Preparation For Life: All children have in them something of t | Human Nature

Preparation For Life: All children have in them something of the adult they will become.

In the development of the psyche we can see a constant preparation for a future in which the wishes of individuals appear to have been fulfilled. This is a universal human experience and all of us must go through this process. In child development there is an important phenomenon that shows very clearly the process of preparation for the future: play. Games must not be considered as the haphazard creations of parents or educators. They should be seen as educational aids and as stimuli for the child’s psyche, imagination and life skills. Every game is a preparation for the future. The manner in which children approach a game, their choice of game and the importance they place upon it, show their attitude and relationship to their environment and how they relate to their fellow human beings.

Whether they are hostile or whether they are friendly, and particularly whether they show leadership qualities, are evident in their play. In observing children at play we can see their whole attitude towards life; play is of the utmost importance to every child. But play is more than a preparation for life. Games are above all communal exercises that enable children to develop their social feeling. By watching children at play, we can determine with great certainty the extent and quality of their social feeling.

The goal of superiority, also revealed in play, betrays itself in the child’s tendency to be the leader and organizer. We can discover this tendency by watching how children push themselves forward and to what degree they prefer those games that give them an opportunity to satisfy their desire to play the leading role. There are very few games that do not incorporate at least one of these factors: preparation for life, social feeling, or the striving for dominance.
There is, however, one other factor that is present in play: the opportunity for children to express themselves. Children are more or less left to their own devices in play, and their performance is stimulated by their interaction with other children. There are a number of games that especially emphasize this creative bent. In the preparation for a future profession, those games providing the opportunity for children to exercise their creative spirit are especially important. In the life stories of many people, it is not uncommon that some who made dresses for dolls in their childhood went on to make dresses for adults in later life.

Play is indivisibly bound up with the psyche. It is, so to speak, a kind of profession and must be considered as such. Therefore it is not a trivial matter to disturb children in their play. Play should never be considered merely as a way of passing the time. With regard to the goal of preparing for the future, all children have in them something of the adult they will become. Thus in the appraisal of individuals we can reach more accurate conclusions when we have a knowledge of their childhood.

#HumanNature

Join now
@Laws_of_Human_Nature