(Caveat: a literary rant follows! But if you were contemplating reading this title, I'll give you the short executive summary, to spare you precious reading time.)
Alas, that this book in no way lives up to the promise of its title! I was hoping for some juicy neurological research examining the importance of play, in order to glean some teaching ideas, but no, no, no. Brown, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, clinical researcher, and founder of the National Institute for Play, treads the road oft taken. No scientific knowledge is needed to understand that humans, like animals, learn by playing, acquiring the skills for survival, successful social interaction, and conflict management, and that we gain resilience as a result. It also is a no-brainer that we are happier and more engaged, to paraphrase Robert Frost, when our avocation and vocation are united. What gives us pleasure and inspires passion ought to be merged with our work.
So, these are the three key points for teaching:
1. Novelty activates the brain.
2. Make things fun.
3. Risk, generally, is an important and positive element learned by playing--though Brown undercuts his own argument by noting that naturally, we want to strike a happy balance between allowing people to risk, and potentially fail, as long as the consequences don't severely compromise one's safety, and/or prove fatal. Duh.
