The right to play
A child's playful approach to faith might benefit adults—and the church.
Did you know that children have a right to play? Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes “the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”
Play gets its own article because research has shown that it is essential to develop the full potential of all children, the central focus of the Convention. Unstructured, creative, spontaneous play, as well as planned activity, is critical for the mental, emotional, social and spiritual development of children – and adults.
Play is often called re-creation, for good reason. For Christians, the creation story reveals a playful Creator God who takes delight in both the process of making things and the outcomes. Throughout the Old Testament, the God of the Isrealites mandated many community festivals, with dancing, music and creative arts, even in times of exile and conflict, to renew the spirit and community bonds of God’s people. The prophet Zechariah’s image of a restored Zion includes children playing in the streets (Zech. 8:5). When Jesus centers children and suggests becoming like a child, we tend to think obedience or trust, but I think it also includes the imaginative playfulness of children, in contrast to the rules-bound Pharisees who questioned Jesus. The Revelations picture of the new creation includes cultural expressions from every nation.
Play & spiritual development
The importance of play for human development is getting more attention. In The Anxious Generation, Dr. Jonathan Haidt identifies the shift from play-based childhood to phone-based childhood as a major cause of the increase in youth mental health issues. “Safetyism” and over-protection by parents, he argues, hinder rather than help children because they constrain space for playful exploration and risk-taking that develops resilience and healthy relationships.
Greater recognition of the right to play would have benefits in a wide variety of fields, including education, community services, sports and faith formation. The current trend toward replacing play-based kindergarten curricula with more structured learning may not be in the best long-term interests of children. Excessive competition in sports and over-emphasis on elite performers, such as the Own-the-Podium approach to Olympic training, can leave some children on the sidelines. The commercialization of play in toys with limited creative play value and the advertising to children that exploits play for profit are other distortions of the kind of play that children and adults need to live well.
In church education, learning to know God is often seen as a matter of study and work; the Bible story is serious business followed by playtime and crafts in many church programs. Left on their own, however, children frequently include God in their imaginative play. Play, according to child development research, is the way children make meaning and develop their identities, which is the essence of spiritual development. I find myself wondering if a play-based approach to faith formation might also benefit adults.
Thank you for this perceptive article. Perhaps the sentence(s) that stood out most for me are these: “Play is often called re-creation, for good reason. For Christians, the creation story reveals a playful Creator God who takes delight in both the process of making things and the outcomes.” And this: “Excessive competition in sports and over-emphasis on elite performers, such as the Own-the-Podium approach to Olympic training, can leave some children on the sidelines.”