“The child’s soul is not a blank page on which the teacher has to impress such knowledge and wisdom as he has acquired, but like a bud, has potentialities enfolded within it. It is the task of the teacher to draw it out and bring it to flowering.” Stanley Drake, Path to Birth.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the primary meaning of the word ‘create’ as ‘bring into existence’, and the word ‘play’ as ‘to move about in lively unrestrained manner’.
The OED defines ‘free’ as ‘able to act or be done as one wishes; not under the control of another’. It also defines ‘free’ as ‘no longer confined or imprisoned: not physically obstructed or fixed’.
Play arises from within and expresses itself in freedom. It is a fluid activity, constantly transforming and changing, streaming from inside outwards. Through play, a child expresses his or her uniqueness and experience of the world.
Play activity is aimless and happens for its own sake and joy. It doesn’t have to have visible value for the outside world but it has an inner priceless meaning for the child. It doesn’t have to achieve a certain result and it doesn’t have to be accountable to anyone or anything except to the deep, inner satisfaction of the child.
Unfortunately some current educational systems mistake playful teaching, extended play or purposeful play for free creative play.
The primary gain of play is missing here. Any teaching material that a teacher prepares and introduces in a playful manner fails to be play, as its impulse comes from the outside (from the teacher), as opposed to from within (from the inner need of the child).
As Rudolf Steiner once stressed: “Play is determined from within, through the being of the child, which wants to unfold.”
I once visited a school that catered for children aged between two-and-a-half and four. It was equipped with many teaching materials and props, but I noticed there were no dolls to play with or a cosy home corner in the entire school.
When I asked the teacher the reason behind this, she replied: “If we had dolls here, the children would be playing only with them and they wouldn’t learn anything!” I thought how sad the situation was.
On another occasion, a teacher had prepared material such as bandages, syringes, doctor’s hats and so forth for children to play, being in a hospital setting. With the best of intentions, she wanted the children to learn about hospitals, the medical profession and how to cure a patient...
However, the children’s inner genius and imagination transformed the hospital scene into whatever they needed it to be to satisfy their fantasy: the hospital became a castle, a rocket, a boat... and the whole situation led to a great frustration for both the teacher and the children. The teacher’s teaching objectives failed and the children felt restricted and imprisoned by the teacher’s concrete idea of how she wanted them to play and what she wanted them to learn.
Although it might not seem obvious at first, free creative play is an invaluable gift. A session of playful teaching on the theme of medical professions might not have immediate visible results, such as an ability to name all hospital equipment.
However, free play will bear rich fruit in the child’s future. This fruit demonstrates itself as an emotional maturity, social ability, empathy, creative thinking, geometrical and mathematical imagination and many other ways.
Play contains a healing quality through which a child can acknowledge and accept challenging times and experiences of life. Once a child experienced a death of her hamster and during the few weeks that followed, she would play through the funeral of her dear pet, over and over again until she came to terms with the whole situation.
Focused, free play enables concentration, perseverance and attentiveness to take root. If a child is left uninterrupted by an adult’s inquisitive questions and demands, she can persevere, immersed in play for long periods of time. This is a wonderful gift future employers will greatly appreciate for sure.
During true play, a child is completely immersed and devoted to his play activity, absolutely present in the moment.
Creative play gives the child a sense of achievement. A child is free in self-expression and it is a self-directed activity which leads to self-responsibility. For example, a child plans to build a boat and she does it. This gives her great confidence and a feeling of ‘I can do it!’
Through creative play, a child can realise her ideas and wishes. Play is a gateway to realisation of our first dreams.
In Free to Learn, Lynne Oldfield recounts this story: “Once upon a Tuesday morning, Barnaby, 4, began to place a row of bricks about 30 centimetres out from the wall. This line of bricks continued around the four sides of the room. He then returned to the first brick and set about balancing planks against the outside of the row of bricks.
“Once this activity was completed, he ran a long line of rope around the entire construction. At the end of his operation Barnaby came to his teacher and exclaimed – with a huge grin of pleasure and satisfaction: “I am a builder. I have put a new central heating for the kindergarten!”
Through play, children take a path into the world without boundaries, which is rich with potential learning opportunities and an essential stage of child’s development.
Take a close look at children at play. Be quiet, don’t interrupt, just watch when they can’t see that you noticed them. You will be amazed at what you see and hear.
The Waldorf playgroup in front of San Andrea School, limits of Żebbiegħ, is holding an open day on Saturday from 10am to 2pm. For more details, visit the School of Positivity Malta page on Facebook.
Lenka Borankova is a Waldorf kindergarten teacher.