Dangerous plays/ Societal norms
Play is an amazing tool for children to grasp concepts, gain social knowledge, and become more familiar with social relationships. I was specifically thinking about these below.
1. Dangerous play
"The old adage that children’s play is imagination in action can be reversed: we can say that imagination in adolescents and schoolchildren is play without action."
Yes, it seems to be right that play can be described as imagination in action. It sounds to me that once children can imagine things, regardless of whether it is socially proper or not, they can actually practice it in their plays. I was thinking about several examples when children did such improper and sometimes dangerous actions, while they were simply thinking that it was a part of play: making a phone call to pizza place and order a bunch of them to a friend's place (back in 1980-90s when the caller's number was not tracked), making a phone call to 911 for reporting something fake for fun, playing with fire, throwing something to others' places for fun, etc.
I recall several cases when friends of mine, including me or my brothers, simply thought it was for fun, but it was actually something that was very rude, dangerous or harming others. This makes me think about when children begin to differentiate the appropriateness of what can be done for their plays. My guess is, children do not really think about what is proper or not when they think of and determine their plays, but as they experience (being scolded from their parents, etc.), they finally realize it was something that should not have been practiced.
"“The presence of such generalized affects in play does not mean that the child himself understands the motives that give rise to a game or that he does it consciously. He plays without realizing the motives of the play activity. In this, play differs substantially from work and other forms of activity. On the whole it can be said that motives, actions, and incentives belong to a more abstract sphere and become accessible to consciousness only at the transitional age. Only an adolescent can clearly determine for himself the reason he does this or that.”
This is a little bit scary in that a lot of bullying and violence can also sometimes be thoughtlessly practiced among adolescents while they think it is something they can "try being involved" or "acting out." When children or adolescents cannot think ahead of the possible impacts and results that arise from their action, I think the element of play (being fun, being triggered or brainstormed by imagination without costs, being surrounded by peers who can join, and all of these combined) can turn out somewhat triggering factors of dangerous acts.
2. Societal norms- how it affects real life
1. Dangerous play
"The old adage that children’s play is imagination in action can be reversed: we can say that imagination in adolescents and schoolchildren is play without action."
Yes, it seems to be right that play can be described as imagination in action. It sounds to me that once children can imagine things, regardless of whether it is socially proper or not, they can actually practice it in their plays. I was thinking about several examples when children did such improper and sometimes dangerous actions, while they were simply thinking that it was a part of play: making a phone call to pizza place and order a bunch of them to a friend's place (back in 1980-90s when the caller's number was not tracked), making a phone call to 911 for reporting something fake for fun, playing with fire, throwing something to others' places for fun, etc.
I recall several cases when friends of mine, including me or my brothers, simply thought it was for fun, but it was actually something that was very rude, dangerous or harming others. This makes me think about when children begin to differentiate the appropriateness of what can be done for their plays. My guess is, children do not really think about what is proper or not when they think of and determine their plays, but as they experience (being scolded from their parents, etc.), they finally realize it was something that should not have been practiced.
"“The presence of such generalized affects in play does not mean that the child himself understands the motives that give rise to a game or that he does it consciously. He plays without realizing the motives of the play activity. In this, play differs substantially from work and other forms of activity. On the whole it can be said that motives, actions, and incentives belong to a more abstract sphere and become accessible to consciousness only at the transitional age. Only an adolescent can clearly determine for himself the reason he does this or that.”
This is a little bit scary in that a lot of bullying and violence can also sometimes be thoughtlessly practiced among adolescents while they think it is something they can "try being involved" or "acting out." When children or adolescents cannot think ahead of the possible impacts and results that arise from their action, I think the element of play (being fun, being triggered or brainstormed by imagination without costs, being surrounded by peers who can join, and all of these combined) can turn out somewhat triggering factors of dangerous acts.
2. Societal norms- how it affects real life
““My sister and
I act the same, we are treated the same, but others are treated differently.”
Here the emphasis is on the sameness of everything that is concentrated in the
child’s concept of a sister, and this means that my sister stands in a
different relationship to me than other people.”
When children play sisters, probably they would start when they at least have a certain level of knowledge about what it looks like in between sister relationship. Through acting out younger one or elder one in the form of play, they would better get familiar with the relationship dynamics. However, I wondered if their play, somehow, was very far from reflecting real-life settings, then would their experiences in play affect their socialization in real life also far from normal? My question would be, when (though this case would be rare) children's play fails to reflect proper components or characteristics of any relationship that is being played (e.g., policeman-suspect, doctor-patient, teacher-student, salesman-customer, etc.), would their concepts or core understanding about relationships can be twisted or tilted in a not normal or acceptable ways. I believe they will start correcting or adjusting previous thoughts to realities as they accumulate more life experiences, but I thought this could partly explain why each individual has a somewhat different understanding of norms, relationships, or other things in real life.
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