By Kristin Wong, The New York Times, August 17, 2020
“Let’s play!” my friend’s 4-year-old squealed, tugging on my arm. I was tired, so I told her, “I’m too lazy to play.” But I wasn’t allowed to be lazy because I’m big, she said. Unable to come up with a convincing rebuttal, I found a place to hide while she counted to 20. Fred Rogers said that play is “the work of childhood.” Kids take this work seriously, they’re good at it, and they can teach us a thing or two about why play is important — especially now.
But what, exactly, is play? Generally speaking, play is something that’s imaginative, self-directed, intrinsically motivated and guided by rules that leave room for creativity.
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