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It is time for people who know better to stand up and move against this terrible tide. Children do not need more schooling. They need less schooling and more freedom. They also need safe enough environments in which to play and explore, and they need free access to the tools, ideas, and people (including playmates) that can help them along their own chosen paths. This book is not one of complaint; it is a book about hope and a path to improvement. It's a book for people who have an internal locus to make the world better, not of control, who want to do something

throw up their hands and say, "That's the way it is and we might as well accept if' As I'll show in the next chapters, natural selection endowed human children with powerful instincts to educate themselves, and we are foolish to deprive children of the conditions necessary for them to r i th e in tincts.

'rHE PLAY-FILLED I IVES OF I UNTER-GATHERER HILDREN

II A LFWAY AROUND THE WORLD, and far removed from the edII \t i

nal pressures that act on Evan and Hank, we find Kwi, also eleven, band in Africa's Kalahari

wh ) i growing up in a culture that trusts children's instincts and judg'" \nt. Kwi lives in a hunting-and-gathering I
l"S III

rt, part of a cultural group called the Juf'hoansi. He has no school

In fixed schedule. He gets up when he is fully awake, and he spends

It lay a he likes, playing and exploring with his age-mixed group 1111,', nds, sometimes in camp, sometimes well away from camp, without udult dire tion. He has been doing this since he was four, the age

>vII '1'1, I It \11 S Iv

,\ 'W
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rdin
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and n Jon
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t Ill/'h an adult, children can reason and control r 11 d t tay 10 e to adults. Every day brings
S

idv 'ntul'

n 'W opportunttt

for I iarnin

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At their own initiative, because they want to grow up to be effective adults, Kwi and his friends play at, and thereby practice, all of the activities that are crucial to the life of the band. They play endlessly at tracking and hunting. With bows and arrows, they stalk and shoot at butterflies, birds, rodents, and sometimes at larger game. They build huts and tools that resemble those the adults construct. With great delight they mimic, in exaggerated fashion, the sounds and actions of the kudu, wildebeest, lion, and dozens of other animal species whose habits they must learn to become effective hunters and defenders against predators; and they play games in which different players take the parts of different animals. They also, with great humor, caricaturize the speech and actions of the adults of their band and of visiting bands, whom they study carefully. Sometimes they venture far away into the bush to find secret, hidden places. They run, chase, leap, climb, throw, and dance, and in doing so they develop fit and coordinated make musical instruments bodies. They and play the familiar Ju/'hoan songs and

II w' tal ,arbitrarily,

a million years ago as the beginning of human way of life is now nearly extinct, pushed

Itl tory, then for 99 p rcent of that history we were all hunter-gatherers.' 'l'h pur hunter-gatherer
IIl1t

by intrusions from agriculture, industry, and modern ways of life

l\

H
11\ III'

rally, but as recently as the 1970s and '80s, and to some extent even could trek into hard-to-reach parts of the globe I ind groups of hunting and gathering peoples who had been almost

I It r, anthropologists

iff ted by development in the rest of the world. Indeed, at the time
In

writing this, anthropologists

are still studying hunter-gatherer

HI ()UP

that carryon many of the traditions and maintain the values of These hunting and gathering people are, of

II, I,' ancestors, even though they are involved in trading networks with
uun-hunter-gatherers.
I 111I1" II ,

not our ancestors, but we can be confident that their cultures ancestors than to the the world differ from you and I experience daily. societies found throughout

much closer to those of our preagricultural

I Iunter-gatherer

Iliitur
III'

r at new ones. They do all this because they want to. Nobody tells rh m th y must. Nobody tests them. No adults try to direct their play, th ugh sometimes adults, especially the younger ones, join in for fun, and orne times Kwi and his friends join games and dances initiated by adults. Their guide is their own free will. This is childhood as nature designed it. GENETICALLY, WE ARE ALL HUNTER-GATHERERS. of existence. Anthropologists Agriculture have aptly described Natural se-

mother in many ways. (Note: In describing hunter-gatherer practices hout this chapter, I use what anthropologists call the ethnographic nducted, even in cases where those practices don't exist today.) have different physical habitats, languages, ceremonies, those differences-whether uth America, or elsewhere-they
I I 'in l'S

IIII'OU

I"

ini, that is, the present tense referring to the time when the studies and art

wer
I'lIl y

1111 Il1 Yet, despite

they are found in Africa, are remarkably similar in

basic ways. They have similar social structures, similar values, culture" in the singular, and it adds confibefore the onset of agriculture.
4 Among

lection shaped us, over hundreds of thousands of years, for that mode hunter-gatherer existence as the only stable way of life our species has ever known.' first appeared in western Asia's Fertile Crescent a mere 10,000 years ago, and in various other parts of the world considerably later.? That invention set off an ever-growing whirlwind of changes in the ways humans lived, changes that far outpaced the rate of natural selection, changes to which we have had to adapt, as best we can, with the biological machinery that evolved to meet our needs as hunter-gatherers.

III

I si milar ways of raising children. Such similarity permits researchers

III I

.1
III

I'

If< r t "hunter-gatherer I ti s that predominated

t the view that these societies represent, in basic ways, the kinds t fully tudied of these societies are the Ju/'hoansi (also called I ung, f Africa's Kalahari Desert), Hazda (of Tanzanian rain Arrl an R publi and Congo), Batek (of Peninsular Malaysia),

()

III II till

It" Is), Mbuti and Efe (of Congo's Ituri Forest), Aka (of rain forests in
I IIII'll

( I' (0 Luzon, Phili pin s), Nayaka ( f south India), Ache (of eastern

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Paraguay), Parakana (of Brazil's Amazon basin), and Yiwara (of the Australian desert). This chapter is about the lives and education of children in huntergatherer cultures, but along the way I will also talk about the unifying characteristics of the cultures themselves. Education, by my definition, is cultural transmission. It is the set of processes by which each new generation of human beings, in any social group, acquires and builds upon the skills, knowledge, lore, and values-that previous generations in that group. To understand is, the culture-of hunter-gatherers'

lor hlldr n. 'I'h y share f od and material goods with everyone in the I In I and v n with members of other bands. Such ready sharing ap-

P II' mtly is what allowed hunter-gatherers to survive for so long in such

II 111nging conditions. The hunter-gatherer
I

concept of sharing is dif-

1'1' .nt from our Western understanding. For us, sharing is a praiseworthy
I

f generosity, for which a thank-you is due and some form of resharing

puyrn nt may be expected in the future. For hunter-gatherers,

r

n ither a generous act nor an implicit bargain, but a duty. It is taken

lor granted that you will share if you have more than others; failure to In s would invite ridicule and scorn?

approach to child-rearing and education, it is necessary to know something about their cultural values.

Intimately tied to hunter-gatherers'

I \li n of sharing is what anthropologist

sense of autonomy and expecRichard Lee has called their It means that everyone's

Autonomy, Sharing, and Equality"

IIu n t r- nth r rs live in small bands (typically twenty to fifty persons, n "Ill lln
1(1))

"f r e egalitarianism." Their egalitarianism goes far beyond our mod'I'll, II II'S,

Western notion of equal opportunity.

d are equally important, that no one is considered superior to othand that no one possesses more material goods than anyone else. ould lead those who have more, or who believe themselves to be rior, to dominate those who have less. ) some u h quality is part and parcel of their sense of autonomy, as inequal-

hlldr n) that move from place to place within large but cirI Icrrlt III
V III

lib

ri s l f It w the available game and vegetation. III 5,as d s ribed by nearly all researchers who have t

'I II
III

I' 01' , )

II d th

ar autonomy (personal freedom), sharing, and equality= of and emphasis on them go way

III

W', In rn d rn d m cratic cultures, generally hold these values as well,

but hunt r-gatherers' understanding beyond ours. Hunter-gatherers'

r Iunter-gatherers,

of course, recognize that some people are better

hunt r or gatherers than others, some are better negotiators,

IIt II r dancers, and so on, and they value such skills. However, they
lion ly disapprove of any flaunting of abilities or overt expressions of
III
I I

sense of autonomy is so strong that they refrain

from telling one another what to do. They even refrain from offering unsolicited advice to one another, so as to avoid the appearance of interfering with the other's freedom. Each person, including each child, is free every day to make his or her own choices, as long as those choices don't interfere with others' freedoms or violate a social taboo. Their autonomy, however, does not include the right to accumulate private property or to make others indebted to them, as that would run counter to their second great value-sharing. From an economic hunter-gatherer point of view, sharing is the purpose a ainst pr Inters and of the arin band. People share their skills and ff rts fr lya they

ri rity. The weapons they most commonly use to combat boasting, \ fir t tep, people make fun of the violator for behaving in such an

1IIIur to share, or other tabooed actions, are ridicule and shunning," pr priate way. They might make up a song about how so-and-so is uch a "big man" and "great hunter:' If the behavior persists,
t s t P is to act as if the violator does not exist. Such measures

II"

III I\Ish t I\ n
I

111' \I

h hly ff ctive in bringing around the transgressor.

It is hard to

Ik
I
I

tI

bi sh t if everyone ridicules you for it, and it is not worth f d j f th pri c is being treated as if you don't exist. rer bands 1 n have "big men," or chiefs, of the

II

III'

,( nsist nt with th ir high valuation of individual autonomy and

cooperate in obtaining fo d, def ndin

11"1 ly,i1l1l tor- all

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sort commonly found in primitive agricultural societi s (and in collector societies-see endnote 4), who make decisions for the whole group. bands have no regular leader at all. Others have power than anyone else. Some hunter-gatherer

"l lunl r- ath r r d

not give orders to their children; for

xample, n adult announces bedtime. At night, children remain around adults until they feel tired and fall asleep .... Parakana adults [of Brazil] do not interfere with their childr n's lives. They never beat, scold, or behave aggressively with them, physically or verbally, nor do they offer praise or

a nominal leader who speaks for the band in dealing with other bands, but who has no more formal decision-making Decisions that affect the whole band, such as when to move from one campsite to another, are made by group discussions, which might go on for hours or days before consensus is reached and action is taken. Women as well as men take part in these discussions, and even children may voice their opinions. Within any given band some people are known to be wiser than others and are therefore more influential, but any power they exert comes from their abilities to persuade and to find compromises that take everyone's desires into account.l"

1 e p track of their development.V

"The idea that this is 'my child' or 'your child' does not exist [among the Yequana of Venezuela]. Deciding what another person should do, no matter what his age, is outside the Yequana vocabulary coerce-anyone. of behaviors. There is great interest in alone what everyone does, but no impulse to influence-let The child's will is his motive force:'13

"Infants and young children [among Inuit hunter-gatherers

Trustful Parenting
A l .rrn It n u d by r earchers to describe adults' general treatment
o .hlldr
t 'I'm is
11

of the Hudson Bay area] are allowed to explore their environments to the limits of their physical capabilities and with minimal interference hazardous from adults. Thus if a child picks up a to know what it object, parents generally leave it to explore the

in hunt r-gatherer cultures is indulgent, but perhaps a better

tru tful. Th spirit of egalitarianism and autonomy that pervades

ath r r s cial relationships applies to adults' interactions with

hunt

f-

dangers on its own. The child is presumed is doing:'14

hlldren, just as it applies to adults' interactions with one another. The central tenet of their parenting and educational philosophy seems to be that children's instincts can be trusted, that children who are allowed to follow their own wills will learn what they need to learn and will naturally begin to contribute to the band's economy when they have the skills and maturity to do so. This trustful attitude is well illustrated by researchers' comments, such as the following (each from a different observer concerning a different hunter-gatherer culture):
, I"

"Jul'hoan children very rarely cried, probably because they had little to cry about. No child was ever yelled at or slapped or physically punished, and few were even scolded. Most if it really was a never heard a discouraging word until they were approaching adolescence, and even then the reprimand, r prim and, was delivered in a soft voice:'15

M st people in our culture would consider such indulgence to be

ipe for producing rspoiled, demanding kids who grow up to

"Aborigine children [of Australia] are indulged to an extreme degree, and sometimes continue to suckle until they are four or five years old. Physical punishment unheard of'll for a child is almost

I . sp Il d, d manding adults. But, at least within the context of the

III1n l

th rer way of life, nothing could be further from the truth.

11

II

I h w Elizab th Mar hall Thomas, one of the earliest observers of of polling: "We are sometimes

tll Ju/'h ans], r p nd d t th qu ti

26

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told that children who are treated so kindly become spoiled, but this is because those who hold that opinion have no idea how successful such measures can be. Free from frustration or anxiety, sunny and cooperative, ... the JuJ'hoan children were every parent's dream. No culture can ever have raised better, more intelligent, more likable, more confident children.v" Given this indulgent, trustful attitude, it is not surprising that children in hunter-gatherer societies are allowed to spend most of their time playing and exploring freely. The general belief among huntergatherer adults, borne out by centuries of experience, is that children educate themselves through their self-directed play and exploration.l? To learn more about the lives of hunter-gatherer children, my thencultures.P raduate student Jonathan Ogas and I conducted a survey of ten promin nt r searchers who had studied various hunter-gatherer 'lo our
III

1Ip,ly IIUl
II'S

w rI :" Th Hazda ( fthe Tanzanian rain forests in Africa)

ited as an exception to the rule that hunter-gatherer
0f

m tim

II I II' n ngage in little productive work. Hazda children forage for a

II

Ip rtion

their own food. However, a study of Hazda children,

's five to

fifteen, revealed that they spent only about two hours per

IlY
IlII'n

raging, in the rich vegetative areas near camp, and that even while ing they continued to play.2o cultures do not attempt to conAlthough adults in hunter-gatherer

1101, dir ct, or motivate children's education, they assist children's self11\1

ati n by responding to their wishes.i' They allow children to play s b cause they understand that children need to play with such obto have

w Ih dult tools, even potentially dangerous ones, such as knives and

I

ts t

become skilled at using them. They trust children

IIIOll h sense not to hurt themselves. There are some limits, however. I'lls n-tipped
II I

tion, "How much free time did children in the group you

darts or arrows are kept well out of small children's

ll d have ~ r playi," all of the researchers said, essentially, that the

I

h.22

Adults also make scaled-down bows and arrows, digging sticks,

lit

II Ilr 'II w r I' l play n arly from dawn to dusk every day. Here III typt al r p n (Both iris and boys had almost all day every day free to play" (Alan Brainard, concerning the Nharo, of southern Africa). "Children were free to play nearly all the time; no one expected children to do serious work until they were in their late teens" (Karen Endicott, concerning the Batek of Malaysia). "Boys were free to play nearly all the time until age 15-17; for girls most of the day, in between a few errands and some . babysitting, was spent in play" (Robert Bailey, concerning the Efe, of central Africa).

II Isk t , and other such instruments for young children, even toddlers,
t I I I 1(1Ywith. They allow children to watch and participate in essentially

III , lult activities, as they please. Children often crowd around adults,
IIII
III

I y ung ones climb onto adults' laps, to watch or "help" them cook,

I loy musical instruments, or make hunting weapons or other tools, III l th adults rarely shoo them away. Draper describes a typical scene:
n afternoon I watched for 2 hours while a [Iu/Tioan] father

I rnmered and shaped the metal for several arrow points. During th p riod his son and grandson (both under 4 years old) jostled
him, at on his legs, and attempted to pull the arrowheads from
II nd

r the hammer. When the boys' fingers came close to the f impact, he merely waited until the small hands were a Although the r
111

p )j nt These responses are consistent with published reports. In a formal study of JuJ'hoan children's activities, anthropologist concluded, food gathering and water- and wood-collecting .... old or over before they begin seriou huntin'.... Patricia Draper Boy are 16 years hildr n dam, z"Girls are around 14 years old before they begin regular
IllII1

I ttI farther away before he resumed hammering.

n trated with the boys, he did not become cross or

h \'
III

th b

ff'; and they did not heed his warnings to quit

IT} t

rf rin . Ev ntually, p rhap 50 minutes later, the boys moved

orl' 1 few

sl I s l ) ir s

na
(I

rs lyin

in th

hade.23

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When children ask adults to show them how to do something or to help them do it, the adults oblige. As one group of hunter-gatherer researchers put it, "Sharing and giving are core forager values, so what an individual knows is open and available to everyone; if a child wants to learn something, others are obliged to share the knowledge or skill:'24 Hunter-gatherers also impart knowledge by telling stories-about their foraging and hunting adventures, their visits to other bands, and significant events in the past. Thomas notes that women in their sixties and seventies, in the groups that she observed, were especially great storytellers about the past. 25The stories are not directed specifically to children, but the children listen and absorb the meanings. adults in the band, as well as other children, are resources. Huntergatherer children control and direct their own education, but all of the

kunwl d
II II I

[ron pt 51 xp rl n ) t d velop and t sthypotheses

about

11molt r a th ize, ex, physical condition, speed of movement, I 11m f pas age of the animal they are tracking. Such tracking is
nlial not only for finding game and getting close enough to shoot, for pursuing game that has been shot. Hunter-gatherers typi-

11111 II I
III

Illy hunt with small arrows or darts treated with poison, which take t act. Sometimes a large animal must be tracked for. days before I (11' and can be brought back to camp.

In describing the tracking abilities of the Ju/'hoansi, anthropologist I Wannenburgh wrote, "Everything is noticed, considered, and disI II Il

d. The kink in a trodden grass blade, the direction of the pull that

III 01 a twig from a bush, the depth, size, shape, and disposition of the II I I s themselves, all reveal information about the condition of the anIII \

I, the direction it is moving in, the rate of travel, and what its future ments are likely to be:'27 Concerning the same issue, Thomas
L) "To recognize the tracks of [the specific kudu that had been shot],

Technical Skills and Knowledge

1t w uld b - a mistake to assume that because hunter-gatherer
than d ur children. The hunting-and-gathering specialization, cultures or "simp) r" than ours, children in those cultures have less to learn way of life is extrardinarily knowledge- and skill-intensive, and because of the relative absence of occupational each child has to acquire essentially the whole culture, or at least that part of it appropriate to his or her gender. Hunting itself requires enormous knowledge and skill. Unlike such carnivorous animals as lions, tigers, and wolves, we humans are not men-and women, too, in those cultures

II\( "

WI

who i traveling with six or seven other kudus, all about the same size,
I ~at

that must be seen to be appreciated, especially because none of Even the tiniest sign, such

III lracks are clear footprints. They are dents in the sand among many
III II I

r cuffed dents made by other kudus ....

th tracks of a beetle superimposed

upon a footprint of the victim,

I"
III
Il(

WI nrld

have meaning to the hunters, especially if the beetle was of a type might include bows and arrows (with with great skilL And great has re-

1\ moved about after the day had reached a certain temperature'S" 'l'h tools of hunting-which without poisoned tips), blow pipes and poisoned darts, spears, snares, nets-must be crafted to perfection,

adapted for capturing game by speed and force; instead we rely on wit and craft. Hunter-gatherer where women also hunt-have a vast knowledge of the habits of the

IIld

I II is needed, too, in the use of the tools. No anthropologist

II'I d an ability to hunt at even close to that of the hunter-gatherers

two hundred to three hundred different mammals and birds they hunt. They can identify each animal by its sounds and tracks as well as by sight. Some years ago, Louis Liebenberg wrote an entire book about the sophisticated scientific reasoning that underlies hunter-gatherers' abilities to track game.26 Hunters use the marks they see in the sand,

hI' () he studied, using their tools.-? Most speak with awe of the abilities
II It Y b rved. Quantitative studies of hunting success have shown that Ih II

'I st hunters are not the men in their twenties, even though they
r a h d their peak physical condition, but those in their thirties,

IV

1111 t
III' \

s, and

above. It takes that long to acquire the knowledge and skill

mud, or foliage as clues, which they combin - with th ir accumulated

I d t b a sup rlative hunter.'?

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It is no surprise that children growing up in a culture where hunting is so greatly valued, so much talked about, and known to be so difficult, would play and explore in ways that help them to become skilled hunters. All of the respondents to our survey said that the boys in the culture they studied spent enormous amounts of time at playfultracking and hunting. The two respondents who studied the Agta-a culture where women as well as men hunt-observed that girls as well as boys in that culture engaged in much playful hunting. Hunter-gatherer children as young as three years old track and stalk small animals and one another in their play.31With their little bows and arrows they shoot at stationary targets, or at butterflies and toads. Byage eight or nine they are already killing some small edible creatures, which they might tie to a stick and carry back to camp, mimicking the way th ir fathers transport large animals. By age ten, they sometimes ontrlbut small amounts of meat to the camp's daily food supply. By (h I 11' t h y ar in their early teens, they might be allowed to join I I tli. (11 real bt - am huntingexpeditions,sotheycanlearnbywatchII III II Y I sixr n r they might be full participants in such exP' Iltlon still in th spirit of play. 'I'h ath ring f plant-based foodstuffs likewise requires great knowledge and skill. Humans are not adapted to graze on readily available foliage, as our ape relatives are. Rather, we depend on nutrientrich plant matter that must be sought out, extracted, and processed. Hunter-gatherer women-and men, too-have to know which of the countless roots, tubers, nuts, seeds, fruits, and greens in their area are edible and nutritious, when and where to find them, how to dig them up or extract the edible portions efficiently, and in some cases how to process them to make them edible or more nutritious than they otherwise would be.32These abilities include physical skills, honed by years of practice, as well as the capacity to remember, use, add to, and modify an enormous store of culturally shared verbal knowledge about the food materials. Research has shown that the efficiency of huntergatherer women in gathering and processing foods incr a s up to the age of about forty, just as the men' kill at huntin do s.

Hunt r- rath r r hildr n learn about plant-based foods in the same I II I' II way that they learn to hunt. They hear stories. They join their 11101 h 'rs and ther adults on gathering trips. They watch adults proII 11 It ds in camp and "help" when they can. Entirely on their own II I illv ) they play with digging sticks and with mortars and pestles, IIld Ih y devise games that involve finding and identifying varieties of III III Is, Th y sometimes also seek and receive verbal instruction from , 11111 . In interviews, Aka women described how, when they were 11\ III th ir mothers had placed varieties of mushrooms or wild yams n II' mt of them and explained the differences between those that were I II II and those that were not.34 A is true in all cultures, boys and girls in hunter-gatherer cultures HI' ate themselves by sex for some, although not all, of their play. lIoys more often than girls, play at hunting and other predominantly IIII'II'S a tivities. Girls, more often than boys, play at gathering, food 1"1) sing, birthing, infant care, and other predominantly women's acI v I s. Boys and girls play together at the many activities engaged in I H\1larly by both men and women. All of their play is in age-mixed IOllP , of children ranging from about four on up to the mid-teens. III Ih ir play,the younger children learn skills from the older ones, and I II. ild r children practice leadership and nurturance through their " ~ r the younger ones. Although children learn much from adults, 1111'1, rn ore usual teachers are the children with whom they play. 'l'h researchers who responded to our survey noted that hunterIt h r r children mimic many valued adult activities in their play, be'1111II unting and gathering, including caring for infants, climbing lilt H, uilding vine ladders, building huts, making tools, building rafts, III" In fir s, cooking, defending against attacks from make-believe III lut rs, imitating animals (a means of identifying animals and learnIlg th ir habits), making music, dancing, storytelling, and arguing. III1 nI r- ath r r groups have rich traditions of music, dance, and stories, II I )11 urpris thatthe children make and play musical inIllIn) nts in, dan .and tilt rie in their play. Depending on the I ultur ,II yl i ht als r l b ad d d igns or other visual artwork.

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The outdoor lives of hunter-gatherers, maintain fit and agile bodies. In agricultural do girls, but in hunter-gatherer and, depending

including the need to flee and industrial societies,

w~\nil 11

d the help and support of others, and to obtain that we need children always play in group

from or fend off predators, require that people of all ages and both sexes boys generally engage in considerably more vigorous physical play than societies both sexes engage, nearly equally, in a great amount of such play.35They chase one another around on geography, climb and swing on trees, leap, swim, movements in their dances. Dancing and as well as fluid movement. carry heavy objects, and perform all sorts of acrobatics. They also practice graceful, coordinated dance-like games are popular forms of play in nearly all hunter-gatherer cultures; they are exercises in cooperation

III kl w how to help and support others.

As I noted before, hunter-gatherer

III ir ncompass a wide range of ages. Even if they wanted to play only

with age-mates, they would not be able to. Hunter-gatherer bands are n 11, and births are widely spread, so it is rare to find more than two
CI

three children within a year or two in age. Research in our culture d s ussed in Chapter 9) shows that age- mixed play is qualitatively difI I' nt from same-age play.36 It is less competitive and more nurturing.
III

-rnixed play, each child tries to do his or her best, but has little

1)/'

n concern for beating others. When playmates differ greatly in age,

and strength, there is little point in trying to prove oneself better another. The age-mixed nature of the play, coupled with the egal111

'I. )

Social Skills and Values

By allowing their children unlimited
hUI I

I II

I Irian ethos of the cultures, ensures that the play of hunter-gatherer

time to play with one another,

hlldren is highly cooperative and noncompetitive.

Tn a worldwide cross-cultural III
I "

r- nth r r adult
t

allow their children unlimited practice of the

comparison

of games conducted

in that

oc

II skills

II ly II

noturc, n ds,
Play

d values that are most central to their way oflife. Social I Is, 11 playthat involves more than one player) is, by its very ntlnu u x r i in cooperation, attention to one another's 11 I ns n ual d cision-rnaking. 1 n t something one has to do; players are always free to quit.

tit 1950s and '60s, John Roberts and his colleagues concluded hunter-gatherer pondents

nly cultures that seemed to have no competitive games at all were

cultures.'? Consistent with that conclusion, all of the

nature of P. Bion Griffin

to our survey stressed the noncompetitive

I II play they observed. For example, anthropologist

I

In social play, each player knows that anyone who feels unhappy will quit, and if too many quit, the game ends. To keep the game going, players must satisfy not only their own desires but also those of the other players. The intense drive that children have to play with other children, therefore, is a powerful force for them to learn how to attend to others' wishes and negotiate differences. Research in our culture has shown repeatedly that even preschool children engage in enormous amounts of negotiation and compromise in the context of play (more on this in Chapter 8). One of the great evolutionary purposes of social play is to help children learn how to treat one another respectfully, as equals, in ways that meet everyone's needs and desires, despite differences in size, strength, and ability. These skills are crucial for survival in hunter-gatherer societies, but are valuabl . in v ry human i ty.

urn mented that the only consistent rule of play that he observed among

Agtn children was that "no one should win and beat another in a visible
II hion," In the most extensive descriptive account of the play and H un of any hunter-gatherer group, Lorna Marshall pointed out that
11I0

t Ju/'hoan play is informal and noncompetitive

and that even their

lorrnal games, which have explicit rules and could be played competiI vcly are played noncompetitively.'"
I)

For instance, Ju/'hoan children

Ia

five to fifteen, of both sexes, often playa game of throwing the

/'1

n I. Th zeni consists of a leather thong, about seven inches long, with

I ,111

11 wight fastened at one end and a feather at the other. The player
it tnt th air a high a pos ible with a stick, then tries to catch

It

11'1

t with th stt
II 11'1' It t

wh n It om sflutt rin m I play d with

71'

down, and from that position

(It

uln. 'l'hc

sl ill by many, and it

uld

PRE T

LIlARN

'l'llllPLA

-rru.u

1.1 VI! ,

PII

NTHI.

ATJllllUlR

III

HUN

easily be played competitively-for

instance, by seeing who can hurl it according to

l partial identification and empathy. It is in this way that the violence

the highest or catch it the most times in succession-but,

Marshall, it is not played that way. Players try to do their best, but comparisons between players are not made. Many hunter-gatherer games involve close coordination of each
t

ind aggressivity of either sex 'winning' is avoided, and the stupidity of mpetitiveness is demonstrated'r'''
everal researchers have commented on the games of give-and-

ik played by hunter-gatherer
11'\

infants with older children or adults."

player's movements with those of the other players. This is true of all of their dancing and dance-like games, but it is also true of other games. For example, in playful hunting with nets, the net-handlers ing. Another example is a tree-swinging and bushbeaters must coordinate their actions just as adults do in real net huntgame, in which children coordinate their actions to bend a sapling to the ground and then all but one releases it, so that the one who didn't let go swings wildly in the treetop or is catapulted through the air.39 Such games apparently
11

Infants as young as twelve months old, or even younger, happily give

object to the older playmate, then receive it, give it again, and so experiments conducted in

o. The joy of such giving seems to lie in the instincts of all normal human infants. In a series of little-known th United States, nearly everyone of more than one hundred infants, \ es twelve to eighteen months, spontaneously II vior is not much commented gave toys to an adult Iuring brief sessions in a laboratory room.V In our culture, such beupon, but in some hunter-gatherer such giving by infants in particular, initiate infants ultures it is celebrated. Among the Ju/'hoansi, Is deliberately cultivated. Grandmothers,

t only help children learn to work together as a team, but also help llin Turnbull, who studied the Mbuti of central Africa, described
J.

Ind th m together emotionally as a community. m nlal tug- f-war games played by the entire band each year as th Ir 1 bration of the honey season. Men and boys take one th vln r pe, women and girls take the other, and they sing in

Into the culture of sharing and giving by guiding infants' hands in the giving of beads to others.P This is the one example of systematic, deliberate adult influence
S archers' descriptions

port sld

on children's

play that I have found in repractices. No human trait way oflife than the willingness one must not only be able others. Practice at

of hunter-gatherer

antiphony as they pull. In Turnbull's words, when the men and boys start to win, "one of them will abandon his side and join the women, pulling up his bark-cloth shouting encouragement by the very exaggeration and adjusting it in the fashion of women, to them in a falsetto, ridiculing womanhood of his mime:' Then, when the women and

ISmore important to the hunter-gatherer to give or share.

To be a successful adult hunter-gatherer, n

'll

hare and cooperate with others, but also be able to assert one's own ds and wishes effectively, without antagonizing h self-assertion occurs in social play everywhere, as players negotiate quite deliberately as they

girls start to win, "one of them adjusts her bark clothing, letting it down, and strides over to the men's side and joins their shouting in a deep bass voice, similarly gently mocking manhood:' Turnbull continued: are laughing so "Each person crossing over tries to outdo the ridicule of the last, causing more and more laughter, until when the contestants hard they cannot sing or pull any more, they let go of the vine rope and fall to the ground in near hysteria. Although both youth and adults cross sides, it is primarily the youth who really enact the 'ridicule .... The ridicule is performed without hostility, rather with a sense of at

th rules and decide who gets to play what part. In addition, hunteratherer children practice such assertion mimic adults' arguments. For example, Turnbull described, as follows, II w Mbuti children, from age nine on up, playfully rehashed and tried t ) improve upon the arguments they had heard among adults: It may tart through imitation of a real dispute the children wit11

din th maio

amp, perhaps the night before. They all take

J'l{ EE 'I'

L\A RN

TilE PLAYIlILLLl

L1VLl

uu

N'I'llR. :A'I'illlIH11< I!lLI

IWN

roles and imitate the adults. It is almost a form of judgment for if the adults talked their way out of the dispute the children, having performed their imitation once, are likely to drop it. If the however, they will children detect any room for improvement,

I \ I t photograph the sc n , and this is her report on what she saw

f 1'01

that relatively detached perspective: Her before me were several men engaged in a single task. Two, the Italians, were tense, frowning, losing their tempers at everything, and cursing nonstop in the distinctive manner of the Tusan. The rest [the Tauripans

explore that, and if the adult argument was inept and everyone went to sleep that night in a bad temper, then the children try and show that they can do better, and if they cannot, then they revert to ridicule which they play out until they are all rolling on the ground in near hysterics. That happens to be the way many of the most potentially violent and dangerous disputes are settled in adult life.44

1 were

having a fine time. They were

laughing at the unwieldiness of the canoe, making a game of the battle, relaxed between pushes, laughing at their own scrapes, and especially amused when the canoe, as it wobbled forward, pinned one, then another, underneath it. The fellow held barebacked against the scorched granite, when he could breathe again,

Self-Control
R s ur h ars wh t I' ior
III
'I

invariably laughed the loudest, enjoying his relief ... As I finished photographing and rejoined the team, I opted out of the civilized choice and enjoyed, quite genuinely, the rest of the portage.t" Later, Liedloff spent time living among the Tauripans and two other I tive South American groups in Venezuela, and she was most im-

study hunter-gatherers

often comment on their excheerfulness,

IIn I ry h rfulne s and stoicism. Anthropologist Richard Gould,

quot It
."
r

on

th r res archer on hunter-gatherers' lad

Wlot
1\

n 'n I hav

nus to notice this same good cheer and readi-

'Sf: t ) [au band

J 1 am ng the people of the Gibson Desert [hunter-

tl r rs In All tralia], even when they are plagued by boils and heat,
p stered by flies, and short of food. This cheerfulness seems to be part of a disciplined acceptance of frequent hardships which complaints would only aggravate.Y Hunter-gatherers seem to accept the twists and turns of fate and make the best of them, rather than complain. Their attitude toward what we would call hardship is nicely illustrated by Jean Liedloff in her now-classic book The Continuum Concept. As a young, adventurous woman, Liedloffhad joined two Italian explorers on a diamond-hunting expedition in a Venezuelan rain forest. At one point on this trip, she, the two Italians, and several native South Americans of the Tauripan culture, whom they had hired as helpers, were struggling to portage their heavy, awkward dugout canoe over treacherous, sun-baked rocks. As an excuse to take a moment off from this torturous work, she stepped

I r ssed by their playfulness, their relaxed attitude toward life, and their pi asant ways of interacting with one another, even in times of hardship. At the time that Liedloff observed them, these groups were not fully
h Inter-gatherers, as they had small gardens to supplement what they the hunting and gathering obtained from hunting and gathering, but they had apparently retained t I values and attitudes that characterize way oflife. Hunter-gatherers'
01'1.

capacity for chee;{ulness in the face of hardship Elizabeth

II S surprising, to we soft complainers, that I feel compelled to present

more example of it. In her book about the Juf'hoansi,

Marshall Thomas recounts the story of a girl who had been walking ~\I' from her band's campsite and stepped into a hidden trap that had b
11 set

by a wildlife biologist for a hyena. The trap's steel teeth had gone the girl's foot, and the trap was anchored solidly to the ground, ould do was stand
011

though

o all sh

th other foot and wait. Hours later,

I)

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her uncle, who was hunting in the area, saw her from afar, went to see what was wrong, and then, when he couldn't open the trap, went back to the camp for help. Here is Thomas's comment on the incident: I will always remember her calmness as we brought her to the encampment
1\ ~

lip 11 II)

nt f th

part

of the brain that are crucial for controlling fear

I ang r and for behaving effectively in stressful situations. It may b

oin idence, therefore, that the same cultures that allow their chilthe greatest freedom to play also produce people who, apparently, th greatest capacity for self-control. L;' I HEAR SOME OF YOU CRY, "all this may be well and good

110

II"

hay

and dressed the wound. She had been alone, help-

less, and in pain for many hours in a place frequented by hyenas, yet she acted as if nothing had happened, nothing at all. Instead, she chatted about this and that in an offhand manner. To me, such composure and I remember in such circumstances wondering did not seem possible, systems of the

"w

for hunter-gatherers, but what relevance does it have for the education of ur children, in our culture?" od question. Our children may not need to learn more than what

:1

if the nervous

ltu nter-gatherer children learn, but they do need to learn much that is
III ~ r nt from what hunter-gatherer children learn. For starters, reading, writing, and arithmetic are absent from hunter-gatherer
OV II

[Jul'hoansi] were not superior to ours. But of course their nervous systems were the same as ours. It was their self-control that was superior .... N thin
,(I'U

cultures. Moreculture is,

The value of this is firmly from the Old Way.

r, our culture is far more diverse than a hunter-gatherer

w uld be more attractive to a predator than a weeping, r atur ,alone and unable to run away.47

d no child can see it all. It's by no means obvious that the learning ufficient for education in our culture today. ut read on. The chapters to come present compelling evidence that ways oflearning

lln

nstincts that evolved to meet the educational needs of hunter-gatherers

II"

'I')

I )fl' ,t
YOlII'

urviv lills, m tim b ttertoplaythatnothingiswrongthan wh n " on II I lil e a weakling not only to hyenas but also to
ompant ns, who may need your strength. On occasions when ially difficult, such composure can keep things from getting

hlldrens natural, hunter-gatherer

('dll

are sufficient for

ation in our culture, if we provide conditions that are equivalent, ur culture, to those that hunter-gatherer adults provide for their

llf ls sp

for
l I

worse. It can allow one to find humor, and therefore even pleasure, in adversity. How do hunter-gatherers develop their remarkable capacity for self-control? Nobody really knows, and as far as I can tell nobody before has even speculated on this issue. My theory is that they develop the capacity at least partly through their extensive play. In the 1930s the great Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky argued convincingly that free play with other children is the primary means by which children learn to control their impulses and emotions. Children's drive to play leads them to ignore discomforts and suppress impulses so they can continue abiding by the rules of the game, and such abilities gradually transfer to their lives outside of play. More recently, res arch with animals (discussed in Chapter 8) uggest
110

hlldren. Such provision requires effort, but not as much effort as that [uired by our present, coercive system of schooling. the origin of

irst, however, a little history, aimed at understanding uu r modern schools.

that play is

s ntial to develII

!1IH!ll T

LEARN

A CONCLUDING

THOUGHT:

Imagine that you had omnipot nl

to

powers and were faced with the problem of how to get young human. and other young mammals to practice the skills they must develop survive and thrive in their local conditions of life. How might you solv . that problem? It is hard to imagine a more effective solution than that of building into their brains a mechanism that makes them want to that natural selection practice those very skills and that rewards such practice with the ex perience of joy. That, indeed, is the mechanism has built, and we refer to the resultant behavior as play. Perhaps play would be more respected if we called it something like "self-motivat practice of life skills;' but that would remove the lightheartedness We must accept play's triviality in order to realize its profundity. Nearly three hundred years ago the English poet Thomas Gray wrote, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise:' I'd reverse hill words and say, "Where knowledge be folly" and skill are bliss, 'Tis wise to

d
1

fro:

it and thereby reduce its effectiveness. So, we are stuck with the paradox.

HE ROLE OF PLAY N SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

P LAYING WITH OTHER CHILDREN, away from adults, is h w hil Ir n learn to make their own decisions, control their emoti 118 I I mpulses, see from others' perspectives, negotiate difference with oth'I' ,

and make friends. In short, play is how children learn to tak

ntrol

( f their lives.

Lessons from Informal Sports

lm gine an old-fashion d andlot game of baseball. A bun h of I ids

or variou
II ywith.

ag

s show
om

lip

at a va an 1 t, hoping they'll find th rs l n 001, ith rs bybi y I; m al n , s m with

1(, Ill(

11'1nds,
I 11

rin s \ h

th r brin s a ball (whi h may not

I 7

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IN.'

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be an actual baseball), and several have fielders' gloves. There are n ugh people for a game, so they decide to play. The two reputably best play 'rs serve as captains, and they choose sides. They layout the bases=hats, Frisbees, or any objects of suitable size. There aren't enough players I() fill all the positions, so they improvise. No adult is present to tell tl . kids what to do or to settle disputes; they have to work everything out for themselves. This way of playing baseball is actually play. It is an a tivity chosen and directed by the players themselves and done for it. own sake, not for some external reward. Now imagine a Little League game. It's played on a manicured field, which looks like a smaller version of the fields where professional gam
'S

y ur und r tanding
s nd ba e if the

n'I run ull ir Inlo cond bas man i small r than y u and 1111 ht 'I
ds. Yi
LI

f a h play r's n

hurt, even though it might be con idered good strategy in Liltl l.cu ue (where, in fact, a coach might scold you for not running as bar I as I () slble). This attitude is why children are injured les fr qu ntly in inrmal games than in formal sports, dult-directed despite par nt ' b Ii f th 11 sports are safer.' If you are pitching, you pit h s [Ily 10
1I

little Johnny, because you know he can't hit your fastball. You also kn w that even your teammates would accuse you of being mean if y

rh r w
I

ur fastest pitches to someone so young. But when big, xp ri n

1I

J [orne is up, you throw your best stuff, not just becau e y

want t

are played. Most kids are driven there, partly because it's far from horne and partly because their parents are behind this activity. Many parent. stay for the game, to show their support for their young players. Th . teams are predetermined, part of an ongoing league. Each team has
.11\

t him out but also because anything less would be in ulting to him. The golden rule of social play is not, Do unto others as you would hay
I

them do unto you. Rather, it is, Do unto others as they would hav you tlo unto them. The equality of play is not the equality of sam n s , but
Ihe equality that comes from granting equal validity to th uniqu . md wishes of every player. To be a good player of informal sports you can't blindly f II w rul Rather, you have to see from others' perspectives, to understand wh n ds

adult coach, and an adult umpire calls balls, strikes, and outs. An offi inl score is kept, and over the course of the season wins and losses ar ' tracked to determine the championship team. Some of the players really want to be there; others are there because their parents coaxed or push 'd them into it. The informal, self-directed way of playing baseball or any oth
'I'

s,
It

( thers want and provide at least some of that for them. If you fail, you will be left alone. In the informal game, keeping your playmat s ht\1 I Y i far more important than winning, and that's true in lif as w II. POI' me children this is a hard lesson to learn, but the drive t play with others is so strong that most eventually do learn it if allow d pi nt y 01 opportunity to play-plenty of opportunity to fail, suffer th on

game contains valuable lessons that formal, adult-directed can learn in life.

games do

not. Here are five such lessons, among the most valuable that any ,

Lesson 1: To keep the game going, you have to keep everyone happy.
most fundamental

1h
III II

qu nces, and then try again. /, sson 2: Rules are modifiable and player-generated.
Is tandardized
In \I

freedom in all true play is the freedom to quit.

an informal game, nobody is forced to stay, and there are no coach parents, or other adults to disappoint if you quit. The game can continu

Becaus

,I

011In up
01 1

in an informal game, the players have to mal

j

d all

only as long as a sufficient number of players choose to continue. TI1 re fore, everyone must do his or her share to keep the other players happy, including the players on the other team. This means that you show certain restraints in the informal beyond those dictated by th stat d rul
I H

dify rules to adapt to varying conditions. If the vacant 1 t may d cide that any ball hit beyond the lot' boundary ti ut. This au e th play rs t th m. All
11,

d the only ball available is a rubber one that carries too w ll, th pl yi an aut
1

~ I'S

am

Ill.

ntrat

n pla in th ir hit" 'st pi y rs

,whi

h d riv Inst ad rom

ruth r Ih. n rnashin

tiv Iy) th Won

ay I

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required to bat one-handed, with a broomstick

with their nondominant

hand,or to bat

LL

1 am in informal games that you must cornprornis

if you wnnt to

rather than an actual bat. As the game continues

p playing. If you don't have a king who decide

things for you, you

and conditions change, the rules may evolve further. None of this happens in Little League, where the official rules are inviolable and interpreted by an adult authority. In the formal game, the conditions must fit the rules rather than the other way around. The famous developmental a higher understanding to the assumption psychologist Jean Piaget noted long ago, in a classic study of children playing marbles, that children acquire of rules when they play under their own diby an outside authority rection than when they are directed by adults.? Adult direction leads that rules are determined and thus not to be questioned. When children play just among themselves, however, they come to realize that rules are merely conventions, established to make the game more fun and more fair, and can be For life in a democracy, few changed to meet changing conditions. lessons are more valuable.

have to learn how to govern yourselves. Once I was watching some kids play an informal game

f bask till.

They were spending more time deciding on the rules and arguin whether particular plays were fair than they were playing th verheard a nearby adult say, "Too bad they don't have a r f r

about
om ',1

ide these things, so they wouldn't have to spend so much tim d bating:' Well, is it too bad? In the course oftheir lives, which will b th more important skill-shooting baskets or debating effe tiv ly and

I arning how to compromise? Kids playing sports informally are pra tieing many things at once, the least important of which may b th
port itself.

Lesson 4: There is no real difference between your team and the opp In! team. In an informal game, the players know from the beginnin tha:
'their division into two teams is arbitrary and serves only the purpos \ f the game. New teams are chosen each time. Billy may hay b may even change composition as the game goes along. Billy may
n(
I~

Lesson 3: Conflicts are settled by argument, negotiation, and compromise.

In the informal game, the players not only make and modify the rules, but also act as umpires. They decide whether a hit is fair or foul, wheth r a runner is safe or out, whether the pitcher is or isn't being too mean to little Johnny, and whether Julio should have to share his brand-new glove with someone on the other team who doesn't have a glove. Som of the more popular players may have more pull in these arguments than others, but everyone has a say. Everyone who has an opinion d fends it, with as much logic as he or she can muster, and ultimately consensus is reached. Consensus doesn't necessarily mean complete agreement. It just means that everyone consents; they're willing to go along with it

the "enemy" team yesterday, but today he is on your team. In fa t, t an1S

QI'[

ff on the opposing team, but may move over to yours, for balun when two of your teammates go home for supper. Or if both tams short of players, Billy may catch for both. The concept of "en my"
r ality. It is temporary
01"

,
01

" pponent" in informal sports lies very clearly in the realm of play, not and limited to the game itself. In that
n

tl

informal game resembles a pure fantasy game in which Billy

I be an evil giant trying to catch and eat you.

P" t nd

In contrast, in formal league sports, teams remain relativ ly fix' I

for

the sake of keeping the game going. Consensus is crucial if you want the game to continue. The need for consensus in informal play do sn't come from some highfalutin moral philosophy; it comes from practi reality. If a decision makes some people unhappy, quit, and iftoo many quit, th ome of them
I

(II

oy
I),

v r a series of games, and the scores, to some degree, have r al-world n equences-such as trophies or praise from adults. Th r lilt is d v lopment of a long-la tin s n of team identity and, with it, a n that "my team is bett r than otb r toms" -b tt rev n in ways that bay n thin t d with ih am 11\ I may t nd t situati n utsld r

r (s n l d und r L 55

11

the

<11

.Arno]

r Ih

01'1

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lid

inl

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FREE TO LEARN

THE ROLE OF PLAY IN S

rAL AN

UM

Tl

NAL DEVEL

PMEN'I'

science concerns ingroup-outgroup chauvinism, nationalism, wars-these

conflict. Cliques, gangs, ethnic can all be discussed in terms of

where winning matters, you could never do such things; you w uld b ' accused of betraying your team. Of course you have to be careful about when and where to make these creative changes in your play, ev n i n the informal game. You have to know how to do it without

our tendency to value people we see as part of our group and devalue those we see as part of another group. Formal team sports feed into our impulse to make such group distinctions, sports do not. Of course, enlightened lecture about good sportsmanship for that matter. Lesson 5: Playing well and having fun really are more important than winning. "Playing well and having fun are more important than winning" is a line often used by Little League coaches after a loss, rarely after a win. But with spectators watching, with a trophy on the line, and with so much attention paid to the score, one has to wonder how many of the players believe that line, and how many secretly think that Vince Lombardi had it right. The view that "winning is the only thing" becomes even more prominent as one moves up to high school and then to college sports, especially in football and basketball, which ar the sports American schools care most about. As they move up the ladder from children's leagues to high school to college to professional, an ever smaller number make the teams. The rest become spectators for the rest of their lives, growing fat in the stands and on the couchunless they learn to play informally. In informal sports, playing well and having fun really are more important than winning. Everyone knows that; you don't have to try to convince anyone with a lecture. And you can play regardless of you r level of skill. The whole point of an informal game is to have fun and stretch your own skills, sometimes in new and creative ways that would be disallowed or jeered at in a formal game. You might, for exampl , try batting with a narrow stick, to improve your eye. You might tu rn easy catches in the outfield into difficult over- the-shoulder you are a better player than th whi h mal
th
Am 11or II

off nd in

in ways that informal

coaches of formal sports may for adults,

others or coming across as a show-off. Always, in informal play; you have to consult your inner social guide. In my experience, both as a player and observer, players in inf rmal sports are much more intent on playing beautifully than on winnin The beauty may lie in new, creative ways of moving that allow you t express yourself and stretch your physical abilities while still co rdtnating your actions to mesh with those of others. The informal gam , at its best, is an innovative group dance, in which the players crcat their own moves, within the boundaries games, too, where varsity championships you stepped on them. of the agreed-upon ru I .

and valuing the other team, but we

all know how much good lecturing does for children-or

s,

while taking care not to step on each other's toes. I've played formal were at stake, and thos w r

.not creative dances. If stepping on toes helped you win thos gam is,

WfUCH IS BETTER TRAINING

for real life, the informal gam

or

the formal one? The answer seems clear to me. Real life is an

inf rmul

ame. The rules are endlessly modifiable and you must do y ur part to reate them. In the end, there are no winners or losers; we all wind in the same place. Getting along with others is far more important

''I
c

than

beating them. What matters in life is how you play the game, h w n u h fun you have along the way, and how much joy you give to oth r . "J h are the lessons of informal social play, and they are far, far mor i rn-

p rtant than learning the coach's method for throwing a curv ball or
sliding into second base. I'm not against formal sports for kid wh
I'

ally want them, but such sp rt are no substitute for informal pJa.y

wh n it comes to 1 arnin
yin life.
In on

th I s n w all mu t 1 arn to Iiv a sat: _

I Y d nt th
I' S(lI

catch s. Ir ap,
am ,

th r .rh
t r sUn

ar ways t s lf-handi ryot) . In

0

'~I' 'Y

formal

VllySI

'''I

u lbury
I~

II (h

hool,

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presented

some of these same thoughts

more poetically than I. H

Annie (ag fiv y ars, lev n months)

and B ith (fiv

'01"$,

two
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wrote, in part: In all the years of playing very physical games like football, soccer, and basketball [at Sudbury Valley], there has never been an injury beyond a minor cut or bruise. People play all these sports in their regular clothes without any of the standard protective equipment that is normally required. How can this be explained when way people wearing protective pads injure each other with alarming frequency? Because in a regimented, performance-oriented becomes less important oflooking at sports (or life), making sure you don't hurt someone than winning. So it doesn't matter how or how many safety pads that is much you talk about "sportsmanship"

m nths) were video-recorded by researchers Hans Furth and

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a they played an imaginary game in the dress-up area of th ilr

art

school day-care center.' Annie started the ganle by saying, "L ts pr ,t '1) I that we had a ball tomorrow night and we had to get our stuff r \ Iy.' Beth responded by picking up a dress and saying, "This was my 1r thereby demonstrating agerness to get the prop she wanted most. For the next twenty mlnut
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her implicit acceptance of the play id a an l h r

'fl,

the two picked their clothing and accessories and discussed whs t woul I bappen at the ball. Much of this time was spent haggling ov r who would play which role and who would get to use which props. 'I'h y haggled over fancy items of clothing, a telephone, a table, a pair ofbino ulars, and where each would sleep the night before the ball. In each littl argument, each girl gave reasons why she "needed" or "should hav " that prop or role, but did so tactfully so as not to offend the other play'.'. Then, when Annie and Beth had come to a fairly satisfactory a r . ment on these issues, another little girl, Celia (age four years, months) came into the dress-up area from outdoors and ask d to jolt them. They let her in, and then all three began a new round of noli. ations about props and roles to include Celia. Each girl felt stron Iy bout such matters as which clothes she would wear, what en tly woul happen at the ball, and who was older and had higher status in th For example, Annie and Beth both thought that Celia, the youn 1 ally refused that role. To mollify her, Annie and Beth agreed that and Beth elevated themselves to the rank of mothers. There was discussion of whether Celia could have two mothers, since "r p rson can have only one mother;' which they resolved by d [loria, which they decided was okay. All thre
11111

you wear, people are going to get hurt. When you approach sports (or lifer as a fun, exciting process, as something done for the sheer joy and beauty of doing it, then not hurting someone, not impairing their ability to enjoy the same process, becomes a top priority .... To participate in an activity where through teamwork, the clash of unequal bodies is transformed

pursuit of personal excellence, responsibility, and restraint into a common union of equal souls in pursuit of meaningful experience has been one of the most profound experiences of my life. I am sure it has had a similar effect on others/'

Ily.
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Por the play to go on, they had to reach consensus on every major issli . . nd smallest of the three, should be the "little sister:' but Celia mpha t

Lessons from Sociodramatic Play

Children learn valuable social lessons in all sorts of free social play, not just in informal sports. As illustration, here's a real example of the kind of imaginative play that researchers refer to as sociodramatic play, whee children adopt roles and act out story lines together. All over the world, such play predominates to six. among children in the age range of thre

11 I
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ould be the "big sister:' Then, to preserve their relative status, Annl

any
idln

that one would be the stepmother. All three girls wanted to b nam d girls wanted t marry d that In

rh prlnc and be ome a qu n, B th and Anni a kn wI d

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real life the prince could marry only one of them, but decided that "jus: for pretend" it would be okay for him to marry both of them. Howev
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h w thing ar in th r al w rJd. omcttrn

th y

ull bid

th I rul ,
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a when th y decided that both Anni and B th w uld n arry th pr

knowledgment

the idea of his also marrying Celia was too much for them to accept, even in their play, so they refused Celia's request that he marry her, too. To placate her, however, they elevated Celia still further to the role of "big sister princess:' These three girls were already skilled social players, and they were clearly becoming more skilled through the kind of practice that th is play episode illustrates. Among the biggest lessons of such play ar ' those of self-assertion, negotiation, and compromise. Each girl had to present her case skillfully to come as close as possible to getting what she wanted without upsetting the other players. In their manner of speech, the girls demonstrated that they understood the necessity of gaining consensus. For example, their proposals on how to play usually took the form of suggestions rather than demands. Most proposals end d with tag questions, such as "okay?" or "all right?" or "right?" In their negotiations the girls frequently referred to certain rul s that had become, by tradition, regular rules of play among the children in this day-care center. One was the finder's rule. Whoever first found or claimed a prop was generally the one who got to use it. However, a 11 even higher rule, which could trump the finder's rule, was the fairn
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but such bending required discussion, agreement, and, g n rally, [\ that this was not how things worked in reality, As th y their und rsta 11 Iin s
t P irth

played, the girls also affirmed and consolidated and Kane's analysis, sociodramatic

f certain conventions and rules in the real world. Ac ordin hildren develop and exercise mental models of the oci their play.

play is a means by whi h you 11

ty in whi h
1I

they live. In the researchers' words, children "construct soci tV'thl"

The three little girls were playing, doing what they wan t d t do. But because what they wanted to do was to play an elaborate male believe game with the other girls, they couldn't do exactly what th y wanted to. They had to work out compromises and agreem nts with f hilthe others, and they had to control their impulses to coh re with th roles and story lines they had agreed upon. This is the magi ther children, children learn to compromise drens social play. By doing what they want to do, which is to play with and not do exa tly what they want to do. Celia wanted to become a queen, but she was 01 ay b ing "big sister princess:' All of the girls wanted the most beaut! [1I1 d r SHup clothes, but they had to divide them up in a way that s immediately-she ' was so eager for the prince to propos
t

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rule. It would not be right for one child to have all or most of the desired props; they had to be divided in a way that seemed at least reasonably fair to all. Players in all sorts of games are emphatic in their insisten state and how to reach it. Another rule often invoked (not by this name) was the consisten who was eager for the ball to get under way, impulsively announ y d rule. The play had to be internally consistent. For example, when Ann i " that the ball was about to begin, Beth reminded her-that they had al ready decided that it wouldn't begin until the next day. They had to . have a pretend night of sleep before the ball could begin. Annie derstood and immediately conceded the point. The play also, to degree at least, had to be c nsistent with th
II

nough to each of them. Annie at some point wanted th ball to Sltll't he had to control this impulse to maintain consistency with th narrative that the girls had already decided upon. All of thi nd compromise intervention occurred with no adult intervention.

on fairness, though they may disagree about the nature of that id al

)1

In fa t, a lull

would have ruined it. The children clearly enjoy d x r-

ising their own power, intelligence, and capacity for self- restrai nt as they negotiated with one another, with no adult input at all. I used this example of play because it was recorded and avail, bl ,
lit

there is nothing unique about it. Watch any group oflittl hay had
0 ial mind
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hildr
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playing together, wh

xtensive experience at su h play, an

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will nspi
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t w rk. But wat h fr m a di I

girl' und r tanding 01

usly. If you w

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tactful as Annie, Beth, and Celia in their negotiations, the game.

but th y, t

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generally figure out ways to meet one another's needs for the sal It's not possible to conduct long-term experiments to see if childr who are allowed more opportunity term experiments, for play of this sort develop great

or
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It psy h I I' xarnple,

Irlh y I luy I It III. n man t1'ad d a rust fbr ad ~ r a h ssb or I, t . HI.

ap [1' m th lr rim situ .ll n hildr
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by playing chess he could forg t his hung r. But th hav none of that. They played games designed to onfr "slaughtering:' of "seizing the clothes of the dead:' and

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l, not < vo I,

the horrors. They played games of war, of "blowing up bun k I'S;' an s lap tance. At Vilna, Jewish children played "Jews and their own rifles (sticks). Even in the extermination camps, the children who w r "tickling the corpse:' At Auschwitz-Birkenau they dared
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or
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social skills than those who aren't, but correlational studies and shortas well as common sense, strongly support this hyplay have, by pothesis. Children who engage in more sociodramatic ability to understand periments

r r 'sls
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which the Jews would overpower their tormenters and b at th m wlth till I 'ollhy all I

various measures, been shown to demonstrate more empathy, and mol' what another person thinks, knows, or desires, than do children who engage in less." Moreover, several short-term exconducted in preschools have shown that when some chilto engage in sociodramati groups later exhibit / dren are provided with extra opportunity higher performance

nough to move around played. In one camp they played a am.

n aneth r to

touch the electric fence. They played "gas chamber:' a gam in whi h they threw rocks into a pit and screamed the sounds of p opt dyln . ne game of their own devising was modeled after the camp' daily roll all and was called klepsi-klepsi, a common term for tealing. n play(In Oil'

play and others are not, those in the extra-play

on various measures of social perspective-takin

and ability to get along with others than do those in the control groups?

. mate was blindfolded; then one of the others would step f rward

Children's Play in the Holocaust

W turn now from the sweet scene of three little girls in the dress-uj area of a playroom to terrible scenes-children in Nazi concentrati
J

hit him hard on the face; and then, with blindfold rem v d, lh who had hit him. To survive at Auschwitz, one had to b an bluffing-for
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who had been hit had to guess, from facial expressions or th r cvl I 'I example, about stealing bread or about knowin n

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camps. If play were a luxury, children here would not have played. Blit play is not a luxury. Play is children's means of making sense of thei environment and adapting to it, as best they can, regardless of the typ In the remarkable book Children and Play in the Holoof environment.

nes escape or resistance plans. Klepsi-klepsi may have b ~ r that skill.

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In play, whether it is the idyllic play we most like to envi i n r II ' play described by Eisen, children bring the realities of th ir w rI I n t () a fictional context, where it is safe to confront them, t them, and to practice ways of dealing with them. Some that violent play creates violent adults, but in reality th xp 1'1 n \

caust, historian George Eisen, using diaries and interviews of survivors

as evidence, described play among Jewish children in Nazi ghettos an I concentration

P opl rly

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camps.f
before prisoners wer ' Iy camps, parents tried desperat

oppo 'IL
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In the ghettos, the first stage in concentration sent off to labor and extermination

i true. Violence in the adult world leads children, quite pr p I lay at violence. How else can they prepare themselves h

In tionally,

to divert their children's attention from the horrors around them and to preserve some semblance of the innocent play the children had known before. They created makeshift playgrounds and tried to lead the h II dren in traditional games. The adults themselves played in way aimed
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intellectually, and physically for reality? It is wrong to think thar s rn '.

w w can reform the w rld for the future by controllin hillr n's I lay and ntr lling what th y I arn. If w want t r f rill th wort I, w 1 av l r f rrn th w rl Ij hlldr n will II w lilt'. Th hil II'"

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must, and will, prepare themselves for the real world to which th y must adapt to survive. Children's use of play to adapt to trauma has also been observed
jn

The Value of "Dangerous" Play

Re earchers who study play in animals have sugg sted that a rn I )1' volutionary purpose of play is to help the young learn h w 10 '01" with emergencies.P Juvenile mammals of all species d libcrut Iy \II I repeatedly put themselves into awkward, moderately dan rous, 1110 I rately frightening situations in their play. As they playfully allop, I II, and chase one another around they continuously alt rnat b 'I w 1\
losing and regaining control of their bodily movements. kids jump, for example, they twist and turn in ways that mal to land. Young monkeys and apes playfully swinging in tr to create a degree of fear, but not so high that a fall would injury. Young chimpanzees seem especially to enjoygam moment before hitting the ground. Young mammals of nearly all species play chase gam For most species, the apparently preferred position in su that of being pursued.P A typical game-for lambs, or squirrels, for example-starts that the provoked playmate is pursuing. d light in the game-such fa smile)-than I the opportunity with one youngst Observers of s freely from high branches and then catching onto low r on WI
'11 0

other situations closer to home. For instance, a group of children who, . unfortunately, had seen a man fall twenty feet to the ground and suffer serious injury outside their nursery school window were much distressed by this experience. For months afterward they played, on thei r own initiative, at such themes as falling, injury, hospitals, and death.' Children who have experienced terrorist attacks against them or their parents have likewise been observed to play at themes that involve reenactment coupled with some sort of soothing.P The soothing in thei r play may involve repair and mending of damages, protection and nurturance for those left behind, or the eventual triumph of good over evil. Even children who have never experienced any particular trauma, beyond the little ones everyone experiences, often play at emotionarousing, traumatic scenes. In doing so, they may be steeling themselves
t d al with all sorts of unpredictable but inevitable unhappy and painful

It

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shoos' branches that are sufficiently far apart and high enough offth roun I
aus
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rlous

dr p~ II

at th losl

s. 'I'h y h hose iy
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10 ' U I'

v nts. R searcher Gisela Wegener-Spohring

has described instances in Germany.

after one another and take turns at being the pursued and th a pair of youn monl

f su h play among normal, well-adjusted kindergarteners

For example, she described a scene of "whipping play;' in which a popular boy sat bound in a chair while being whipped, with relatively hard blows with a leather strap, by his playmates.'! To comfort him as he was being whipped, two girls gave him blocks as bananas to eat. Th boys doing the whipping stopped occasionally to give him pretend drinks of water. This appeared to be highly enjoyable play for all of th participants, on the important life theme of pain and soothing for pai n. According to Wegener-Spohring, the only real violence related to this teacher came over and stopp d contends that play occurred when the kindergarten

attacking the other and then running off while looking ba I have noted that the chased animal generally shows m r as a broad playface (the monl y

m nl 'Y pi iy
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does the pursuer." Apparently, the reward f r his to take a turn at being chased. When
r

it, because she felt it was aggressive. Wegener-Spohring

disruption of good play, when there is no good reason to do so, is always an act of violence and tends to produce a violent reaction. When th ' whipping game was forcibly stopped, the children's tempers turn in apparent acts of rebellion.
170

bad. They began knocking over chairs and misbehaving in oth r ways,

t wh I pursuer turns and joyfully becomes the pursued. Notice that th pr '. f rred position is the position of greatest vulnerability. Th n who is running away has le s control over what i happ ning, has I ss )PI or Iunity to top and tak a br k, and i m r vuln rabl l fallin and II Jury than i th n wh i,' rut nin aft r. 'l'h vuln rablllty ilS I " ms part an 01' I fIll S'II () Ihrlll,
171

th atches and "tags" the other (typically with a playful nip), th

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In addition to chasing games, young mammals, especially y un males, engage in a great deal of playful fighting. Depending on th ' species, they butt heads, attempt to throw each other to the ground, attempt to pin each other, and try to give each other playful nips at specif . target locations. Unlike in a real fight, in a play fight the larger and mor skilled animal deliberately self-handicaps to avoid dominating the playmate. Detailed studies of juvenile rats play fighting suggest that for th is species at least, each animal prefers to be in the subordinate position, which, again, offers the greatest physical and emotional challenge. IS On rat will self-handicap to allow the playmate to get into the attack, ontop position and then will struggle to recover. Over time, the playmates alternate, so each can practice recovering from the vulnerable position. Even casual observation shows that human children, like oth r vulyoung mammals, deliberately put themselves into fear-inducing,

Urn bing

ha

d, and as littl tim

hasing, a p

sible. 'l'h punl h

ment for being caught is that you become "it;' and then you time as chaser until you catch someone and can once again hased. As children grow older they play increasingly versions of tag, with rules that give additional structur A typical example is "fox and geese;' which my childhood to

must s rv
n) y b n

sophist!

etc I

th

fri nd I d I played on ice skates, on paths carved through the snow n froz 11
0

ponds in Minnesota. The preferred position always was to b a omeone and could again be a goose. Hide-and-seek position is to be pursued. Punishment

not the fox. If you were caught, you had to be the fox until y u au ht and d dg ball ar not exactly chasing games, but they, too, follow the rule: the pr ferr d for being found, or for being hit by the ball, is that you have to be a pursuer. Even formal team sports, such as soccer, American football, basketball, and hockey, can be understood as complex versions of tag. Th or carrying
r dri -

nerable positions in their play. They do this as they climb high in trees, dive off high towers or cliffs, leap over crevices from rock to rock, perform tricks on playground equipment, or skateboard down banisters. In their playful fighting, young children, like other young mammals, alternate between getting into and out of vulnerable positions.l" Th stronger partner self-handicaps, to allow the weaker partner to brea k free from being pinned and to allow that partner to get into the attack position, so both can experience the thrill of being in the vulnerabl position and escaping from it. In all of this, young humans are much like the young of other mammals, and they are apparently learning th same crucial lessons. Think about the universal pleasure of chasing games. The threeyear-old girl squeals with almost unbearable joy as she flees from th terrible monster, in the form of her father or big brother, who threatens to catch her and eat her for breakfast. In every human chasing gam can think of, the preferred position is that of being chased. In nightmares and in real life, nothing is more terrifying than being chased by a predator or monster. But in play, nothing is more delightful. The most universal and basic of all human chasing game i ta . Children everywhere play it, and the g 'ai, alway, is to sp nd as mu I
17 I

joy lies in running across a field or court-kicking

.bling a ball, or pushing a puck, toward some goal-while

a h I'd

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"enemies" chase after you. Baseball, too, is a form of tag. Th

ba It

of point to another, while the other team tries to tag him out. In all su h
after hitting the ball, tries to run around a specified loop, from on games, the teams alternate between offense and defense, and th I r ferred position is offense, in which you are chased as you run thr "enemy" ground. In many such vigorous activities, children are testing their as well as their physical prowess. The combination wn of fear and j y
1I

the feeling we call thrill. In such play children must be in har their own activities, because only they know how to dose th

of
Iv
l

ns

with the right amount of fear. Children swinging on swing sets or

11mbr

ing trees or ropes know how high to go to generate the level of f ar th t

6 r them creates excitement but not terror. No parent, coach,

t acher can ever make that judgm nt for them. In the "whippin ribed by Weg ner- pohrin th boy being whipp d w uld h v i nal d th whippin t stop If It b am t palnful.Jn all h rrns r playful '1 htin nd h I. In I' I I lid I as th ri ht to nil tlrn - III

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or to quit if the emotional

or physical challenge becomes too gr at.

r high on nar tssi m hav b

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foun I to

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Without that right, the activity is no longer play. In our culture today, parents and other adults overprotect children from possible dangers in play. We seriously underestimate spect, we differ not just from hunter-gatherer Chapter 2), but from all traditional freely. Our underestimation children's ability to take care of themselves and make good judgments. In this recultures (as described in dethey cultures in which children played

ompared to thos of others, to lash out angrily in r pO.Is to rlt I, m, g 11 ral population.P Those who score low on empathy are mor 1iI Iy than III average person to engage in bullying and less likely to volunt > r to h 1\
and to commit white-collar crimes at higher rat s than th people in need.'? From all I have said in this chapter, it should be no my t ry why decline in play would be accompanied by a rise in emotional and disorders. Play is nature's way of teaching children how to from others' perspectives, negotiate differences, own problems, control their impulses, modulate their em ti and g talon others as equals. There is no substitute for playas a means of
I

becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy-by

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118, 8
t

priving children of freedom, we deprive them of the opportunities

s Iv th II'
with

need to learn how to take control of their own behavior and emotions.

The Decline of Empathy and the Rise of Narcissism

As I discussed in Chapter 1, the decline of children's free play since about 1955 has been accompanied by a continuous rise in anxiety, deand decline pression, and feelings of helplessness in young people. Related to these findings, there has also been an increase in narcissism in empathy.

I arnln these skills. They can't be taught in school. For life in the real w rld,
than any lessons that can be taught in school.

these lessons of personal responsibility, self-control, and sociability ar far more important

nts llnl ing a decline in play to a stunting of emotional and social dev lopm nt, there is also experimental evidence. We obviously can't condu t 101'\ In addition to the correlational evidence and logical argulTI term experiments in which human children are deliberat ly d prt

d
II

Narcissism refers to an inflated view of the self, which tends to separate the self from others and prevent the formation of meaningful two-way relationships. Since the late 1970s, it has been assessed in normative groups of college students using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), a questionnaire which they are concerned designed to tap the degree to which people are primarily concerned about themselves versus the degree to about others. Empathy is more or less th opposite of narcissism. It refers to a tendency to connect emotionally with others, to see things from others' point of view, and to feel sympathy for others' misfortunes. It has been assessed in normative groups of college students since the late 1970swith a questionnaire Interpersonal called th reveal
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of play. However, such experiments can and have been condo t d with animals. In some experiments, for example, rhesus monl

eys hav b

raised with just their mothers and then compared to other rh sus " on keys who were raised more normally, with access to peers as w II
I,
I

mothers.i" Monkey mothers interact in many ways with th Ir youn

but they do not play with them, so those in the former group w r prived of play throughout their development. Not surprisingly, wh
11 pia

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11

tested as young adults, they were found to be abnormal in many wOYIl. They showed excessive fear and excessive aggression. Wh II n
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novel environment, which would elicit a small degree of f ar in the environment

mal monkey, these monkeys reacted with terror and did not adapt to over time as a normal monkey would. Wh n pia d with peers, they failed to respond appropriately ial signals and invitations. Wh nap to the oth r anlm Is' It

Reactivity Index. Scores on these questionnaires

a significant rise in narcissism over the years and a significant declin in empathy.'? The questionnaire they correlate with real-world scores are apparently valid measur behaviors.
174

r att mpt d to room th m

For example, peopl

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friendly overture. They also failed to show appropriate attacked more often than normal monkeys. Similar experiments have been conducted

aggression-

IS omp lling to s m .but it do sn't (it w 11 with or with resear hers' findings from systernati

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reducing signals in the presence of other monkeys and were th reforc with rats, with similar high

surv ys.

At Sudbury Valley, students can play and explore in what omputers and television, and almost all of them play and

v r W ly
to vkl
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they like for as long as they like. All of them have unlimit doss

results. Rats raised without peer playmates exhibit abnormally set of experiments, some otherwise peer-deprived

nJoy

levels of both fear and aggression in various behavioral tests." In on young rats were allowed to interact for an hour per day with a playful peer while others were allowed to interact for an hour per day with a peer that had been rendered nonplayful by injection of the drug amphetamine.V Amphetamine knocks out the play drive in young rats without knocking out other social behaviors. The result was that rats with experience playing with a peer behaved much more normally in adulthood than did thos with the same amount of exposure to a nonplayful peer. Apparently th essential interactions between young rats for normal emotional and social development occur in play. In other experiments, play-deprived young rats showed abnormal patterns of brain development. Without play, neural pathways running from frontal areas of the brain-areas known to be crucial for controlling impulses and emotions-failed develop norrnally+' It may seem cruel to raise young monkeys, and even young rats, in conditions where they cannot play freely with peers, for the sake of science. But if that is cruel, then what can we say about our current "normal" practice and dangerous. of depriving human children of free play with oth r children for the sake of protecting and educating them? It's cruel indeed, to

games. But most of them also spend lots of time playing and XI lorll1g in the fields and woods outdoors. Surveys of game players in th population, the twO.24 as well as with video games usually, over time, choose a balan n r II b tw
'I

likewise, indicate that kids who are free to play outdoors Those who seem to become addicted to the garn s ar play appears to compete
n5

rally those for whom other satisfying forms of play ar not availabl . Video-game much more with t I vision watching than with outdoor play for children's free time.

v rail, a -

cording to surveys, gamers do not play outdoors any less than do nongamel's, but they do watch less television.i'' In fact, one recent lar >-s ile tudy of factors promoting revealed-to outdoor play among children in Holland children who had a ornput
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the surprise of some-that

. r a television in their own room played outdoors signifi antly more, not less, than did otherwise comparable children who had n it h 'I' In their room.F It seems to me that the decline in children's outdoor play has h 'n caused primarily by the rise of parental fears and by oth r.
0

(II

hanges (described in Chapter 10) that have reduced childr n's oPI 0" tunities to play freely outdoors. The increased video play s ms to h v'
01'

ome about for two reasons. First, the games really are fun and

bt
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oming more so all the time as the technology and thought that

into producing them has advanced. Second, as kids are more and mor

What About Video Games?

The one form of play that hasn't declined in recent decades is vid decline in outdoor play. They argue that television programming them from other activities. I understand
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monitored and controlled by adults in the real world, the virtual worl I has emerged as a place where many of them can still be free. Th
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y ar-old may not be allowed to walk to the corner store by hims If, t fill d with all sorts of dangers and delights. When kids are asked, in f ab ut video am. s, th y
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games. Some people blame such games, along with television, for the and p video play are so seductive that they hold children at the screen and 1

I e is allowed to enter into and explore freely an exciting virtual w rid us groups and surveys, what th y lll .rnlly toll about fr ed
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strive to meet challenges that they themselves have chosen. At school contexts they may be treated as Idiots and exhibit extraordinary skills. In th . to the generawho need constant direction, but in the game they are in charge and game, age does not matter-skill does. In these ways, video games arc

i ally have structures similar to companies in the real world, wit h le id rs, executive boards, and even recruitment personnel. u h in many ways like the imaginative sociodramatic text, and raised up many notches in sophistication Like all sociodramatic games f pr hool

hildren, but played in a virtual world, with communicati and abilities of the older children, teenagers, and adults wh of the real world, and they exercise concepts and social relevant to that world. A study commissioned by the IBM

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tional rise in anxiety, depression, and helplessness, video games appea r to be a force that is helping to relieve those afflictions. This seems to b . especially true in recent times, with the emergence of so-called massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, which are far more social than previous video games and offer endless opportunities for creativity and problem solving.r? (an avatar) that traits and assets, and as that In these online games, players create a character has unique physical and psychological character, enter an extraordinarily simultaneously

games, they are anchored in an und rstandln rp re lion ar

concluded that the leadership skills exercised within th s real corporate world.I"

essentially the same as those required to run a modern company in th Much of the early research on video games was motivat d by f ars that the violent content in some of the games would increas y un
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people's violent behavior in the real world. For those who have tak n th trouble to examine it seriously, that research has quelled the initial f ars, There is no evidence that killing animated characters
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occupied by countless other players, who in their real-

life forms may be anywhere on the planet. Players go on quests withi n this virtual world, and along the way they meet other players, who might become friends or foes. Players may start off playing solo, avoiding others, but to advance to the higher levels they have to make friends and join with others in mutual quests. Making friends within the gam ' requires essentially the same skills as making friends in the real world. You can't be rude. You have to understand and abide by the etiquett .
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creases a person's likelihood of harming people in real life. In fa t, sorn studies suggest that the pretend violence of video game

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people learn to control and regulate their emotions, perhaps in I11Ll I the same way that "dangerous" outdoor play does. One study, for xarnj revealed that college students who regularly played violent vid
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of the culture you are in. You have to learn about the goals of a potentia I friend and help that individual to achieve those goals. Depending how you behave, players may put you on their friends list or their ignore list, and they may communicate positive or negative information about you to other players. The games offer players endless opportunities tasy world where there are no real-life consequences for failing. groups call d
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have to admit that I personally cannot play video gan1es, orwat h m vi

that include graphic depictions of violence, because I find them r v lUng. But nothing in the research literature leads me to argue that th r is any moral virtue in my avoiding such games and movies. I never f rbad \ my children from such pretend violence, and they have grown up l l \ ompletely nonviolent, morally virtuous citizens. More recently, researchers have begun to pay attention t th po iuv

experiment with different personalities and ways of behaving, in a fan Players in these games can also form special-interest

guilds. To join, players must fill out an application, much like a job al

ff cts of video gam s.

v ral xp riments have shown that playtn

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scores on tests of visuospatial ability, including components of standa I'd IQ tests.P Other studies suggest that depending ability to hold several items of information on the type, vid o games can also increase scores on measures of working memory (th ' in mind at once), criti al ' thinking, and problem solving.t" In addition, there is growing eviden that kids who previously showed little interest in reading and writin are now acquiring advanced literacy skills through the text-based communication in online video games.P And as I already mentioned, ther ' is at least some evidence that playing high-action, emotion-arousin games helps young people learn to regulate their emotions in stressful situations. To date there has been little formal study of the social benefi ts of video games, but many anecdotal reports attest to such benefits, and what research has been done suggests that frequent video game players are, on average, better adjusted socially than their nonplaying peers-" The route to getting our kids outdoors is not to throwaway the computer or the television set, no more than it is to throwaway the books we have in our homes. These are all great sources of learning and enjoyment. Rather, the route is to make sure kids have real opportunities to play freely outdoors, with other kids, without interference from adults. Kids in today's world need to become highly skilled with computers, just as hunter-gatherer need freedom and opportunity and opportunity kids needed to become highly skill d to play with computers, the primary ONE MORNING
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FREE AGE MIXING: A KEY INGREDIENT FOR CHILDREN'S CAPACITY FOR SELF-EDUCATION]

with bows and arrows or digging sticks. To develop such skills, th y tools of today. But for healthy development, to play outdoors, they also need freedom coercion.

AT the Sudbury Valley School, a rernarkabl

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kids. The key words here are freedom and opportunity-not

1 two seven-year-old boys were creating, purely for their own nj ym nt,
ven-year-olds gleefully shouted out ideas about what would hap an outstanding
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