At the start of every school year, Diane Levin, an
education professor at Boston’s Wheelock College who teaches a course
called “Meaning and Development of Play,” has her students interview
people of different ages about how they used to play when they were
children. The results are not surprising: Every year, her students
report that interview subjects over age 50 played outside all day in big
groups of their peers, with a few toys (“maybe a ball”) and no adult
supervision. People between the ages of 20 and 40, who grew up in the
1980s, ‘90s, and early 2000s, watched a lot of television but still
played outside, often make-believe games inspired by TV shows and
movies.
For young people today, however, it’s a
different story. “They hardly play. If they do play it’s some TV script.
Very prescribed,” Levin said. “Even if they have friends over, it’s
often playing video games.” link
