For the world’s children, play is serious business. And failure is part of the fun.
Remember your first pillow fort – a kingdom of couch cushions with wobbly walls and a roof that collapsed again and again? I do. And I remember the joy of trying, the thrill of failing until I triumphed.
As National Children’s Day (June 8 in the United States) approached, I spoke with Robin Meisner, senior director of exhibits and research at Boston Children’s Museum, to better understand why children play. “Play isn’t just about having fun,” she says. “It’s also about learning to cope, understand differences, solve problems, and think flexibly.”
Play isn’t always joyful. It’s messy, frustrating, full of small failures. That’s the point. “If it doesn’t work, you just keep trying,” Dr. Meisner says. “That’s determination.”
Why We Wrote This
Too often, play is pushed aside – squeezed out by screen time and schoolwork. As National Children’s Day approaches in the United States, we examine how children test boundaries, swap roles, invent rules, and learn empathy through play.
Play is a rehearsal for the real world. In play, children test boundaries, swap roles, invent rules, and learn empathy. They explore what it means to belong, to lose, and to keep at it.
Yet too often, play is pushed aside – squeezed out by screen time and schoolwork. And most adults have forgotten its value. Only 30% of adults know that the United Nations recognizes play as a basic right, according to the Lego Foundation.
With every cardboard-box-turned-rocket-ship and every stick-turned-fishing-pole, children are not escaping the world. They’re preparing to meet it.
For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit The World in Pictures.
