Chapter 1
Ethics in play
I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child but a child who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child, and that if these faculties are encouraged in youth they will act well and wisely in the adult, but that if they are repressed and denied in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult personality. And finally, I believe that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination. Ursula Le Guin, 1979, p. 44
Introduction When my son, Michael, was three he turned into a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Right in front of my eyes, as he looked at a book on dinosaurs, his face, body, and voice changed. He loved everything about T-Rex from the powerful legs that it used to pound after any other dinosaur that crossed its path to the nine-inch-long razor-sharp teeth that could rip apart its dinner before gulping it down. Michael seemed to become this ‘king of tyrant lizards’ when he strode on his tip-toes, held up his first two fingers, and roared. Even at the dinner table he pretended to be this creature as he ate his food with his first two fingers and his teeth. I was faced with a question that the parents, teachers, and care-givers of so many young children must answer. How should I respond to this apparently violent play? Should I just let him get on with his pretending or should I try to manage his play? At different times, adults will do both. In doing so they follow the advice of most play theorists. Despite the noise and movement that can be annoying, children are, after all, ‘only playing’. Because their play is understood as vitally important for their development, it should be encouraged and not banned. On the other hand, children have to learn appropriate social behaviors for particular situations. So play will, at times, need to be controlled. Eating like a dinosaur was not going to go
