Kids playing kickball during recess at a Playworks program in Baltimore, Maryland.
So I came across this nonprofit a few weeks ago called Playworks, and I was shocked that I hadn’t heard of them before, not only because they’ve been around since 1996, and because they operate in 300 schools in 23 cities around the US, but because their work has that quality of sounding like a head-smackingly, intuitively good idea the first time you hear about it. I also thought it would be a nice change to talk about a non-digital game for change initiative.
Basically, Playworks is a national nonprofit that goes into low-income schools all around the country to help kids find safer, healthier, more inclusive ways to play both at recess and throughout the school day. For a more detailed backstory about Playworks’ inception, I recommend CEO and Founder Jill Vialet’s TEDx talk on the need for this kind of organization.
But for those of you who want the quick and dirty version, I’m going to include some numbers from a survey they conducted of over 2,500 educators in the schools where the organization works, to give you a snapshot of the positive impact Playworks is having. Of the teachers and principals they polled:
- 98% reported an increase in the number of students that are physically active during recess
- 86% reported a decrease in incidents of bullying
- 87% reported a decrease in disciplinary referrals
- 88% reported a decrease in the number of conflicts originating on the playground and spilling over to class
- 85% reported a reduction in the amount of time transitioning from recess to classroom instruction.
- 89% reported an increase in students’ abilities to focus on class activities.
If you work in education, or you have a friend who does, you should tell them about this organization because they could get on the waiting list to bring Playworks to their school. Even if an educator’s school isn’t a fit for whatever reason, they should at least check out the section of the Playworks website where they have a database of hundreds of playground games that you can sort by the age they’re intended for, the length of gameplay, the number of players, etc.
Jill Vialet, CEO and Founder of Playworks.
I shot a few questions to Vialet to learn more about what kind of impact the program is having and how she saw her organization in the context of the games for change movement.
WPG4C: Why do children need help with play? Has the structure, or lack of structure for recess always been so problematic?
JV: Kids have always needed guidance in learning how to play well with one another. When I was growing up we had significant unsupervised time outside where the older kids in the neighborhood taught the younger kids the rules to games, conflict resolution tools like rock-paper-scissors, and where they modeled behaviors that helped keep games going, like self-handicapping (for example, switching players on teams to help make them more even). With fewer opportunities for unsupervised play, a conscious effort to teach the culture of play to younger kids is now essential to ensuring kids have that capacity.
WPG4C: On the Playworks website, it says that there are diminishing opportunities for unsupervised play in our society? Why is that the case?
JV: There are a number of reasons: in lower income communities there is often a justifiable concern around safety. For more affluent communities, competing time demands mean that kids often have less unstructured time, and certainly less unsupervised time.
WPG4C: Why is it particularly important to have a program like Playworks at low-income schools?
JV: Students in low-income schools are disproportionately less likely to have recess and access to other out-of-school-time physical activity.
WPG4C: Could you share an anecdote of how a new approach to play helped change the climate at a particular school?
JV: A few years ago we launched our program at a school in San Jose, California. It was going along and I hadn’t heard much of anything until I got an email from the principal saying that she was blissed out with the program and knew that it was a huge success because there was no longer graffiti happening in the bathroom. I am used to taking credit for all sorts of good things happening at schools, but this one was something I’d never heard before so I called to get more information.
It turned out that prior to Playworks, boys were bored during recess and going into the bathroom to tag. It had gotten so bad that the principal had been compelled to put a teacher on duty at the bathroom door during recess to prevent it. With Playworks, the students were all happily engaged and the teachers were quite happily relieved of bathroom guard duty.
WPG4C: When you first started Playworks, what was your own learning curve like? What types of things are you still discovering work well or don’t work well?
JV: I had no idea that the idea behind Playworks tapped into such a large-scale need. My original thought was that I was creating a local solution to what I perceived to be a local need. We took a lot of time in the beginning to focus on improving the program in the schools, and we’re always experimenting with new games and pilot programs, but by and large, we’re pretty focused on what we know how to do well, and disciplined about doing only that.
More recent learnings have been around working with grown-ups, regional differences and demands, and building out our training business with an eye towards contributing to a movement to ensure that every child in America gets to play every day.
WPG4C: If you had to isolate a few core mechanics of the types of play that contribute to a positive school environment, what would they be?
JV: 1. Mapping the yard and setting clear expectations for everyone.
2. Giving kids concrete conflict resolution skills and tools like Rock-Paper-Scissors.
3. Taking the time to teach kids the rules to games.
4. Giving the students the opportunity to lead and be in charge of their own play, and
5. Encouraging grown-ups to play alongside kids.
WPG4C: What’s your feeling about cooperative versus competitive games? Do competitive games inherently lead to more behavioral problems, or are their healthy and unhealthy forms of competition?
JV: I don’t think it’s really a matter of competitive vs. cooperative games, you need both, and there is a time and place for both. Competitive games introduced in a developmentally inappropriate way can lead to behavioral problems, but then again, cooperative games coordinated in a developmentally inappropriate way can too.
WPG4C: Do you see Playworks’ work as being part of the games for change movement?
JV: I’ve always maintained that playing games, board games, video games, and outdoor physical games, is all a part of play. Like the false dichotomy between competitive and cooperative games, I think that pitting video games against physical play is a mistake. There are great, creative games online and there are some bad ones. The games for change movement stands for promoting healthy play and, by definition, Playworks is aligned with that vision.
WPG4C: What do you see as the next steps, beyond sheer physical expansion, for Playworks as an organization? Do you think a model like this could be beneficial for older students?
JV: The goal of Playworks has never been to build the biggest possible organization, but rather to seed a movement to make it possible for every child in America to get to play every day. Our key understanding is that play is essential to our health and wellbeing as humans. We’re starting with kids, but in the end, everyone will benefit if play is recognized as the keystone human activity that actually is.
