| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Play is under siege? Kids need more time to play, a story in Time Magazine suggests. It's hard to grasp sometimes, but the Good Old Days of our Ancestors really did have much to teach us. There are so many modern ways which threaten happy prospects: Fattening Commercial Tv watching and Too Few Family Meals, Gun Violence, Sports Injuries, Over Organized Schedules for Kids, not to mention ubiquitous and atonal music - that it's refreshing to see that thinkers are looking back to better times, when play was play and so much better for kids and society. By Ed Waggener A bit of thinking at random, during playtime and a moment of indolence There's a story online which sparked this rant. It's What the pygmies can teach us about childrearing which offers some interesting insight on what we can learn from our the ways of our hunter/gatherer forebears and other cultures. It focuses on play. There's a lot to be said for the advantages of freedom to play. Remember the inventive games we had 40, 50, 60 years ago? Softball with a cat for third base and the alpha kid as player, coach, and referee? When the imagination was the theatre? When the panorama was gazing out the window with no one shouting "It's time for soccer?" When games were played with peers and no spectators, just for the sake of playing. There really was something there, there - back then. Our forebears were a hunter/gatherering society on Jamestown Hill 60-70 years ago. And all of us had plenty of play time. Organizing what needn't be organized - play, so often, for instance is silly. In the cult series, Portlandia, there's a skit on organized Hide and Seek Leagues at a local library - complete with coaches, stats, local color. Remember when Hide and Seek was fun? And taught valuable lessons? Without adult organization and micro management. Funny how old Reader's Digest anecdotes stick in one's mind. One about over organization was posted back in the 1950s. When early adopters of VW beetles were producing all the Smugness for VW owners. To paraphrase, a German professor teaching in America was invited to join the "Volkswagen Club." "Vat?" he asked. The caller explained, "You own a Volkswagen, don't you? This is a club for Volkswagen owners." Didn't sway the German. The professor said, "Ja, but I also own a toot'brush and I'm not a member of a Toot'brush Club." Maybe degrees ought to be offered for how much one has really done, not on merit badges, memberships, and Peer Cheer awards. Maybe actually writing a book means more than Book Club membership. Maybe actually creating an enterprise is more important, for a mentor, than having passed a course of study or being given a degree should gain more respect than the wallpaper. Putting that in religious terms in the life of the most important figure ever: Just how big was Jesus' trophy room? How many gold stars were on his forward? How many times did he make Most Valuable Preacher? And didn't he have a pretty long period when his life was, seemingly lying fallow? When was he over organized? Give kids back the time to play. Put Tippy back as third base. Have more upstairs windows where kids can spend hours just looking and thinking and creating their own ideas. Of course, Moms who were always there to just listen may be a luxury only I had with my best Mother ever. Her main role was never to organize our play - just to look out occasionally or shout, "You Wh-o-o-o!" when it was time for supper. Didn't have cell phones then. But that, and unorganized play, a few responsibilities, and an upstairs window for long times just looking and imagining, playing with 'adult' supervision only a two year older smartest kid in the neighborhood, like we had growing up on Jamestown Hill, is something I wish every child could have. Philosophers, poets and others have written on this, often under a variation of "The Importance of indolence," which fits with a major tenet of mine, "Not doing work which ought not be did," so it's a comforting to see that new thought on play fully fits my notions, my worldview. - EW This story was posted on 2013-02-04 03:30:56
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Commentary:
Jon Halsey: Wishful thinking re: Fourth Estate, responsibility Martha Berry: Carol Perkins right, but should carry it farther Donna Saunders: Same offenders are continually breaking law Time to act to make streets, crosswalks safer is now Driver inattention is biggest factor in high incidence of fatalities Comment on deadly situation at bypass intersection Jon Halsey comments on City Pool: Agrees with Billy Joe Fudge When? writer asks. When will traffic be calmed Downtown? Glad to see energetic debate about spending tax dollars PERSONAL OPINION: Jon Halsey comments on City Pool Issue View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by D'Zine, Ltd., PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia! Magazine and D'Zine, Ltd. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
