Is Australia sucking the joy out of childhood?
Key takeaways
- Play Australia is calling on governments to prioritise play and implement a national play strategy.
- Then her four-year-old son started to get in trouble for "basically moving his body", says Powell, a Brisbane-based early childhood educator.
- Children's play — usually defined as any child-led behaviour or activity without goals or set rules — has been shown to have benefits.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Play Australia is calling on governments to prioritise play and implement a national play strategy. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)
Link copied Share Share article. The first time Renae Powell waved her eldest child through the primary school gates she felt something was wrong. Because of teacher supervision requirements, play was outlawed before and after school. The kind of free-wheeling bliss "away from adults" that defined Powell's own childhood in the hours outside the classroom no longer existed.
Then her four-year-old son started to get in trouble for "basically moving his body", says Powell, a Brisbane-based early childhood educator. Lunchtime was short and there was little movement during the day, she adds. Her view, so radically simple it perhaps sounds unhinged, was that her son and his classmates needed more play.