Why We Play to Learn

Why We Play as Part of the Group Process

A Message from Danelle

Play to Reach

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Plato

Entering a new group can be intimidating. We want to be accepted, to fit in and we are afraid that we won’t measure up somehow. Think of the last time that you had to join a group of people that you didn’t know very well and that didn’t know you very well. You may have had thoughts such as: “I wonder if they will like me.”; “How should I act to fit in with these people?”; or “I hope I look okay.” If we as adults have difficulty in joining a new group, imagine how much more difficult it is for a middle or high school student to take the risk to open up in a new setting. Play can help strangers get to know one another through laughter and fun.

This thing called play is a useful tool for allowing people to connect to each other quickly. Playing requires focus on the rules and object of the game which prevents people from focusing too much on the image that they are portraying, or their concerns about fitting in with the group. When we play we become an automatic member of the team. We have to stop worrying about ourselves in order to succeed at the game. Beginning group time with play activities can help the members of the group to feel connected. We play to reach each other.

Play to Teach

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.

Leo F. Buscaglia

Play is fun and it is serious business, too! Children (and incidentally animals) learn about the world through play. Exploring, mimicking, and testing things out are all a natural part of human development. Play activities allow us to think about abstract ideas in a concrete way. They allow us to utilize creativity and think in a different way then we usually do.

While play can be incidental, it can also be intentional. We have been very intentional in choosing games that will allow the participants in the growth groups to open up to each other, to build trust in one another, and to challenge each other to be themselves without the protective image that is the badge of adolescence. We play to teach and learn about people and ideas.

When we come together to play and be we are truly ourselves When we are truly ourselves it is wonderful and when we act collectively in that wonder we do transformative work for our community and our world.

Brad Colby