Why are classrooms so play-less these days? Let our teachers and students play!
Contemporary society maintains a strong distinction between ‘work’ and ‘play’. Take a moment to consider the following terms that many adults (such as those in Lebanon) use to dismiss unserious ‘work’:
وقت جد مش لعب , بلا لعب , بلا ولدنه
(Translation: stop being childish , stop playing , its serious time not playtime)
Although a few people are fortunate to enjoy their work, work is usually described as an unavoidable necessity while ‘play’ is understood as reward for ‘work’ accomplished. Such a distinction is promoted by our education system from early on. Children learn to earn their playtime as a compensation for hard work and are often punished for not working by losing play privileges. Max St. John, in his article ‘The School-Work-World problem’, states it in simple terms: “School teaches us that learning is work, and work is pain” while playing is often equated with ‘wasting time’.
Many researchers of play argue that the distinction between ‘play’ and ‘work’ must be challenged if healthier and more enabling work environments are to be fostered. Play can help facilitate learning as well as social relationships conducive to healthy development. It enhances positive affect and motivation, improves academic performance, is associated with emotional stability, creative expression, and overall improvement of well-being in both children and adults (Lockwood & O’Connor, 2016).
Such insights have been extended to various domains including education. Peter Gray, a leading psychologist of play, explains how play allows children to raise the bar and extend the threshold of their abilities. For example, Gray has observed that an ADHD child can stand still for a very long time if playing a certain role but not be able to sit still in a class for a few minutes. Children would do things in play that they would never do in ‘real’ situations. In play, children rise above their normal capacities and build new ones. The same applies to teachers.
Yet our education system is too slow to respond to these calls and affirmations. In fact, schools today seem to keep moving away from ‘play’ and more towards rigid systems of control that restrict teacher and student freedom believing that this and only this will yield better results despite evidence to the contrary. Many schools claim to espouse collaborative and democratic classrooms. Yet in reality, schools set rules and regulations that bully both children and teachers to blindly conform to the system. Our classrooms today are play-less. This continues to stifle creativity, imagination and resilience amongst teachers and students leading to an increase in teacher burnout and student dropout.
Teachers working in Lebanese schools have to deal with serious challenges and thus experience much stress and anxiety. Educational systems in Lebanon need to seriously strive to enhance teachers’ work conditions. There are several major factors that could contribute to this. One necessary but not sufficient approach would be to make schools more playful, allowing more space for spontaneity, risk-taking, flexibility, and creativity to thrive not just amongst students, but teachers as well.
If there is serious intention to transform our educational system in Lebanon, education leaders must recognize the value of play in the process of teaching and learning. Bottom line, play is an essential part of our lives and education must be one of the means for developing playful mindsets and attitudes in both children and adults in order to empower them to imagine alternative futures.
Mahmoud Natout
Visiting Assistant Professor in Education at the Lebanese American University
Co-founder of l3b.space
