More on the Spirit of Play

It’s all well and good, you say, to want to “inspire” young writers. To “play.” Blah, blah, blah.

But we have standards to meet. Tests to prepare for. Parents, politicians, experts to answer to. We have to create lesson plans and then we have to show them to, have them approved by our bosses. And teachers have lots and lots of bosses. Did I mention parents, politicians, and experts?

These objections are of course well taken. I have no comfortable response to them. But doesn’t it seem that educational
“accountability” has become a tad like the quarterly reports corporations put out and seem to live by? They, the corporations, have stockholders to answer to, and stockholders are impatient. They get nervous if the stock is not “earning.”

Schools have “stakeholders,” a not coincidental choice of terms in our present environment. These stakeholders are an impatient lot. They are caught up in the competition-in-the-world-marketplace obsession that seems to hold the whole country in its grip. They get nervous if students are not “learning.”

And how do we measure that learning? Empirically, of course. By the metrics. By matching the rubrics. By looking at the bottom line numbers delivered by the tests. This looks more and more like a quarterly report of earnings.

It would be silly to argue against measuring student learning, but most thoughtful classroom teachers would tell you that we have gone overboard. Given the present testing environment, it is less and less possible for teachers to teach their passions, the areas where they are most likely to inspire their students.

If we were less hysterical, less concerned with stepping from high school to college to high paying job to comfortable life in a safe neighborhood—all perfectly fine steps—but if we were less hysterical, we might begin making a habit of having dinner together and talking. We might take our time. Read a book together. Talk. Not zone out in front of the new plasma screen as often or as long. Talk. We might then know how our kids were doing without the intensity of testing they now endure and that, frankly, is warping the system.

We are obsessed with having more and have taken the traditional, valid idea that education is the path to a better life and conflated it with business and the false idol of physical and financial security. For some time now, chasing this illusion, our universities have become trade schools for managers, accountants, and marketers, crowding out the liberal arts in prestige and resources. This is a profound mistake.

What we need as a culture and as a polity are fewer expert test takers and many, many more lifelong learners, people who can think creatively and independently. People who will push back—and push us all forward.

A 2006 report by the National Governors Association found that readers of literature—poetry, plays, short stories, and novels—were more engaged in social and civic activities and enhanced community life significantly. This is just one of many studies coming to the same conclusion.

So, yes, let’s inspire kids to love reading and writing. We've long ago proven that going about this with a long face doesn't work. Being joyful, playing, does not equal lazy, so let's keep that spirit of play alive through and then long after elementary school.