Boundaries of Play -- Discussion With Elementary Children: What do you say to your friends right before you start to play? (continued...)
During this initial part of the dialogue, Isaac said, “Make believe is like real life and then it gets confusing.” This really was an awesome observation and I told him that I was very impressed. It is exactly this blurring or confusion between make believe and real life that causes Academic Philosophers to continue to struggle with these questions in Philosophy of Literature and Aesthetics. He was so excited that I took his thought seriously that he told me during break, “I think it is (neat) that a grown-up can learn from my thoughts!!” This is the excitement in a good Philosophy for Children program. This journal entry is a continuation on an important topic, Boundaries of Play:
Discussion Thoughts for Blog Audience!
Boundaries of play… what are the rules?
Rule 1: When entering an imaginary world either through literature or play, we start by a storytelling lead- in or by verbal cues so that all the children that are participating in the play know that they are in a pretend world.
Rule 2: In the literary world, the children should know that the story is fictional when reading imaginative literature. In the Pretend / Play world, children should have a voice as to which pretend world they will participate.
What happens to a playtime situation in which one child creates the world but doesn’t allow the other children in on the game? What if one child started pretending that the other child is an enemy pirate but doesn’t let him in on the game? Would the other child act surprised? Hurt? Confused?
This last scenario is like one child is inside the pretend box but the other children are wondering around outside the box. This can lead to arguments, scuffles, and spoiled fun because one child has created a pretend world and the others are left out and confused.
What are the other consequences to the above scenario? Well as Isaac said, “Make believe is like real life and then it gets confusing.” Why does it get confusing to the child? Because he has not been “let in” on the game plan-- the scene, the setting, or the desired pretend world. He may not know if he’s supposed to be a good guy or bad guy in this play world. The whole point of a pretend world is to explore other places, characters, adventures, and yes, to create “magic” in a safe, mentally healthy, and friendly environment to their play.
When one child is left out of the box, it can create a psychological confusion. Is this pretend? Is my friend mad at me? Is that why he is fighting with me now? How come I am not being heard? I feel hurt and confused. I wanted to help create the play… I wanted to do or be this person…..etc.
I remember a disturbing social experiment that my 6th grade teacher had done at a teacher’s workshop and she thought it would be great fun for the students to try it. However; it quickly disintegrated to short term psychological meltdowns, tears, confusion, and angry outbursts. What was the game she instituted? She tried an adult psychological game where the rules of play are broken on young children. Each child had a secret TV character’s name on their back where they couldn’t be seen except by the other children. The other children were supposed to talk and react to each other as if the child really were that character. But the child himself did not know who his character was and then he was supposed to discern the character from the way the other children were treating him. That’s ok maybe for an adult, though I wouldn’t recommend this type of activity even for adults; but it turned into a disastrous classroom activity, showing poor judgment on the teacher’s part. I still remember that day. One child had a TV character that was notorious as being a grumpy know-it-all bigot. Therefore the other kids were acting very angry to this child and telling him hurtful things because of who he was supposed to be. The young boy, my classmate, broke down in tears, yelled at the teacher and the kids, was very hurt and it was so bad, I think the teacher had to send him to the principal’s office. I remember thinking, “Am I the only one appalled by this activity? Couldn’t the teacher see how confused and hurt he was? “
So who broke the rules of play here? The children or the teacher? Certainly not the child who was hurt. He didn’t even know what or if he was playing at all. All the children unknowingly broke the boundaries of play instigated by the teacher.
I want to sum up part 2 of this blog thread: It is not play at all if one child is left outside of the box, confused, and hurt. He has no idea where his reality ends and where the “play” is supposed to start. In part 3, I’ll look at scenarios of family life where the boundaries of play are broken.
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