Growing up in Youth Spaces

Throughout my childhood, I found myself in three youth spaces. I was a YMCA member, I went to school, and I was in a Photography club for a short while. In all of these spaces play was seen as a form of entertainment and as young student, I often had to receive permission to engage in it. In his article Shall We Play, Jenkins references this. He states that this ideology that is often reinforced in modern school systems is in fact harmful to students because play is a form of learning. By reinforcing this idea of permission, children may not realize when  it is appropriate to play and effectively let themselves explore, take risks, and learn at their own pace. As youth workers we must assure youth that play will not yield negative consequences and encourage them to engage. As an adult, I have also worked in many youth spaces; such as an after school program called C.O.Z, a field experiences in Frank D. Spaziano Elementary School and Anna Mccabe Elementary School.  Both the C.O.Z program and the preschool class at Anna Mccabe  allowed time for play. Whilst in the preschool class I got observe children engage in what Jenkins refers to as the six P's of Play. One of which we already discussed; permission. The remaining five include Process, Passion, Productivity, Participation and Pleasure. I would like to focus on two, Participation and Pleasure. I got to see children encourage each other to participate in role play, often playing house in special corner of the room designed by the teacher.  The young children would dress up and pretend to cook, do laundry,  and pretend to be adults. Through this I also so that it was mainly girls engaging in this form of role play, exemplifying gender stereotypes. Corsaro references this in their article Interpretive Reproduction of Children's Play. The author discussed that role playing will teach children many different skills such as problem solving. For example, if two of the girls was to pretend to cook at the same time but their was only one stove, they would have to figure out how to share the time allowed or assume a different task. The author also provides their own example of how boys and girls will often express gender specific roles during play, possibly learning it from the adults around them. As youth workers we must be aware of the impact of gender roles on a child's development and if possible challenge them to think critically about why it is happening.  No matter how a child plays, everyone can gain a certain amount of pleasure associated with fun activities. Playing allows for social interaction between children and gives them the opportunity to express themselves and further develop their skills while still having fun!