In 1789, William Blake wrote a poem called Ihe School Boy. Although it is not one of his better-known poems, the imagery and mood [of restriction of childhood freedom] he captures seems relevant even today.
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!
But to go to school in a summer morn, O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
School has long been a thorn in the life of every student. Everybody complains but there is a deeper layer to those objections. A major analysis published in Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that children’s free play time declined by approximately 25% between 1981 and 1997, largely due to increased time spent in structured activities and schooling.
Across developmental psychology and education research, unstructured time refers to child-initiated, freely chosen activity without adult direction or predetermined outcomes, most often associated with free play (especially outdoor play). Multiple reviews emphasise that this type of play is qualitatively different from organised sports, classes, or adult-led “play-based learning”.
The reasons for this include increased academic pressure and longer school hours, rise of structured enrichment and résumé-building, organised sports, coaching, and classes replace self-directed play, parental safety concerns and supervision norms and, the shrinking of informal play spaces. But, it is not merely children who have been impacted by this. Adults too are a victim of the loss of leisure in an increasingly goal oriented world. Long games across generations with no real purpose except the joy of spending time together are slowly decreasing.
Even with the growing interest in traditional games, the ones that are chosen to play are primarily strategy based with the long-term goal of improving and stimulating thinking. Games are chosen for the time taken and the lessons learnt rather than the sheer joy of play. Perhaps the greatest culprits for all this might be the parents themselves. Their anxiety for their child’s success translates into focus on more goal oriented structured activities. This is where William Blake’s words become more poignant.
How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!
O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and cares dismay…
My work with traditional games is not merely in discovering the games and identifying their rules. It is also in reviving the spirit of traditional play — the unstructured, joyful play that requires no prizes, scores, goals, or reason. In this kind of play, winning does not matter, for the joy comes from the games themselves.
Years ago, I remember seeing an advertisement with the memorable lines — ‘Children walk to School. Children run home.’ That tagline captured it all: the sheer pleasure in the unstructured expresses itself in the way in which children move. As we celebrated World Poetry Day on Saturday, I remember William Blake, not for his other poems but the evocative angst of a school boy.