For the world鈥檚 children, play is serious business. And failure is part of the fun.
SKIP, SKIP, HOORAY: A girl jump-ropes at a school housing residents displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Ramon Espinosa/AP/File
Remember your first pillow fort 鈥� a kingdom of couch cushions with wobbly walls and a roof that collapsed again and again? I do. And I remember the joy of trying, the thrill of failing until I triumphed.
As National Children鈥檚 Day (June 8 in the United States) approached, I spoke with Robin Meisner, senior director of exhibits and research at Boston Children鈥檚 Museum, to better understand why children play. 鈥淧lay isn鈥檛 just about having fun,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also about learning to cope, understand differences, solve problems, and think flexibly.鈥�
Play isn鈥檛 always joyful. It鈥檚 messy, frustrating, full of small failures. That鈥檚 the point. 鈥淚f it doesn鈥檛 work, you just keep trying,鈥� Dr. Meisner says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 determination.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Too often, play is pushed aside 鈥� squeezed out by screen time and schoolwork. As National Children鈥檚 Day approaches in the United States, we examine how children test boundaries, swap roles, invent rules, and learn empathy through play.
Play is a rehearsal for the real world. In play, children test boundaries, swap roles, invent rules, and learn empathy. They explore what it means to belong, to lose, and to keep at it.
Yet too often, play is pushed aside 鈥� squeezed out by screen time and schoolwork. And most adults have forgotten its value. Only 30% of adults know that the United Nations recognizes play as a basic right, according to the Lego Foundation.
With every cardboard-box-turned-rocket-ship and every stick-turned-fishing-pole, children are not escaping the world. They鈥檙e preparing to meet it.
For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit聽The World in Pictures.