Learning Through Play
MCNS is a play-centered school. We believe that the best and most effective way for young children to learn is through their play. Play, according to L.S.Vygotsky and Jean Piaget, among many other educational researchers, is children’s work. It is serious business. Children concentrate when they play and become deep thinkers.
Unfortunately this philosophy is currently under attack. Children are subjected to testing at a very young age. Worksheets and computers have filtered down to kindergarten and even pre-K classes. Many kindergartens are now as structured as first grades were as recently as a decade ago. Blocks and dramatic play areas are being removed from kindergarten classrooms.
David Elkind, professor of child development at Tufts University, writes in this month’s issue of Exchange of a conversation he had with a mother of a four year old child enrolled in the Children’s School at Tufts. They both were observing a class of children in which the woman’s child was enrolled. The children were deeply involved in activities they had chosen for themselves. Some were in the dramatic play area learning to cooperate, take turns, and how to follow instructions. Other children were painting at easels, learning motor control, expressing themselves graphically, and engaging in the scientific study of color mixing. Still others were playing in the block area experimenting with gravity and learning geometric shapes and size relationships.
After a few minutes he noticed that the mother seemed upset. He asked her if anything was wrong and the mother complained that all the children were doing was playing. “My friend’s son goes to another nursery school, and he is learning his letters ad numbers, even works on the computer. How is my son going to be able to compete?” What this mother saw was children wasting their valuable time playing. In fact, academic learning was going on, and it was occurring in a self-initiated, age-appropriate way.
Children learn to understand social roles through play. They learn to control impulses and learn how to give and take and make compromises. Research confirms that social competency is a primary indicator of success. This cannot be gained from worksheets or sitting alone at a computer working one’s way through even the most engaging educational programs. Problem-solving, leadership, and taking turns all are developed through play with other children.
Children create plots as they play. They learn to sequence. They learn to develop complex story lines that make sense. All of this prepares them to read and write. They solve scientific and mathematical problems. Play is symbolic, and, by engaging in symbolic play, children are building a foundation for reading and mathematics. Children learn the meaning of symbols through their play. This helps them comprehend the symbolic meaning of words and numbers, that words and numbers represent things.
David Elkind concludes:
Through
playful activities young children acquire
the prerequisite concepts for the attainment
of the tool skills of reading and math. However
well intended, when we substitute instruction
for spontaneous play in early childhood,
we hinder rather than help the attainment
of these concepts. Accordingly,
play in early childhood is neither a
waste of time nor a luxury. Rather, play
is a fundamental mode of learning that
ensures the best preparation for benefiting from
later academic instruction.
This article by the Older Group teacher, Susan Milligan, is reprinted from a recent school newsletter.
