My Connections to Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

 

My family believed in play. They encouraged my active imagination and bought it to life. I grew up as the youngest of three children. I was self-absorbed player, mainly because my older brother and sister were in high school by the time that I entered kindergarten. Without any cousins or other children close to my age, my imagination became my best friend.

 When I wanted to play dress up and pretend that I was going to a glorious ball like Cinderella, my Mom got dressed with me and did my hair so that the prince would pick me first for a dance. I imagined living above a bakery like Tootie on The Facts of Life, so my Dad and my grandparents created a diner in the basement. I remember them getting dressed up and coming to my diner to eat food, both plastic and imaginary, while leaving real tips. The tips allowed me to buy books, which I read with amazing voracity because I would entirely lose myself in the pages. I created worlds from the typed words.

 

“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there”. Miles Davis

        My play was birthed from imagination and bought to life by creativity. As a teenager, I fell in love with art and dancing because it allowed me to be creative. As an adult, I became a teacher because it allows for nonstop creativity and a passion for play.

 

            Unfortunately, my students are not very involved in play. Their imagination rarely flows outside the confines of the latest video game or reality show. Perhaps, they know too much…they have nothing left to discover because they are bombarded by too much reality. Perhaps they never learn how to enjoy play; so many are pushed into maturity prematurely by irresponsible adults and nonexistent parents. It is truly shameful, how society has forgotten play. But, I remember it and I do it daily. I love to play.