Schools Ditch The Classroom To Put Play Back In Education

At the Playmaker school, don’t be surprised to find kids in a workshop or playing a game, just not in front of a chalkboard. It’s part of a new movement that is attempting to make education more fun--and work better. The words "play" and "school" rarely find themselves together after age five. But that is wrong, asserts a growing body of scientific evidence: "Extensive research on play with children and adults … indicates that play is an important mediator for learning and socialization throughout life." The next generation of teachers are trying to prove that play is not the opposite of work, but synonymous with it. PlayMaker school in Santa Monica, California is one of the first to to redesign every aspect of the classroom to put that research to the test. The playful experiment in education, opening its doors to 36 sixth graders in September, is dead serious a...