Last week my hero was a 7-year old boy who raised $240,000 for Haiti by riding his bike around London.
This week I have a new hero. His name is Steve Gross, founder of Project Joy (see opening video on website). He brings the radical notion of playfulness back into the lives of children, especially children who have been traumatized or live in traumatizing conditions.
A charismatic guy, clearly a motivational speaker whether he’d consider that label or not, he got a room full of teachers, principals, counselors, nurses and psychologists to stand up and play a game – a game that got at least 75% of the audience to get up and dance.
What I loved about his presentation however, was not getting
the middle-aged grownups to have a little fun. He was demonstrating the concept
of JOY by felt experience – Bringing joy back into teaching, into therapy, into
childhood, and into the present moment.
At a presentation at a Harvard Medical School course on School Mental Health, he put on the screen this quote from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:
“The most threatening health crisis facing children in America is exposure to adverse childhood experiences.”
That’s a wake up call. We worry about acting out behaviors, substance use, precocious sexuality, high school drop out rates, and youth violence. These are the issues that make the headlines in newspapers and the media and are of utmost concern. What does not catch anyone’s attention is the antidote to these problems in childhood and who is doing this subversive work. This is the mission of Project Joy:
“Our mission is to ensure that nothing destroys the playfulness of children. Nothing.”
Mr. Gross defines playfulness as: “The motivation to freely and joyfully engage with, connect with, and explore the surrounding world.”
And he’s talking from preschool on up… and I’d venture to guess his strategies work with adults, too, after getting this audience to loosen up. He crafted the game with clear boundaries – you don’t have to play you don’t want to. Here’s the message:
When children and teens have permission to play… they play!
Simple? Profound?
It’s necessary and it seems like too many professionals and educators have forgotten how to play. You can see it in grown-ups' contrained bodies, facial expressions, and attitudes. In my own child’s middle school, the sixth graders only get recess half the school year – it’s an “elective”. We lament about this modern reality of schools taking out PE and recess time. But play doesn’t just happen on the playground; it is a philosophy, an attitude, a commitment.
How does the Project Joy instill play in school settings? Through games, choices, empowerment, co-creating rules, employing transitions for children who may be overwhelmed or over stimulated (use of breathing exercise or soft music), and role modeling and engagement by older kids with younger kids. In effect, playfulness can counteract the effects of trauma on the mind and body – it becomes a means for affect regulation, problem solving, and empowerment through connection with others.
Play changes physiology. Play = healing.
Bring it on.
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