Time spent wearing headphones

The students we work with in Salt Lake are a really friendly and outgoing bunch of kids.  Whenever I head out to our schools, it’s easy to strike up conversations with them and easy to get them to play games.  There are a few kids I know by name and more that I know by sight. We usually smile and wave at each other whenever I’m out at recess, but outside of school, things are different.  I see a lot of kids I know from school in grocery stores and parks, but I hardly ever get to talk with them because they’re wearing headphones.

The schools we work in here all have policies that ban headphones on school grounds, which I think is great, but it seems to me that as soon as kids step over the line that divides the blacktop playground from the sidewalk, their ears are suddenly filled with plastic.  I can relate.

I forgot my headphones this morning and so my mp3 player is pretty much useless.  I am still keeping it in my pocket like a child's security blanket, but the comfort it gives me is somewhat limited.  Typically, I wear headphones most of the day.  I go to the store in headphones.  I snowboard in headphones.  When I ride my bike to work, I wear them.  If I go on a walk I wear them.  I wear them at my desk whenever I don't need to talk to others.  I even wear them sometimes when I watch TV.  

There are a number of reasons I love my headphones.  I love music.  That's number one.  I'll listen to just about anything, but a good two part harmony between a lead female vocalist and a male backup is, perhaps the best sound I can think of, followed closely by a really good electric guitar solo.  I listen to music a lot and it gives me great joy, which seems perfectly healthy to me.  Music has a lot of benefits.  It relieves stress, it lowers blood pressure, and it makes people feel good.  Studies show that listening to music in early childhood improves kids aptitude for math later in life.  Music is good.

But my headphones are not all about music.  They are also a way for me to avoid social interaction, and they couch me in a world that is both personal and generic.  I don't pay nearly as much attention to my surroundings when I wear my headphones, nor do I pay as much attention to my fellow human beings.  As a result, I think I may be less sympathetic, less friendly, and less aware than I ought to be.   

This morning, for example, as I was biking to work, I noticed myself looking around much more than I normally do because of the noise of engines approaching from behind.  At times, I slowed down to allow a car to merge or waited longer than normal to make a turn because I could hear a car coming from an unexpected direction.  It occurred to me that I may be less safe in traffic on days when I remember my headphones.

I also said hello to the receptionist in our building this morning.  She smiled and returned the greeting.  On other days, I would have missed that interaction.  This one day without headphones had me wondering what else I've been missing.

What does this have to do with play?  Well, it's not just me who's been wearing headphones.  More and more I notice kids (and adults too) wearing headphones in public places like grocery stores, sidewalks, and playgrounds.  I see them wearing headphones while talking to their parents, interacting with their siblings and hanging out with their friends.  Personal music has become ubiquitous.

It's as if all of us have begun to exist in our own personal worlds of sound.  We interact with other people, but at the same time we're shielded from social obligations and if we don't seem fully engaged, we have an excuse.  It's the music.

Play requires us to be engaged, and the games I love most require complex social interactions.  Headphones make this kind of interaction impossible.  So more headphones means fewer awesome group games.  More importantly, playing games is one of the best ways I know to start deep, meaningful friendships.  Without the possibility of play, I find that I am lonely and isolated.  I'm not great friends with everyone I've ever interacted with or everyone who’s ever played a game with me, but people who have cut themselves off from the possibility of talking with me, seem to be poor candidates for a friendship.  Plus, the friends I do have, including some of the students I know here in Salt Lake seem cut off from me.  We choose to be cut off from each other.  I find myself wondering if this is healthy, and, I wonder, what (and who) I’ve missed out on because I had plastic in my ears?

The Speed of Ideas

Considering that the schools in the Salt Lake Valley have only had Playworks programs since August, I find it absolutely amazing that students at each of our schools have begun to start up games and activities our coaches have taught them. They play spontaneously, on their own, in situations where there is no adult telling them what to do.  Several of our coaches have related stories about this incredible phenomenon.  Coach Raven at Stansbury relates this story:

I was walking into the gym to gather my equipment for recess, when I noticed a class was playing elbow tag during their PE time. I asked the teacher if she started the game, and she told me the students started it. They enjoyed the game so much during Class Game Time that they asked the PE teacher if they could play it. They taught her the game and started it themselves.

[Note: ClassGame Time is a weekly or biweekly time between recesses in which entire classes and their teachers join Playworks coaches. Kids learn basic sports, playground and cooperative games and the physical skills building through play.]

And here's another story from Coach Jaime at Meadowlark:

During indoor recess time yesterday, I walked by a class doing their indoor PE time playing Over Under Kickball! They had just learned it from Class Game Time and were using it on their own time. Great to see.

The thing that's so remarkable about these stories is not that the kids have memorized some fairly complicated games, but rather that their instincts to play, to try out new games, and to incorporate new behaviors are so wholly intact.

Play is how human beings learn skills, social norms, and interpersonal skills.  It is a deeply ingrained function of being a child, and perhaps of being human.  It is our nature to play; Part of our culture is carried in the games we pass from adult to child and in the roles played out as children teach each other games.  So what kind of culture is being passed on by having a focus on play in schools?  Coach Vee at Lincoln Elementary relates this story:

Since day one teachers have not just showed up to Class Game Time but also come fired up and ready to play. It has been such a joy to see the teachers and students having such a good time together. During our Class Game Time time everyone is engaged in play and the group morale is very high.

I would argue that an emphasis on play transmits a culture of mutual respect between students from different backgrounds and between students and teachers.  Cooperative learning through play emphasizes the fact that teachers and students necessarily work together to accomplish learning goals.  Students too often see their teachers as antagonists in a struggle that pits them against the other. Teachers work hard to transmit knowledge to resistant students, but when students and teachers play together, that illusion breaks down. Teachers and students are able to forge a bond because they understand that they are working towards the same end.

It's the power of play and it's a beautiful thing to see.