91吃瓜网

By Robert A. Scott, President, 91吃瓜网

Introduction

When听I performed as Joe Stoddard, the Undertaker, in the student production of听鈥淥ur Town鈥� this winter, I was asked what it was like to act in a play. I frequently attend听Adelphi athletic events and watch our teams play. When I visit my grandchildren, we听play. What is 鈥減lay鈥�?

The word 鈥減lay鈥� has many roles, but the one I emphasize today is the third听example, child鈥檚 play. Play is joyful, a release of tension or a burst of fun. It is a听rehearsal for the rest of life: setting rules, negotiating disputes, choosing sides. It听provides for building friendships, fosters imagination, allows for fantasy, requires听communication, can expose one to diversity in all its forms, and can enhance empathy.听Play is essential for developing resilience, courage, cooperation, independence, and听inquisitiveness; healthy bodies, active minds, and generous spirits; and mental, physical,听and emotional capabilities.

I recall pick-up games; the yo-yo; shooting marbles; story hour at the library;听scraping a spoon across sandpaper held behind my back to simulate a mouse; having听more fun with the box a toy came in than with the toy itself; building a log cabin – –听partially, that is – – with Uncle Harold鈥檚 prized young pine trees I cut down before he听came home; imagining I could fly; hitting tennis balls against the garage; debating big听issues, taking both sides, while walking across town; catching fish with a safety pin tied听to a string, with a pine cone as a floater, a stone as a weight, and freshly dug worms as听bait.

I recall these and other memories of play, as a child, as a parent, and as a grandparent, and tell stories about them. I can do this because of the impressions these听memories made on me, enhanced by family photographs and my mother鈥檚 poems. I听conclude with one she called, 鈥淵our Boy.鈥�

Your Boy

Have you a boy about seven years old,
Who frequently does just as he has been told,
But in spite of all effort will shape to the mold
Of a bandit?

Do you also wonder if your boy will ever
Put any speediness in his endeavor,
Although he be most self-reliant and clever,
But stubborn?

Are you on the verge of losing your mind,
Over his questions of every kind,
From 鈥淲here is heaven?鈥� to 鈥淲hat is a mind?鈥�
And 鈥淲hy is it?鈥�

Is he now an Indian off on the run,
Then maybe a cowboy with a holster and gun,
At practically any time ready for fun,
Or a movie?

Does he make pets of plain earth worms and ants;
Continually does he prattle and prance;
Outgrow all his shirts and his socks and his pants,
Or need patches?

After you鈥檝e punished him, could you just weep,
When he says 鈥淪orry, Mom鈥�, before going to sleep,
And signals a message you always will keep,
That he loves you?¹

Word pictures and family photographs help rekindle the mental images of a听child鈥檚 play. I rejoice in them all; they helped shape who I am.

Invited Address for the Early Years Matter initiative entitled, “Smart, Healthy, Happy Children – – Start with Play.” Long Island Children’s Museum, May 22, 2007.

¹听Ann Waterman Scott, “Your Boy”, New England Homestead, November 8, 1947.

For further information, please contact:

Todd Wilson
Strategic Communications Director听
p 鈥� 516.237.8634
e 鈥� twilson@adelphi.edu