Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

As noted in previous posts, many pundits, parents, and politicians are deeply concerned with the “fact” that “children are falling behind”. The remedies they’ve offered are to provide more seat time every day, more seat time over the summer, and standardized tests that will presumably prove how far behind they’ve fallen. Forbes education writer Nick Morrison is not buying into this. He believes that children need more time to play together, to be with each other independent of adults. After recounting all of the funds the UK and USA are planning to spend on summer schools and noting that such programs have no demonstrable proof of success in the past, Mr. Morrison offers a radical idea: give children unstructured play time with each other! Here’s his reasoning: 

But (expanded hours of schooling) masks the real effect of lockdown on children and young people, which is that the biggest loss hasn’t been to their learning, it’s been to their well-being…

Children need to catch up with their friends, not their lessons.

The incidence of probable mental health problems among children aged five to 16 shot up dramatically during the early stages of the pandemic, according to a study published in The Lancet earlier this year, from around one in 10 (10.8%) in 2017 to almost one in six (16%) last year.

More than a quarter reported disrupted sleep and one in 10 children and young people said they were often or always lonely.

Earlier this week, the British Psychological Society warned that talk of lost learning represented an “unhelpful narrative” that could put unhelpful additional pressure on children and young people…

Adding to the backlash against summer schools, earlier this month a group of academics in England, calling themselves PlayFirstUK, argued for a “summer of play” to help children recover from the stress of the last year.

Children learn so many skills through play that will serve them well in later life, whether it’s negotiating with other children, regulating their emotions or using their imagination to invent new games.

Children also need to spend time outdoors. Many children have been confined to their homes for much of the last year, and sitting in a classroom over the summer is the last thing they need…

…instead of trying to squeeze children into reaching targets set by adults – many of which are arbitrary in any case– we should recognize that there are some things more important.

After all they have been through over the past 12 months, children don’t deserve to spend their summers in a classroom, they deserve a break.

The key paragraph is this synopsis of Mr. Morrison’s argument is this:

Children learn so many skills through play that will serve them well in later life, whether it’s negotiating with other children, regulating their emotions or using their imagination to invent new games.

This implicitly calls for children to play games without adults overseeing them: free play, not organized leagues or group games: just kids being with each other and having fun. The fun deficit can be fixed easier and faster than the academic deficit… and it is AT LEAST as important!