Blog Post 1 - Play

    Upon reading the Nelsen text, I found his perspective to be quite fascinating as an avid learner and communication studies major. The idea that playfulness plays just as important role as other philosophical concepts is one that is not new to study, however it has been one that sparks the input of many scholars. Throughout his study, Nelsen talks about adolescent development in tandem with play. His predominant curiosity is observing how incorporating play into curriculums impacts child development and critical literacy (Nelsen, pg. 2). As I dove into Nelsen's findings, I wasn't surprised by his studies. His methods provided insight on the development of children who were exposed to learning environments surrounding play. This focus on a new method of learning was radically different to the traditional institutions that have drastically minimized the concept of play in their classrooms. Not only were the children who were exposed to play more developmentally advanced, their critical, social and problem-solving skills excelled compared to their peers (Nelsen, pg. 6). 

I have seen first hand throughout my life the positive outcomes of alternative learning tactics such as the "play" that Nelsen is suggesting. For example, as an elementary student in a smaller, private school, I had the opportunity to participate in more creative, stimulating, alternative learning environments. In these spaces, our activities were often balanced within the curriculum to include time for both traditional studies and non-traditional methods. One distinct memory I can recall was going to school after being told we were getting new chairs and walking into the classroom to find each desk was paired with a bosu ball. In hindsight, I would question this tactic, primarily out of concern with the distracting nature of the newly introduced play item. However, there was concrete evidence of the benefits of the teachers and built-in curriculum fostering these alternative learning tactics and committing to adolescent development.