own home city found when derogatory comments made about pupils and parents on their personal Facebook pages became public and led their dismissal.  Teacher unions have also expressed concerns over the role of social network sites in improper contact between teachers and pupils.

Confusion

Despite this there seems to be genuine confusion over the approach that schools should take towards social media and this is resulting in a haphazard and inconsistent approach. Take for instance the case of Angelica Cruikshank whose school authorities, contrary to the examples above, fell firmly on the side of her pupils in her approach to preventing social media use.  &ldquo;You seem unaware,&rdquo; the school authorities wrote following her suspension, &ldquo;of student privacy concerns and used extremely poor judgment in taking the steps you took to address these concerns.&rdquo;

Perhaps the source of this confusion is more practical: could it be that advances in electronic media, like so many other social and technological issues of the past, have simply overtaken the personal knowledge and experience of teachers? That certainly seems to be the case with one middle school principal who warned the parents of his school on the dangers of electronic media and communications saying, &ldquo;There is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site! None.&rdquo; He did this without a touch of irony via the schools email contacts list.

Or maybe this is just another case of a knee-jerk, reach for the pen and list of &lsquo;Things-To-Be-Banned&rsquo; issue adding social media sites to the ban on skirts, trousers, training shoes, bracelets, non-approved hairstyles, hard footballs and regional dialects that frequently seem to face disapproval in schools; a &lsquo;Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do-because-its-for-your-own-good&rsquo; kind of approach.

Actually, I don&rsquo;t think any of these examples get to the bottom of this. I don&rsquo;t think this is a straightforward case of &lsquo;Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone&rsquo;. it&rsquo;s more of a &lsquo;Hey, teacher, before you adopt the knee jerk reaction of an outright ban for dubious educational and social reasons would you please take a considered approach to what it is you are asking for and please question if your approach is proportionate in this day of wider social media&rsquo; kind of issue.

The bottom line - nearly

I think the bottom line reason is really another of those simple fears &lsquo;of&rsquo; not &lsquo;for&rsquo; our children. It&rsquo;s a, &lsquo;Just-what-on-Earth-are-they-getting-up-when-out-of-our-close-supervision&rsquo; fear. In the school context this becomes a power issue and one in which schools have it and students do not.

The minimum age for having a profile on Facebook is thirteen but anyone who thinks that a significant number below that age are not already regular users is taking the ostrich-head-in-the-sand approach to children&rsquo;s social lives.

Nor, should we forget, is Facebook the only example of a social media site that children make regular use of. Access to social media in its wider sense is as essential a part of modern life for children and teenagers in 2012 as having a pair of clackers was in the 1970s and whatever the justification we use for restricting access to it the result is the same: an invasion of privacy and a breakdown in trust that would simply not be acceptable in the adult world - a point that seems to have missed the mainstream media.

Finally the bottom line

In the main, I don&rsquo;t think school authorities are deliberately interfering in the private lives of their pupils for no good reason - I think it is more to do with some schools not considering the possibility that their pupils actually have a private life in the first place.

 

Marc Armitage

28/4/2014
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<pubDate>28 Apr 2012 01:51:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.marc-armitage.com/blog-archive/do-children-need-more-time-with-their-parents-or-less_111s35</link>
<title><![CDATA[Do Children Need More Time with Their Parents, or Less? ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Posing a question in 2005 Paul Martin said, &ldquo;We all say we want children to be happy, but it is a notoriously elusive aspect of human existence. How can parents help children to maximise their chances of being happy people?&quot;

This piece questions our perception of &#39;quality time&#39; in children&#39;s lives and challenges the idea that what children need most is to spend more time in parental company. It highlights the findings of a number of surveys and studies, gives IKEA a shout-out and name drops some significant thinkers on this topic.
]]></description>
<content><![CDATA[&lsquo;Quality time&rsquo;, far from being the time that children spend with their parents, may actually be the time that they spend away from them.

Posing a question in 2005 Paul Martin said, &ldquo;We all say we want children to be happy, but it is a notoriously elusive aspect of human existence. How can parents help children to maximise their chances of being happy people?&rdquo;

Publication of a recent research report by unicef into children&rsquo;s well-being has brought this issue back into the public eye with a bang and seems to offer us a possible answer.

The report was picked up and reported by a broad spectrum of the UK media which seems to have universally concluded that the report is saying Britain&rsquo;s children are unhappy compared to the rest of the world because British parents give their children materialistic things rather then their time.

The BBC for example reported this as, &lsquo;Our Children Need Time Not Stuff,  The Huffington Post as &lsquo;Children want time not toys&rsquo;, and The Guardian as, &lsquo;How to make children happy? Reduce social inequality&rsquo;. Despite the comment on social inequality the latter said, &ldquo;British parents are tired, over-worked and stressed to a point where they find it difficult to find the time and energy for what children value most &ndash; shared family time, outings and interests.&rdquo;

The right-wing press was generally in agreement. The Daily Mail went with &lsquo;For society&rsquo;s sake, spend time, not money, on your children&rsquo;  and the Daily Telegraph succinctly lead with, &lsquo;Cycle of &lsquo;compulsive consumerism&rsquo; leaves British family life  in crisis, Unicef study finds&rsquo; - summarising this by saying, &ldquo;British parents are trapping their children in a cycle of &lsquo;compulsive consumerism&rsquo; by showering them with toys and designer labels instead of spending quality time with them, a UN report has found.&rdquo;

&lsquo;Quality time&rsquo;

Now there&rsquo;s an interesting phrase we shall return to.

Seems fair enough then. But aside from the risk of placing yet more guilt on the shoulders of British parents there is a down side to the conclusion that what children need is to spend more time with their parents. On first reading this idea seems to make perfect sense and it chime&rsquo;s well with the PlayReport produced by IKEA in 2010. The IKEA report, which calls itself the world&rsquo;s largest study on play, involved something like 11,000 interviews in 25 countries with 8,000 parents and 3,000 children. It found that 45% of those parents felt that they did not have enough time to play with their own children, and 73% of children are reported to feel it was more fun to play with their parents than watch TV.

Or at least that&rsquo;s what the film displaying the results of the survey says: what the written results actually say is that children reported nine to one that they preferred playing with their friends and their parents rather than watch TV (my italics). That&rsquo;s not quite the same thing.



photo: the IKEA Play Report 2011

The unicef report, in the first paragraph in the section headed &lsquo;Children&rsquo;s Views&rsquo; concurs,

&ldquo;What constitutes a &lsquo;good day&rsquo; for children was very simple: time with those they love (friends, family and even pets); creative or sporting activities; being outdoors and having fun. These were spontaneously mentioned by almost every child we interviewed in all three countries. Across the three nations [Sweden, Spain and the UK] there was a distinct lack of material possessions in children&rsquo;s descriptions of a good day; it was people, and not things that made them happy.&rdquo;

The British press, with the possible exception of the Guardian, has gone firmly down the &lsquo;lack of time with parents&rsquo; route as the principle cause of children&rsquo;s unhappiness which, admittedly, the report does place a focus on; a view which may have been strengthened by the reports point that by the time children in the UK have entered secondary school their engagement in &lsquo;active and creative pursuits&rsquo; had decline when compared to other countries. But the importance of &lsquo;friends&rsquo; and the &lsquo;outdoors&rsquo; seems to have generally missed comment.

Ask any parent to describe their own long standing memories of childhood and it is unlikely that adults will figure very highly, either parent or professional, but those memories in all likelihood will include friends. A word that might also come up time and time again would be &lsquo;freedom&rsquo;.  In fact it is often the loss of this that parents latch on to when asked to describe the difference between their childhood and that of their own children. Increasing the time spent with parents is unlikely to result in more of that.

Whether you call it independence, self-reliance, play or whatever children spending time in the company of friends and away from their parents and other adults in general is clearly important. The research leading to the publication of the 2004 &lsquo;National Review of Children&rsquo;s Play&rsquo; (UK) for example concluded that what children and young people said they wanted more than anything else was to spend more time outside and with their friends.

Biologically, if independence were not developmentally important then children from around the age of seven or eight would not crave it to the extent they do or spend as much effort getting it to anything like the degree they universally do.

Frank Furedi says, &ldquo;Some of the most character-forming childhood experiences occur in peer-group situations, free from adult supervision&rdquo; with the clear implication that these experiences must take place away from the gaze of adults or they possibly would not take place at all.

And Peter K Smith agrees noting that, &ldquo;Play is generally fun; but not all play is fun, and not all play is approved of by parents.&rdquo; Even worse is the finding that when adults do engage with their young the result is often a further restriction in playing. Evidence from anthropology and zoology shows that adult humans and other animals often engage in play in order to use it as a distraction, as a way of getting children out of an adults way, and for keeping them occupied.

Gill Valentine takes this further arguing that there is the added pressure on parents to keep their children closer to home and therefore &ldquo;...have more control over where they are and hence control over their safety.&rdquo; But this degree of control goes beyond mere safety to active restrictions over what can and cannot be done &ndash; in the name of safety. Valentine puts this by saying, &ldquo;... play is becoming more home centred (and therefore supervised by adults), children are being compensated for the decline in their independent mobility and therefore their independent activity by the substitution of adult-controlled institutional activities.&rdquo;

It is, as Paul Martin quoted at the start says, important to parents that our children are happy in their childhood and subsequently become happier adults, and we do have an important part in this. He starts his article by stating that peoples personal relationships are top of the list of requirements for happy children noting the important role of both parents and schools in fostering that; but ends by reminding us that, &#39;

&ldquo;... probably the most effective mechanism by which children develop their social and emotional competence does not require schools, teachers or parents. It is called play and it is a remarkable thing.&rdquo;

The Opie&rsquo;s (Iona and Peter Opie, the great collectors of children&rsquo;s play and childlore) say in the introduction to &lsquo;Children&rsquo;s Games in Street and Playground that, &ldquo;... however much children may need looking after they are also people going about their own business within their own society, and are fully capable of occupying themselves under the jurisdiction of their own code.&rdquo; This is something which we adults must not lose sight of because, in short, children will do what they need to do if given the time and space in order to be able to do it.

This is not to say that children do not wish to spend time with their parents or enjoy the experience when they do; nor is it to say that there is no important place for parents in fostering happier children. But what it is to say is that &lsquo;quality time&rsquo;, far from being the time that children spend with their parents, may actually be the time that they spend &lsquo;away&rsquo; from them. Quality is in those important things children can do when they are not being stopped from doing so by a guilt ridden parent.

 

Marc Armitage

23/9/2011

 

Notes:

Full source notes in pdf version. 
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<pubDate>22 Sep 2011 23:49:00 GMT</pubDate>
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