Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Exploring Play

At the Godly Play European Trainers' Conference, some of the UK trainers let me know about a free on-line course from the University of Sheffield called "Exploring Play: The Role of Play in Everyday Life". 

In Godly Play circles, we spend a lot of time talking about exactly what play is and why it is important. There are philosophers, most notably Johann Huizinga of the Netherlands, who have argued that the ability to play is what sets human beings apart from all other forms of life. Indeed, we begin to play as infants and continue to do so in one form or another for the rest of our lives. And "play" looks different for each person.

One of my first assignments in the class was to define "play". I wrote that play is something that we do voluntarily and enjoy. We'll see if the professors there and my virtual "classmates" agree. 

Although the course started yesterday, I was still able to sign up today. So if any of you are interested in joining in as well, click here to do so.

How would you define "play"?


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