Roger Carthew, “On the importance of play”

I’ve quite literally fallen into the topic of “play”.

In early 2008 I had a problem.

I wanted to communicate with an audience about my passion for sustainability. I prepared my information and readied myself for the Green City Festival which was to be the first of a number of similar annual sustainability events. On the day I waited… and waited… for an onslaught of eager, receptive people I thought would receive the sustainability message and instead, they walked right past without a side ways glance.

Despondent and disillusioned I left challenged on how I might catch their attention.

Four months later, I had a similar opportunity; different event but the same message. And I was not going to have a repeat of the earlier outcome so I asked myself, “What do people like to do today?” The answer was not immediate, but certainly I knew people like to have fun, so I organized a game for people to play.

I had 3 year olds to 80 year old playing, laughing and you guessed it, learning about my passion for sustainability.

What was interesting was teachers saw what I had done. They could see the use of these games and others of a similar ilk to help them teach.

Since that event in June 2008, teachers have kept asking me for different games, encouraging me and guiding with each step of the way. I’ve been to kindergarten’s and primary schools both to show, teach and learn how the games I’ve created work in the hands of student and teachers.

Amongst all this, my sister-in-law saw what I was doing and asked me to help her with some resources for her special education children she taught at kindergarten.

During this entire process I’ve read and researched on the growing body of knowledge that validates the importance of play in our lives. In times gone by I’m quite convinced huge bodies of understanding have developed through nothing more than play. Today they’d call it research.

The resources of this website are there first and foremost to help the children of this world play and along the way to learn.

If there were a dream I had for the contents of this site, it’s to help student and teachers alike in their respective roles of learning and teaching.

Sincerely,

Roger Carthew