The problem with play is that it is fun.
The problem with play is that it is fun. And adults who had little play and fun when they were small find it hard to allow children in their care to have good, free, play experiences. Sometimes an adult who did have playful experiences as a child can be cut off from their playful feelings through trauma, depression and the hard grind of survival.
Our teachers are ECD practitioners – they do not have post graduate teaching diplomas and many did not complete high school and some not primary school. This is the reality in South Africa. Most of our under 7’s are cared for and ‘educated’ by those who have very knowledge of child development, using educational toys, encouraging creativity and imagination and simply organising a playroom so that children have safe, easy access to toys and lots of time to do it in.
One of our biggest challenges is helping our teachers to allow the children to play freely with toys and other play materials. Bringing in toys without a plan (that we now put in place) results in toys being packed away in cupboards (because otherwise the children will break them) or dumping everything in an old cardboard box and every now and then upending it from a height to a hard floor, scattering puzzle pieces, broken cars, dice, and bits of dolls. The children then pounce and squabble over the spoils like monkeys over too little food. So disrespectful of the needs of children! But not consciously so. Just thoughtlessly.
At first we brought in low shelves for the toys and containers to hold them and keep them separate. We discussed and demonstrated tidy up times and putting toys away when one has finished playing with the teachers and the children. We showed the teachers how to use each educational toy we brought to them. But then we would find that the teachers often banned the use of the toys except occasionally and when we were there encouraging the children to play – the children glancing anxiously at the teachers as they took toys from us or the shelves.
When I investigate this in training sessions I commonly hear this: “these children are so lucky, we didn’t have this when we were children’. So I have to come to the conclusion that the teachers are unconsciously and partly conscious of an envy towards the children in their care. They are perceived as having what they did not. We know it is almost impossible to give emotionally to others what we ourselves didn’t have. But also I have come to understand – it is hard to emotionally allow children play experiences we did not have – even after being trained to do this.
We are working on this. Our teachers need lots of nurturing experiences for their own emotional growth – and we have to bring them into contact with their playful sides. But also more seriously we do need to attend to their envious, angry, sad, disappointed feelings.
We need to remember that for many for the children of Apartheid and those who were born to the children of Apartheid that loss of a childhood is a painful reality. They lost the possibility of using and developing the potential they were born with.