The right to play

The right to spend time playing, article 31

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 states that children have the right to education (art. 28), and they have the right to rest and leisure, to spend time playing and engaging in recreational activities appropriate to their age (art. 31): two rights of equal weight and equal importance. That is why, although for nine months a year the working days are dedicated to school, leisure time is fundamental for children’s development too. However, the youngest know that this is not the case. The right to education and the right to play are not equally important to adults because children have to go to school every day and there is homework to do during afternoons and holidays. Often there is no time left to play, said Silvia, a child at the Children's Council of Rome: “To teachers studying is important because it prepares us for the future, while playing is something you do only when you're little and so it counts for nothing”.

The opinion of science

Science does not agree with the opinion of most adults. According to studies on cognitive development, it is during the very early days, early months and early years that development is quicker and more important. Before a child enters a classroom for the first time, the foundations upon which all subsequent knowledge will be built have already been laid. And it is thanks to play that this fundamental cognitive and social process occurs.

Through play children experience something rare in the life of human beings: facing the complexity of the world by themselves. Playing means carving out a little piece of this world:  a piece that includes a friend, certain rules, some objects, a space to fill,  time to spend, risks to take. With total freedom, because what you cannot do, you can invent. And the driving force of this experience is the most powerful known by mankind: pleasure.

What playing means

For children to fully enjoy the experience of playing some conditions must be met. The youngest must be independent enough, must have some free time to organize, have the possibility to choose a suitable place to play and share these conditions with other children. It is necessary to be able to go out without being accompanied, look for friends and spend free time playing in a suitable place. Playing means experiencing adventure, discovery, obstacles, risks and the pleasure of being able to do what yesterday you were unable to do, or the frustration of not succeeding.

When asked “what is play to a child?” pediatrician and child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto answered: “I would say it is enjoying wish fulfillment through risks”. Risk, an essential component of play, would not be possible if there was an adult accompanying and monitoring.

Certainly, this necessarily free and independent experience is experienced within temporal, spacial and social rules as defined by the family. That is why sharing is important too: when they return home, tired and perhaps dirty, children will have so many things to tell.

Play and school

Schools too should take an interest in their students’ play experience. Only when children can spend afternoons, weekends and holidays playing can they have a new wealth of experience to bring back to school as working material: their observations, discoveries, surprises and amazement. Schools, therefore, should not fill children’s free time with homework but leave room for the fundamental element of growth that is play.