The family was together for a picnic in Brisbane’s lovely New Farm Park a few weeks ago. It was a great afternoon, we played cricket, touch (that turned into tackle) footy, we had a great barbecue and everyone caught up.
The thing that really caught my attention was that anyone over the age of 18 was running around fighting through sore joints and general unfitness playing games, but the under-18s were sitting on the picnic blankets on their iPhones and iPads talking amongst themselves.
This is when it really hit me that we have such a huge crisis in the way children live today. If we were asked, “what is your favourite thing about school?” we would almost always answer with, “playing with my friends”.
Now, it is more common to hear a response of, “working in the computer labs” or “playing on our laptops at lunchtime”.
In 2011, 96% of Australian children aged 5 to 16 were accessing the internet at least once a day based on an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey. Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, of Oxford University, believes that children are becoming socially inept as a result of not having to have face-to-face interaction with others on a regular basis.
Greenfield said: “Real-life conversations are, after all, far more perilous than those in the cyber world. They occur in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever or witty responses, and they require a sensitivity to voice tone, [and] body language…”
During school lunchtimes now, they are allowed to go to the library or computer labs to play online. There isn’t any tiggy, brandy, red rover, four square, poison ball or hopscotch like we grew up loving.
Griffin Longley of the Western Australian Department of Sport and Recreation helped to establish the education initiative, Nature Play WA. It is an independent body that exists to promote the benefits of children playing outside instead of relying on technology for both educational and downtime purposes.
Griffin is pushing for outside play to be better incorporated into education curriculums around the country. As we live in a world where children are more comfortable typing on a keyboard then having a conversation with an adult, it isn’t a bad idea to look to the past to fix their future.
Whether it was half an hour, 45 minutes or a one-hour lunch break every day, we spent it outside running around in the sun talking and playing with our friends.
We knew how to address adults and we knew the right way to interact with our friends. We knew that pushing, hitting and shoving wasn’t nice and neither was saying mean things or calling people mean names.
Now, so many children sit behind a screen and their online anonymity gives them a sense of power and right to say whatever they feel without repercussions.
Is play in fact the greatest educator we ever experienced? Did it teach us more about interaction, manners and socialisation than anything else throughout our lives?
If play is the answer then what needs to be brought back? What were your favourite childhood games? What would you love to see your grandchildren playing?
