The forum hosted a panel of young people that had been followed from early childhood through to the end of high school. The youths were not from a Steiner school and yet they spoke of the longing for unstructured, messy, quiet and loud free play. For trees to climb (this was reiterated over and again as the longing to connect with nature) and the understanding that there should be risk in play. Interestingly, there was a call for adults to play. Not only to play with the children but to be seen by them to be playing. My initial thought was, ‘we teach that we have our meaningful work and that the children have theirs, which is to play.’ One of the youths explained further and I paraphrase “when all we see is sad unhappy parents who are tired, stressed, don’t have any free time, are always on their phones or tablets and don’t like their jobs, it’s not very inspiring. We’d like to see their enjoyment in play, in life, their hobbies”.  

They further clarified that play opportunities could involve but were not limited to the library, clubs, board games, craft, arts, instruments, sport and drama, not just playgrounds. To be given resources, perhaps some direction, perhaps not, and to let children go and see what they can discover, create, and learn.   

Of course we know this, but it made me think of our new school buildings and the necessary impact that the building process will have on our children’s play spaces. It made me wonder whether our parents could bring activities and skills into the school to host ‘play’ opportunities at recess and lunchtime. To enlist the interests and expertise of our parent body to build opportunities for our children to play, whilst simultaneously sharing within our community alternatives to the television, tablets, to movies. 

The call to protect play also spoke of the barriers to playing in the places where our children live and go to school. The youth panel spoke of feeling unsafe to play on the streets, even if the streets were quiet ones and needing places that they could be messy. Examples of bringing play beyond the school gate and into the community involved simple things like permanent hopscotch on the footpath, road safe games on the fences (noughts and crosses), clapping and string games taught whilst waiting to be collected, sensory gardens along the verge. The forum encouraged communities to get to know their neighbours, have times when the street (where appropriate) became an extension of the children’s play space.  

We, as a Steiner community, have so much to share with the world and to feel proud of. There is also an opportunity, an invitation, to reflect at this time on what brought us to Steiner Education. The paths will be many and varied but no matter how we come to be here, to ask ourselves how we as a community that is committed to the protection of childhood are supporting the ethos of the school. You see the protection of play is important, but as important is the quality of the play, what the children bring into the play, similar in a way to how we understand that it is not just sleep that is important to the health of the human being, but the quality of the sleep we experience. What images, what content is the child bringing into play? Are these images created from a free healthy organism, or are they images and content that will now burden the child, need processing and remediation? Are they created by the child as it experiences a child appropriate, wholesome, the world is good, people are good, violence free childhood? 

How are we supporting our teachers and each other to uphold the agreements we have all made by enrolling at our school, West Coast Steiner School? How are we supporting the protection of childhood around technology, around viewing, device use and screen time? Are we following the recommendations for the ages when technology, movies and screens should not be used at all? Do we know at what age and how they should be introduced and the role of the parent as protector, boundary maker, filter, co-processor and guide? Have we given this gift to our children to help build capacities of critical, flexible and creative thinking and discernment? Have we allowed our children’s organs, their bodies to be built on warmth, have we created an environment that supports a free and beautiful imagination capable of solving the problems that our children will have to face in their youth and adulthood? Do they have the will to follow through, the inner strength to do what needs to be done with warmth, with discernment, with compassion and with love? We have a pedagogy that is so much more than ahead of its time and yet labelling it so, labelling ourselves so, will not do the work. That is our task as parents, educators and caregivers.

If you are unsure of any of these questions, please ask your teachers; they would be pleased to share their thoughts and understanding with you. If you have creative ideas on how we can bring more play opportunities into our school during the building of our new classrooms, then please let us know. We cannot do this without you.