Looking back on our childhood, as children we spent most of our school day playing with toys, spending time on the playground at recess, or participating in games with peers. The average American school day has incorporated play into the daily agenda for many generations. Unfortunately, now the presence of play in classrooms across the country has declined. The crucial benefits of classroom play and its purpose for children of early ages have recently been overlooked due to the draw to formal education for more younger children. Each year in America, there is a steady growing decline of classroom play in the education system. In order to incorporate the role of classroom play in average school days, we must inform Americans of the different types of classroom play, explain the developmental benefits that result to learning benefits from play, address the societal factors that have decreased the prevalence of play in early learning, and lastly, make requirements for the school systems to incorporate play in the classroom for a certain amount of time every school day.

The role of play in the education system is declining and is a heavily overlooked issue by society. There are many societal factors that contribute to the decline of classroom play in the education system. Over the past sixty years the role of play has gradually declined in classrooms and the benefits to development and early learning are factors.

There is a large misconception regarding exactly what classroom play consists of. “Many people often think of play in the form of images of young children at recess engaging in games of tag, ball, using slides, swings, and physically exploring environments. But physical play is not the only kind of play” (Kaufman). This is a large misunderstanding of play in the classroom where many vital components of development and key benefits to early learning can be unaddressed.

Classroom play consists of both pretend play and physical play. Physical play occurs in the classroom in the form of daily recess in schools and is mimicked to closely resemble the design of “free play”. “Free play” was a necessary component of life for young during the times of hunting and gathering, it requires absolutely no supervision with endless freedom. Since this is incredibly

 

difficult to perform in our current society where parent supervision is encouraged, physical play offers the same benefits of social and emotional development (Gray).

Pretend play occurs in the classroom through “make-believe” and fantasy. Pretend play 

allows for children to “act out stories which involve multiple perspectives and the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions” (Kaufman). These components reflect the features of a child’s cognitive and social development, “Over the last seventy-five years a number of theorists and researchers have identified the values of such imaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child” (Kaufman).

There is a large misconception regarding exactly what classroom play consists of. “Many people often think of play in the form of images of young children at recess engaging in games of tag, ball, using slides, swings, and physically exploring environments. But physical play is not the only kind of play” (Kaufman). This is a large misunderstanding of play in the classroom where many vital components of development and key benefits to early learning can be unaddressed.

There are many developmental benefits that result from classroom play in young children. In pretend play, “Systematic research expresses a series of clear cognitive benefits resulting from imaginative play in children from ages two and one half to ages six and seven” (Kaufman). The benefits consist of increases in language, symbolism, divergent thinking, and the ability to “integrate emotion with cognition” (Kaufman). 

One of the most important benefits resulting from pretend play is the development of “theory of mind.This is an incredibly important notion for children to grasp at this age.  Theory of mind  is the awareness that one’s thoughts differ from others and is incredibly crucial to child development (Kaufman). Theory of mind is a benefit from pretend play that cannot be learned 

from a text book. It is important to realize that many of these developmental benefits can improve the way that children view themselves, their peers, and the world. 

Other benefits that share this role in being beneficial to a childs mental well being are forms of self- regulation, such as reduced aggression and development of empathy in children. All of these components are incredibly important to a child’s ability to think critically and be 

able to understand that everyone’s thoughts differ. Pretend play leads to of many developmental benefits that all contribute to the overall development of a human being. Self-regulation skills, awareness of others, and empathy are just a few of the developmental benefits derived from pretend play. These are skills that are learned through experience and not taught through formal education in a text book.

There are also cognitive-emotional-motivational functions of play (Christie, Johnsen).  The major evidence consists of correlational and experimental studies that have investigated the relationship between play and social-intellectual development in children (Christie, and  Johnsen). It is determined through these correlational and experimental studies that there is in fact a relationship between play and creativity (Christie, Johnsen). Pretend play allows for children to develop social-intellectual skills such as language development, logical skills and social knowledge. 

The developmental benefits associated with pretend play are vital elements for early learning that are not able to be taught through the structured route of formal education for young children. Creativity and imagination are elements of learning that can never be taught in a classroom, they can only be experienced at a young age. 

There are societal factors that have decreased the prevalence of play in early learning. A crucial factor in the decreased prevalence of classroom play in early learning is formal education beginning sooner for children.  A formal education consists only of instruction and learning goals set by the instructor. This is eventually the usual education standard when a child is no longer apart of early learning and the early childhood education system. An article by David Kohn expresses that there can be negative effects in children’s learning due to formal early education beginning too soon.  The author expresses “these activities are being abandoned for the teacher lead, didactic instruction typically used in the higher grades” (Kohn). Kohn believes that without these fundamentals addressed early, kids can risk falling behind in crucial subjects in the future. The author addresses common core standards, and lacking American educational achievement as factoring reasons for formal education beginning sooner for children. 

American educational achievement is a huge factor contributing to the decreased prevalence of play in early learning.  “American educational achievement lags behind that of many other countries, at the same time, millions of American students, many of them poor and from minority backgrounds, remain far below national norms.” (Kohn). It is believed by advocates across the country that starting formal education sooner will help to equal the playing field for everyone in education (Kohn). American educational achievement also leads to the rise in competitiveness for college acceptances and scholarships. The competiveness now leaves parents with no choice to prepare for success early instead of have their child participate in play during early education.

The Common Core State Standards are another factor contributing to the decreased prevalence of play in early learning. The Common Core Set Standards are a “detailed set of educational guidelines meant to ensure that students reach certain benchmarks between kindergarten and twelfth grade” (Kohn).  The majority of the country has adopted the math and language standards. The Common Core State Standards are an important reason for the more didactic and structured formal education beginning earlier for Americans. “Research has found that early didactic education might actually worsen academic performance” (Kohn). A Psychology professor Rebecca A. Macron from University of North Florida, found “by the end of the fourth grade those who had received more didactic instruction earned significantly lower grades than those who had been allowed more opportunities to learn through play” (Kohn).

Another contributing factor to the decreased prevalence of play in early learning is the “school-like view of child development” (Gray). This is referring to our present day cultures view of child development in which adults and authority figures are the ones teaching children the way that they should and should not behave. This analogy of how our culture views child development is similar to the way school is configured with the parent or authority figure as the teacher in the school analogy, and the children as the student through the school analogy. This contributes to formal education beginning earlier for children because this shows that our society is more familiar and comfortable with the idea of a formal education beginning early, due to the familiar analogy to our societies view of child development. “The school-like view” addressed by Peter Gray encourages children always following directions from adults.  This has been now seen as negative to just leave children to play without the instruction of an adult

The decreased prevalence of play in early learning also is due to the concept of  hurried lifestyle. This is a key reason for the decline of classroom play in early learning because many parents in our society are working parents who believe in use their time wisely and “facilitating their children to have every opportunity is the best use of that time” (Ginsburg). Some parents may continue their own standards of efficiency and productivity that have resulted in success at work to the success of their children (Ginsburg). There is a large misconception regarding play in the classroom as negative and unproductive. Skeptics currentlyhave portrayed a misconception of play as  “useless” or not beneficial. Now societally, many parents simply do not want their children being useless in school and enforce the hurried lifestyle towards. The common theme behind hurried lifestyle that seems to lead parents away from play is “work now play later.” These types of parents  likely choose their child to participate in a formal education very early to get a “head start” . For some children, this hurried lifestyle is a source of stress and anxiety and may even contribute to depression at a young age (Ginsburg). “A survey by the American College Health Association reported that 61% of college students has feelings of hopelessness during the previous academic year, 45% felt so depressed they had trouble functioning, and 9% suffered suicidal ideation” (Ginsburg). These negative actions of dismissing play to children have harmful effects in the future towards children’s will to learn.

The pressure towards success for children and parents is a contributing factor towards the decreased prevalence of play in early education. This is a factor that has changed the routine for childhood. School is now a competition whereas many generations ago all children went with the single intent to learn at an equal basis of their peers.  “The college-admission process has become much more rigorous in recent years, largely because of a baby boom hitting the college years” (Ginsburg). This produces the pressure for parents to help their child build the strongest resume for academic success through an early formal education. “Increased pressure to achieve 

is likely to manifest in school avoidance and somatic symptoms” (Ginsburg). The pressure that society is upholding contributing to formal education beginning early is detrimental to child’s development. 

Media is a contributing factor towards the decreased prevalence of play in early education. The media plays an important role by children “being passively entertained through television or computer/video games” (Ginsburg). This is in extreme contrast to the health benefits of active, creative play and the known developmental benefits to children (Ginsburg). “There is ample evidence that is passive entertainment has extremely harmful effects to children development and early learning” (Ginsburg).

Proposed solutions that we can create in schools to incorporate the role of play in the classroom are required time for play in the classroom every school day. Also, proposing required time for recess or free time everyday apart from learning. The information that has been learned concerning developmental benefits in children from classroom play and these benefits can help develop skills necessary for learning at a young age. The societal factors that have decreased the prevalence of play in early education are all based around the common stereotype based around play. If we can educate teachers and parents of these societal factors and the harmful effects on children that an early formal education creates it could be extremely beneficial. 

Play is a crucial component of development that aids learning in children. The need to incorporate classroom play in early learning is extreme. The social and cognitive benefits in children that are gained cannot be learned in a text book through formal education.  One of the leading factors contributing to the decline of play in schools is the increased weight of school and societal pressures of success.  It has now been shown that the effects of an early start to formal education is in fact very harmful in the future towards children. 