blocks.jpgChildren need to play. Oh, that’s obvious, you say—but according to NPR’s Alix Spiegel, children today need more “freewheeling imaginative play,” as opposed to structured enrichment classes or play centered around single-purpose toys. I’ve long felt this; one of the many reasons my son has my 25-year-old Legos rather than today’s versions. (OK, there’s some sentimentalism in there, too.) With the older Legos, for example, you had to build a horse out of cubes and angle-bricks, and could make it yellow or blue if you liked; today, the horse is premolded and precolored. I’d rather give my son a paper towel tube to use as a telescope/flashlight/light saber/car tunnel than buy four separate items. I’m not a purist, but give me a good old fashioned wooden block set over the Bob the Builder “Load and Play” Factory any day.

Television advertising, which began promoting specific toys at the expense of improvised activities, is partly to blame, relates Spiegel, citing Brown University cultural historian Howard Chudacoff. President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” initiative gets negative marks, too. Yale psychological researcher Dorothy Singer explains, “Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time.”

Worth a full read. I’ll also add that I think the best way to get kids to play with imagination is to get out there and play with them. Pirates on the horizon!