Dr. Peter Gray, Defender of the Playful

In a previous post, I cited an article by Dr. Peter Gray, who writes a blog called Freedom to Learn, published by Psychology Today. After a brief, friendly exchange of emails, Dr. Gray agreed to share his entire paper Leisure Play is Important for Human Collaboration with us. You can download it here.

Coincidentally, his blog currently features an article of similar noteworthiness called "Social Play and the Genesis of Democracy," in which he writes:

"Children cannot acquire democratic values through activities run autocratically by adults. They can and do, however, experience and acquire such values in free play with other children. That is a setting where they are treated as equals, where they must have a say in what goes on, and where they must respect the rights of others if they wish to be included."

Clearly we have found yet another Defender of the Playful.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith