Get Out of the Way and Let Me Play!

I completely agree with what was written in the article by Bill Drayton, and I believe the transformation, (we are far past the boat of reformation!) comes in a simple return to what school is. Long before I kissed my daughters and son off to kindergarten, they were playing at being adults. They were experiencing the world around them by playing at being. By the end of first grade my eldest was not only a cashier at KMart, she was a librarian demanding that her sisters pay their fines and return the library books. She was a teacher sitting all of her students in row. She was a doctor, nurse. My middle child was exploring animal husbandry, veterinary medicine by the end of second grade. My youngest was a pediatrician. You see long before they hit the age of 9, they had already explored more careers than any career fair in high school could provide. They all knew how to use the 6 simple machines, and why they worked. They knew how to make bread, fudge, and why sometimes the fudge turned out grittier than other times. They played at learning. We lack play in learning. I am a huge proponent of Play Based Learning. You have me thinking about what I was when I was 9 or 10. I was a radio announcer, a writer, a dreamer, a singer, and yes, I love to play my made up game of "Johnny and the Houses." I couldn't experience enough. The one thing that I wasn't aware of? How smart I really was. I didn't find out until I was a mother of very young children that I would have been identified as off the charts gifted. So, rather than getting good grades in school, (now I know why) I was just left to be the dreamer....still am so it seems. I am everything I was when I was 6 or 7 or 8 or 9...The only thing a child needs to have to be who they are is time, investment by caregivers, school is the perfect place for this, but, we must get government out of our way, and allow our children to play!