This is not to argue that young children do not benefit from education. It does suggest that it is crucial for parents and practitioners to help children to develop and learn effectively and appropriate according to the way the young brain develops. Practitioners working with groups of other people’s children need to be educated, mature, highly trained and qualified so that they can support and extend children’s play in an informed way with the sophistication and sensitivity required to do so. Play needs committed adult advocates.
Societies that neglect their infrastructure are likely to hit problems, producing adults who are not able to problem solve, and feeling of other people or situations. Free- flow play is part of the infrastructure of any civilization.
Play is, it seems, about the universe and everything. It often has to function in a hostile environment, but when it is encouraged, supported and extend, it makes a major contribution to, and sophisticated impact on, the development of individuals and humanity as a whole.