#WePlayChat

by | Feb 25, 2021 | Uncategorized

The Future is Fun

by | Jan 15, 2021 | Uncategorized

The Future is Funby David Thomas

What is holding you back from playing? In our experience, lots of professors want to play. But many don’t because they are held back by their fears. During the 2021 Shaping EDU conference, Lisa and I explored the things that hold us back from implmenting all the benefits that play can offer to our teaching. I call those barriers the “fun wall”. Lisa likes to talk about fear and shame. But whatever you call it, you have to get out of the serious mode of thought we are all trained in to start thinking about your teaching in a new way.

Check out the recording of the workshop to see how the group tackedl this important topic!

A Word With Your Inner Child

by | Nov 3, 2020 | Uncategorized

Seven Dwarfs

by David Thomas

I want to talk to you about your inner child.

Or at least the concept that you have an inner child and that child ought to get out sometimes.

 Go ahead, have an extra scoop of ice cream. Jump in a puddle. Fly a kite. Dive into a cool stream on a hot summer day. Your inner child is calling to you.

 I like that idea. I like that idea that we have this built in system that tells us it’s OK to play. At the same time, the idea that this system is somehow a child, or childlike, fuels this ongoing issue adults have with play.  We ought to channel our inner playfulness. We don’t have to return to childhood to claim that part of our humanity.

 Yes, children are experts in fun. The whole world is strange and surprising for them and they play through it from minute to minute. Children are so playful that we feel the need to teach and train that playfulness out them. Sit there. Eat this. Read that. Don’t enjoy any of it. No pain no gain. Welcome the Protestant Work Ethic. Our dour Pilgrim forebearers would nod in solem approval.

And while learning the grit and disciple that comes with a life well-lived is a noble goal, drumming the play out of kids, or pounding it down into something we will eventually call the inner child, seems like a big mistake. Come to think of it, the Pilgrims also almost starved to death. All that work and no play might not have helped them so much after all.

Now while there’s certainly a lot to be gained by honoring children’s play, I  have become much more interested in integrating play into the life of adults, young and old. I have found that play can inspire creativity and innovative thinking in students trained to fear for their next grade. I’ve coached successful adults in organizations top play to increase employee engagement and motivation. I’ve had architecture students unlocking their deaign skills by developing a more fun hamburger and seen corporate manages in peals of laughter while rethinking the office potluck. Play isn’t in the way of productivity. It’s a pathway to enjoying your work. Whistle while you work? It worked for everyone but Grumpy because, well, he was grumpy.

 I’m a convert because I’ve seen first-hand the restorative power of fun to open minds, heal broken hearts and light up a dull room. As a professor I’ve found giving people permission to play is one of the most empowering things I can do to help individuals enact change and learning in their lives.

The power of play might start in childhood. But as long as we continue to demote it to some juvenile habit only useful when no one is looking, then we’ve lost that power for good. Call it channeling your inner child if you want. For me, I’d rather talk about summoning that glittering and glimmering force of fun.

 Play like your life depends on it. Because it really does.