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Il messaggio della Giornata Mondiale del Gioco - ITLA -
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WORLD PLAY DAY MESSAGE
Many people are concerned with preserving nature, including making a clean and beautiful world, planting new trees where old ones have been cut down, cultivating wild flowers that are gradually disappearing and trying to re-instate wild birds and animals in their natural surroundings. But what are we doing about maintaining the humanity of our children?
We want our children to grow into well adjusted, well educated, useful and happy people; but what provisions are we making to ensure that these conditions are fulfilled? Think how much time you spend giving one hundred percent attention to your child everyday. How does your child make his first human relationships? How much hard exercise does he get every day? And then ask yourself how much time each child spends watching television, watching videos and playing with the computer. Then ask another question - how much time does your child spend in close contact with an adult who cuddles him, shows intense interest in what he is doing and talks with him? You will find without a doubt that your child spends more time with machines than with human beings. Yet it is human beings who can help him to make relationships and converse and be a happy person. We are living in an age of "information overload". Information is no good to us if we do not know how to use and share it. If your child is unable to relate to and converse with other human beings, he will not be a useful person. In other words, "on-line" experiences are no substitute for "off-line" experiences.
But, you may well say, what if he talks well and relates well but has neglected his formal education. Is this really possible with so many opportunitites for education around us? If he has learned to communicate his ideas through the spoken word and to acknowledge his feelings in human relationships, he will have laid the ground work for quick learning through any media that is available to him.
One of the most important things about play is that it gets us in touch with other human beings. In order to give our children the opportunity for healthy development mentally, physically, emotionally and educationally - i.e. to give them the basis of a healthy, wholesome and happy life - we must allow them to develop through the way that is most natural for them; and that is through PLAY. More importantly, play with other people and particularly within the family. The reason for promoting a WORLD PLAY DAY is to stress the importance of play in all our lives and particularly in the lives of our children. Children learn to talk through play, they learn to make friends through play, they get exercise through play; they also acquire the basic skills for formal education such as concentration, imagination, self-expression and the retention of useful facts. Let your child play and ensure his happy, useful and healthy future.
Freda Kim, M.B.E., Ph.D.
World Play Day Coordinator
ITLA
http://www.itla-toylibraries.org/
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