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I’m reading (well, actually skimming) a book called Play by Stuart Brown. Brown is a medical doctor, a former professor at U.C. San Diego, and the founder of the National Institute of Play. His book has received a bit of press lately and given that I’m always interested in learning, and playing, I thought I’d combine my two interests by reading this book.
Brown gives 7 qualities of play:
1. Apparently purposeless (done for its own sake)
2. Voluntary
3. Inherent attraction
4. Freedom from time
5. Diminished consciousness of self
6. Improvisational potential
7. Continuation desire
As youth workers, we’re known for being good at playing. But I think that there’s a continuum in youth ministry. Some of us are really good – maybe arguably too good – at playing. We need to get more intentional.
Others of us are too intentional. We don’t really know how to play with abandon. (I’m definitely more in this category.)
In an age in which teenagers take themselves seriously, I hope we as youth workers can help them play. What is it that you already do to play with kids? What would you like to do? Kids hardly ever get to play, unless it’s around video games or sports, both of which can be overly competitive. Wouldn’t it be great if kids could truly be themselves in our ministry, which includes periods of true play?
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March 27th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Kara,
I LOVE THIS! We intentionally leave time in our gatherings to just let down. We spend great deals of time together in play, at coffee shops, parks, each others houses, just playing. It’s always amazing to me how conversation will naturally gravitate to the important things during our times of play. This is almost always student led too. The kids in our contexts are from affluent, suburban backgrounds and are pushed to succeed from a very early age. They often don’t even know what to do with unstructured downtime. In fact, they have related to feelings of being out of control.
A fantastic book to accompany Stuart Brown’s Play is The Price of Privilege (How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids)by Madeline Levin. http://www.amazon.com/Price-Privilege-Advantage-Generation-Disconnected/dp/0060595841
March 27th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Hey Chris, we’ve actually had an author explore the Price of Privilege and similar research in this article. Really fascinating stuff!
April 1st, 2009 at 11:30 am
Thanks Brad! Good stuff!
April 1st, 2009 at 11:42 am
This has been an issue I’ve really experienced some struggle with. I am aware of the developmental limitations of adolescents and the role that just “playing” serves in addressing those issues. I’m also aware of the limited amount of time we’re allowed to influence a student’s life and want to capitalize on the permission we’ve been given to speak into their lives during that time.
I guess “tension” is a the best way to describe it. I like the thought of a tug-of-war rope. The goal is to pull the flag in the middle to one side or the other. But in youth ministry it seems the goal should be to try and keep it in the middle as much as possible, which can be hard when we have individual tendencies that lend themselves to one side or the other.
How do we live in that “tension” between capitalizing on a decreasing amount of time that young people give us and modeling and teaching the importance of just chilling out and having fun?
In an ideology where knowledge is king (the more you know the more spiritual you are) it’s hard to convince other that teaching our kids how to enjoy life is a worthwhile endeavor.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:57 am
Really good points, Chris. A pastor said to me yesterday that life isn’t always as black and white as we think.
I think part of our problem is that we as youth workers don’t do a good job explaining WHY we do what we do, or even more importantly, WHY we are changing what we’ve always done. The youth workers I know who are best at bringing about change explain the reasons for the change far ahead of the actual change, and then keep explaining the reasons for the change. They use meetings, emails, and letters to keep parents and kids up on what’s going on.