Serious stuff – this protection of children that are growing up in families in our Focus Group – I have said already that it can be a matter of life and death.
And it sometimes is!
But that doesn’t mean that we have to be stern, serious and sombre all the time. (Po-faced is the old out-of-date word that comes to my mind here). In fact, being light of heart and playful, and protecting children in distress are not mutually exclusive.
The old proverb that states all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy is probably hundreds of years old. And it posits a very important truth. One interpretation is that we allow Jack time off work so he can play – and then he won’t turn out dull.
But a more interesting interpretation might be that we include play in Jack’s day-to-day work and then he’ll turn out bright.
And I wonder does all play and no work make Jack a dull boy? To answer this question I’d like to refer to this post, where I stated that if we are not responsible we’ll suffer existential guilt – that is, the guilt we have if we are not authentic or true to ourselves. And being responsible usually involves doing a bit of work. So even if all play and no work doesn’t make Jack dull, it will certainly affect his well-being.
The writer George Bernard Shaw perceptively stated: We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. I find this interesting because I have noticed over the course of my life that as we age many of us seem to afford playing less importance than we do when we are young. We don’t have time, or we funnel it into competitive pursuits, or we are worried about how it would affect our authority as parents, or bosses – or our image as workers – or we’re playful only under the influence of alcohol, or similar situations.
Getting away from Jack, and George, and back to playfulness in general, the principal reason why it is important to allow (and foster) it is that our role involves a lot of informal education (in the broadest sense – of course) and we learn a lot faster when we 1): are enjoying ourselves, and 2): perceive ourselves to be free to play; than when we are under duress and feel that we have to work.
This is true for everyone but far truer for those who associated learning as children with tension, anxiety or failure, or, indeed, for whom school had no meaning or relevance.
When I say free to play above, I don’t mean always cracking jokes or acting the clown or giving high-fives. (Though there might be a bit of that)……
I mean that we are free to play around with ideas, our own potential, interests, what helps us and what doesn’t, limits of acceptable behaviour and emotions we might not have played with before; all within at ease relationships.