Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27tools-t.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all

by robg • 17 years ago

41 10 17 years ago

conoryoung• 17 years ago

In some studies, self-regulation skills have been shown to predict academic achievement more reliably than I.Q. tests.

Observing an individual's ability to self-regulate works as a good predictor of character in all kinds of situations, interviews being one of the more useful applications. Although justifying your subject judgments to your colleagues could be tricky -> "He answered the concurrency questions better than average but kept slouching down into his chair - I don't think he's going to be able to meet deadlines".

goodside• 17 years ago

Also consider reminding such colleagues that there is a definite, well confirmed negative correlation between conscientiousness and intelligence: http://www.ist-world.org/ProjectDetails.aspx?ProjectId=74c83...

decode2• 17 years ago

In the abstract of that paper, it says "the significant negative correlation could be observed only in groups with above average mental abilities and not in a random sample from a general population." Are there other papers that say there's a general negative correlation?

klipt• 17 years ago

Is that a universal correlation, or just looking at any particular area?

Because assuming people in a certain group have a certain level of skill, it makes sense that people with below average intelligence in that group may be compensating with extra conscientiousness, while people with above average intelligence for that group could have been part of a better group, but their lack of conscientiousness dragged them down.

I.e. being less conscientious doesn't make you more intelligent. Rather, the less conscientious you are, the more likely you are to end up surrounded by people with less intelligence than you (who make up for it with more conscientiousness than you).

decode2• 17 years ago

Dramatic play, he said, was the training ground where children learned to regulate themselves, to conquer their own unruly minds.

This makes intuitive sense. Dramatic acting is almost by definition doing what you think you should do, instead of what you want to do. Except for method acting, which instead tries to make it so what you want to do is what you should be doing.

I'd be interested to know if actors have better or worse self-control than non-actors, and if method actors have better or worse self-control than other types of actors.

zasz• 17 years ago

FTA: Especially these days, they contend, when children spend more time in front of screens and less time in unsupervised play, kids need careful adult guidance and instruction before they are able to play in a productive way.

Kids need adults to show them how to play? Holy crap, what are we coming to?

tungstenfurnace• 17 years ago

Indeed. Professionals want constant reassurance that it's OK for them to be paid to be constantly interfering with children's play.

"How to begin to educate a child. First rule, leave him alone. Second rule, leave him alone. Third rule, leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."

(D.H.Lawrence)

jerf• 17 years ago

The ability of professional educators to turn what are valid and powerful observations about childhood development, such as this stuff about executive function, into stale, formulaic, and worst of all ineffective teaching techniques never ceases to astound me.

It probably boils down to the problem that when trying to teach "children" as an amorphous mass, "formulaic" and "effective" are simply never going to go together. No matter how smart the formulator or how hard the formula-applier tries.

mkn• 17 years ago

Kids need adults to show them how to play? Holy crap, what are we coming to?

From the article, it sounds like we're coming to, indeed are in, a first-world industrial and information economy where we've learned that children's natural levels of executive function may not develop sufficiently, in the presence of the gadgetry available, to allow them to compete in the workplace and cope with the demands of a technological society. We're also, apparently, in a place where we think we have some idea how to intervene in what appears to be a caring and benign way to direct children's play in a direction that fosters this key cognitive function.

Far from being unexpected, this seems very natural to me. We wear clothes because we live in inclement places. We cook our food because our brains need more nutrition than raw food allows. And now we direct the play of our offspring to better equip them for their expected environment. This is no more indicative of some untenable circumstance than the fact that we don't live in huts and dig for grubs on the plains of Africa.

mojonixon• 17 years ago

Kids have always needed instruction on how to play. "be nice!" "share!" "don't hit!" I find it encouraging that we're finding ways to impart these lessons in less coercive ways.

Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?

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