This great cartoon just arrived in my inbox from GapingVoid. Here is the text that accompanied the image. It is worth reading through – and clicking through the links. Really interesting stuff to help you answer the question, “Are you having fun yet?”
“Purpose” is a big deal in business these days. Finding and having a strong sense of purpose is an important part of having a strong company culture. The blogosphere is utterly awash with it.
My friend, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, really nailed this idea in his New York Times bestseller, “Delivering Happiness”. And another friend, Mark Earls, nailed this idea sooner than most of us with his whole “Purpose-Idea” thing.
With the Olympic GAMES upon us, I was thinking about the idea of “play” in the world of work… (What my favorite future-shocker, Pat Kane calls “The PlayEthic”)…. and how The Play Ethic is so necessary for said “purpose”.
In my experience, the big ideas come from play, not from pressure. Any half-decent artist, hacker, inventor or scientist will tell you the same.
Playing is how we learn to hack, how we learn to invent, how we teach ourselves to create.
How we teach ourselves to SURVIVE.
So as wonderful as the Olympic athletes are to watch, I think maybe it’s time to rethink The Games, not in terms of “achievement,” “excellence,” “competition,” “glory,” but a celebration of PLAY itself.
Just an idea.
-Hugh McLeod
It would seem Nike are on a similar train of thought. Their non-Olympic, Olympic commercial, showcases “all the little leaguers, backyard champions, and living room gymnasts doing what they do for the love of sport with no expectations of being exalted on high and showered with accolades in the form of lucrative endorsements.” (KC Ifeanyi) They are playing. With guts and spirit and determination. But ultimately, for the love of play.
So, how do we embrace this culture as educators at school? I think it has to be a conscious decision. We need to choose play. We need to make sure we are looking for ways to learn through play – and this is not breaking news! There will be achievement, excellent, competition and glory. There will also be failure, mistakes, recalculations and second-tries. There will also be a whole lot of learning.
Millions of people watched Caine Monroy make his cardboard arcade. We are nearing the one-year anniversary of the flash-mob surprise for the boy with a passion for play and a huge imagination. In honor of this, everyone has the chance to participate in the Cardboard Box Challenge, culminating in the Global Day of Play. I have signed up to join in and hope others in my school will want to play too.
I had an interesting conversation recently about “Global Day of _______” type events. Does having a one-off event hold meaning for a school that is supposed to provide an integrated, student-led, inquiry-based curriculum? Some would argue that days of fun that support a cause are good fun, a good idea and as teachers, we should be exposing kids to what is ‘out there’. Totally agree. But I think we need to go deeper. If it is good enough for one day, why not all days? If we are prepared to forgo “normal” school for a day of play, we must think it is important. If it is important, why not include it every day? I love the idea of a Global Day of Play. I just hope it doesn’t start – or stop – there. I plan on introducing the value of play from the get-go. It is something I have been looking into and reading about all summer and something I feel passionate about incorporating into my classroom – on the Global Day and Every Day. A new daily question in my classroom:
sonya terborg 