Director's Wave | Volume 6 Edition 10

Dear CIS Community,

Something to Ponder

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -George Bernard Shaw

Balanced Parent Involvement - Conferences

Thank you for engaging in parent conferences this week. Balanced parent involvement can result in stronger academic achievement, better learning habits, and decreased behavioural challenges. Indeed, among the best predictors of a student’s success in school is not necessarily perceived social status or income. Some of the strongest correlations of student success tend to be if a family,

• Eats meals together
• Has a home environment that encourages learning and mutual respect
• Expresses high, yet not unrealistic expectations for children
• Is appropriately involved (i.e. not hovering or helicoptering or bulldozing, yet not overly laissez-faire) in their child’s education
• Is appropriately involved (i.e. not overbearing, yet not apathetic) within the community

We are fortunate to have two formal conference sessions during the school year, as well as back-to-school evenings, community learning meetings, parent meetings, FSA meetings, individualized meetings and more, to foster parent involvement at CIS, in addition to the weekly newsletter (The Weekly Current).

Too Much Parent Involvement - The Notion of Play Deficit Disorder

In an effort to support, advocate and in an attempt to do our best - adults (of which I have been informed I am one, despite my penchant for eating candy) can be quick to jump in to solve issues for their child. Over scheduling and over organizing activities and jumping in early to solve an issue are some characteristics that can result in the notion of Play Deficit Disorder.

As parents we can inadvertently make our children’s life more difficult because we have difficulty finding the balance between being not involved enough and too involved. On island, we see examples of students having a roof over their head, food on the table and a nice phone and car yet absent parenting. On the other hand, our island also has plentiful examples of parents being too involved or knowledgeable of our children’s lives. Parents often know what their child is doing each waking moment. Children may be over-scheduled with adult-lead activities. There is a fast growing body of evidence that the above, all with good intentions mind you, are doing a disservice to our children. Indeed, young students today (whether in kindergarten or in university) as a whole, tend to demonstrate less independence than say previous generations, and certainly our own parents and grandchildren. Some researchers attribute this to the notion of Play Deficit Disorder. Children in so-called developed countries today play less than children of previous generations. At play, many important life lessons tend to be learnt in an authentic setting through trial and error, taking initiative, creating, having time to reflect and solve things by oneself or with peers rather than having an adult step in (arguably too quickly). 

Indeed, at play, people develop emotionally, physically, intellectually and socially - often attributing to notions of resilience, grit, and growth mindsets (please forgive the use of these words / terms that may have become overused over the past twenty years).

Whilst the western world may have coined the term Play Deficit Disorder. Some parts of the eastern world have coined the phrase, “High Scores Low Ability,” referring to long term results of children spending most of their time studying to attain high scores on tests - that in the grand scheme of things may have limited relevance to life beyond formal schooling. The result being that children have less time to be independent, creative and to find ways to solve complex social issues on their own or with their peers.

The life lessons of play help young people (and older people for that matter) grapple with important life skills of honesty, humility, bravery, empathy and respect. These important lessons can be learnt about in a class or adult organized setting, however, they can be truly experienced and internalized in the setting of play. For example, long term studies over the past 60 years in the USA show that accompanying the decline in play there has been a steady decline in empathy, as well as a steady rise in anxiety disorders and narcissism in students.

If the notion of Play Deficit Disorder or High Scores Low Ability has some attribution to having generation(s) of anxiety ridden narcissists who lack empathy, then I am worried for sure. If play helps galvanize lessons of empathy, humility, honesty, bravery, “sticktoitness,” and respect, then I certainly look forward to seeing parents and schools appreciating the value of play.

Wishing you a pleasant weekend - perhaps of play, unstructured time or even reading for pleasure amidst our regularly scheduled programming.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Urquhart

Director - Cayman International School