For the mind to grow, allow it space to play

MANILA, Philippines–Children all over the world love to play. Even in places of wars and disasters, while journalists are reporting on TV the grim situation, you can see children playing in the mud or among the ruins in the background. Playing is a survival instinct.

If I were to pick one person who has revolutionized education the most and whose ideas we should pay more attention to, it would be Jean Piaget.

Piaget takes play very seriously. He believes play overcomes egocentrism, or the inability to take another point of view.

Play is essential to inventions; it assimilates and accommodates reality. It is adaptive. It trains our senses, facilitates our physical development. It helps us think, plan and execute.

Play furthers cognitive growth, communication facility, emotional regulation and social interaction.

Real learning happens when children are playing. And it is not the product of their playing that counts but the process that actually makes their mind grow.

Behind the outward play is the mind that plays—a mind that is flexible, creative, generative and innovative; a mind that is not afraid to take risks, to imagine, to experiment, to think laterally and to design.

Our brain is a beautiful organ and our mind is its unique product. We can transplant our brains but not our mind. We build our minds day by day. Since birth, our mind has been playing around. It plays with sounds, sights, words, logic, expressions and explanations.

We develop in our minds patterns of seeing, hearing, thinking and behaving. We build new connections and file our learning into schemas. We build habits of mind—we can train it to relax, to focus, to pay attention on something and to dismiss other things.

With practice, we can construct higher quality of thinking. We can mobilize diverse parts of the mind to come together as a whole and to work like an orchestral symphony to achieve greater economy and efficiency, individually and communally.

However, to allow our mind to grow, it needs mental space to play, time to muse, freedom to explore, courage to fail and more courage to try again.

I teach graduate courses in educational psychology. In life-span development and affective learning courses, my aim is for my students to learn more about themselves.

For example, to activate the recollection of their childhood, I ask them to recall what games they played or toys they played with as children. After five minutes of reminiscing and drawing, they are asked to share their memories with a seatmate.

This activity always elicits animated narratives and spontaneous laughter. I love watching my students enjoy the exchange. How a simple task brings so much fond memories and nostalgia! I sometimes hesitate to move on to the next topic to let my adult students linger in what seems to be the happiest period of their lives.

I wonder why this carefree spirit cannot be carried to our learning experiences. Schools have become burdensome and stressful for most students.

It is a daily grind if kindergarten students have to memorize clinical terminologies for parts of the body; if elementary students regurgitate tables of chemical compounds without a clue how these work; if high school seniors are warned constantly of impending college admission tests; if college students with failing grades are threatened with dropping policies.

Lifelong learner

It has been 20 years since I received my doctoral degree. I have been a lifelong learner.

So when I reached the tricky age of 40, I challenged myself to learn new languages (adding to my repertoire of languages) with classmates around half my age. I completed nine levels of French and two levels of German courses. I enrolled in arts and painting classes (acrylic, oil and Chinese). I took up postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. I attended conferences and workshops to learn from world-renowned experts.

After teaching for 18 years, I still read every day and take down notes by hand and certainly do lots of Internet reading, as well. I change my syllabus every now and then so that I will read new books on a discipline with a plan.

I am familiar with how my mind plays around ideas and questions, assumptions and premises. I keep my mind sound by letting it play—get fresh air, try new tricks, change its pace and challenge its stamina.

Our mind is a living thing that can thrive only if we allow it to play; to understand that knowledge is not dead but living, tentative, organic and subject to change. If we are stuck in the past or even the present, we will be left behind.

(E-mail the author at [email protected].)