Nursery World - Opinion: In my view

What can concerned citizens do in the face of seemingly inexorable cultural and political forces we believe are deeply damaging to the next generation?

It was this central concern that motivated writer Sue Palmer and I to co-organise the two 'Open Letters' on childhood that appeared in the media this and last autumn.

Our letter highlighted the need for 'a wide-ranging and informed public dialogue about the intrinsic nature and value of play'. For while we all routinely talk about play, do we really understand its deep nature? Might the utilitarian, 'instrumentalist' mind-set that so dominates modern life unwittingly make play into 'a thing' - an object of manipulation by adults, which fatally compromises the essence of truly authentic playing? Perhaps we need to explore just what authentic, unintruded-upon playing might consist of, and how we might begin to think and speak about it, so that we preserve its intrinsic reverence, rather than betraying or destroying it through the coarse bludgeon of 'modernity'.

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