When I was a child in the 1950s， my friends

and I had two educations. We had school， and we also had what I call a hunter-gatherer education. We played in mixed-age neighbourhood groups almost every day after school， often until dark. We played all weekend and all summer long. We had time to explore in all sorts of ways， and also time to become bored and figure out how to overcome 1）boredom， time to get into trouble and find our way out of it， time to daydream， time to immerse ourselves in hobbies， and time to read comics and whatever else we wanted to read rather than the books assigned to us. What I learnt in my hunter-gatherer education has been far more valuable to my adult life than what I learnt in school.

For more than 50 years now， we in the United States have been gradually reducing children’s opportunities to play， and the same is true in many other countries. In his book Children at Play： An American History （2007）， Howard Chudacoff refers to the first half of the 20th century as the “golden age” of children’s free play. By about 1900， the need for child labour had declined， so children had a good deal of free time. But then， beginning around 1960 or a little before， adults began 2）chipping away at that freedom by increasing the time that children had to spend on schoolwork and， even more significantly， by reducing children’s freedom to play on their own， even when they were out of school and not doing homework.

Over the same decades that children’s play has been declining， childhood mental disorders have been increasing. Analyses reveal a continuous， essentially 3）linear， increase in anxiety and depression in young people over the decades， such that the rates of what today would be diagnosed as 4）generalised anxiety disorder and major depression are five to eight times what they were in the 1950s. Over the same period， the suicide rate for young people aged 15 to 24 has more than doubled， and that for children under age 15 has 5）quadrupled.

In an article entitled “The Test Chinese Schools Still Fail” in The Wall Street Journal in December 2010， Jiang Xueqin， a prominent Chinese educator， wrote：“The failings of a 6）rote-memorisation system are well known： lack of social and practical skills， absence of self-discipline and imagination， loss of curiosity and passion for learning.” Meanwhile， Yong Zhao， an American education professor who grew up in China and specialises in comparing the Chinese educational system with the system in the U.S.， notes that a common term used in China to refer to graduates is gaofen dineng， meaning “high scores but low ability”. Because students spend nearly all their time studying， they have little opportunity to be creative， take initiative， or develop physical and social skills： in short， they have little opportunity to play.

Unfortunately， as we move increasingly toward standardised curricula， and as we occupy ever more of our children’s time with schoolwork， our educational results are indeed becoming more like those of the Asian countries. One line of evidence comes from the results of a battery of measures of creativity—called the 7）Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking （TTCT）—collected from normative samples of U.S. schoolchildren ranging from kindergarten through to 12th grade covering several decades. Kyung-Hee Kim， an educational psychologist at the College of William and Mary in Virginia， has analysed these scores and reported that they began to decline in 1984 or shortly after， and have continued to decline ever since.

You can’t teach creativity； all you can do is let it blossom. Little children， before they start school， are naturally creative. Our greatest innovators， the ones we call geniuses， are those who somehow retain that childhood capacity， and build on it， right through adulthood. Albert Einstein， who apparently hated school， referred to his achievements in 8）theoretical physics and mathematics as “9）combinatorial play”. A great deal of research has shown that people are most creative when infused by the spirit of play， when they see themselves as engaged in a task just for fun. It’s hard to be creative when you are worried about other people’s judgments. In school， children’s activities are constantly being judged.

To have a happy marriage， or good friends， or helpful work partners， we need to know how to get along with other people： perhaps the most essential skill all children must learn for a satisfying life. Social play is the academy for learning social skills.

The reason why play is such a powerful way to impart social skills is that it is voluntary. Players are always free to quit， and if they are unhappy they will quit. Every player knows that， and so the goal， for every player who wants to keep the game going， is to satisfy his or her own needs and desires while also satisfying those of the other players， so they don’t quit. To have fun in social play you have to be 10）assertive but not domineering； that’s true for all of social life.

In school， and in other settings where adults are in charge， they make decisions for children and solve children’s problems. In play， children make their own decisions and solve their own problems. In adult-directed settings， children are weak and vulnerable. In play， they are strong and powerful. The play world is the child’s practice world for being an adult. We think of play as childish， but to the child， play is the experience of being like an adult： being self-controlled and responsible.

In recent decades we as a society have been conducting a play-11）deprivation experiment with our children. Play deprivation is bad for children. Among other things， it promotes anxiety， depression， suicide， 12）narcissism， and the loss of creativity. It’s time to end the experiment.

上世紀(jì)50年代，在我兒時(shí)，我和伙伴們同時(shí)接受兩種教育。我們?nèi)W(xué)校上學(xué)，也接受一種我稱之為“采獵式”的教育。幾乎每天放學(xué)后，我們都與附近由不同年齡的孩子組成的群體一起玩耍，而且常常玩到天黑。所有的周末，所有的夏天，我們都在玩耍中度過。我們有時(shí)間去嘗試各種各樣的玩法，也有時(shí)間玩到膩歪，然后想辦法打破沉悶，有時(shí)間碰上麻煩，然后想法子擺脫困境，有時(shí)間做白日夢，有時(shí)間專注到自己的興趣當(dāng)中，有時(shí)間看漫畫，以及其它任何我們想看而不是硬塞給我們的書。與在學(xué)校里所受到的教育相比，我在采獵式教育中所學(xué)到的一切對(duì)我的成年生活來說更有價(jià)值。

五十多年以來，在美國，孩子們玩耍的機(jī)會(huì)被漸漸蠶食，這種情況在其他國家也是如此?；羧A德·丘達(dá)科夫在他的《游戲中的孩子：一段美國歷史》（2007）一書中指出，二十世紀(jì)上半頁是孩子們自由玩耍的“黃金時(shí)期”。大約到了1900年，童工的需求減少，于是孩子們有了大量的自由時(shí)間。但是，約從1960年甚至更早一些時(shí)間開始，成年人開始逐步剝奪孩子們的自由，讓他們花更多的時(shí)間在作業(yè)上。更有甚者，即便是他們放學(xué)了，不用做作業(yè)，父母也不讓他們自由玩耍。

在孩子們的玩耍時(shí)間減少的同時(shí)期，兒童期精神紊亂的情況卻增加了。有分析顯示，幾十年來年輕人身上的焦慮和沮喪程度呈持續(xù)線性增長。這種癥狀在今天會(huì)被診斷為廣泛性焦慮癥和重度抑郁癥，其人數(shù)比例是上世紀(jì)50年代時(shí)的五到八倍。同期，15到24歲間的青少年自殺率翻了一倍多，15歲以下兒童的自殺率則呈四倍增長。

2010年12月的《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》上，在一篇題為《中國學(xué)校依然考不及格的試》的文章中，中國知名教育家江學(xué)勤寫到：“死記硬背的缺點(diǎn)眾所周知：缺乏社交和實(shí)踐能力，缺乏自律和想象力，喪失好奇心和學(xué)習(xí)熱情。”與此同時(shí)，一位在中國長大，并主攻中美教育體系比較的美國教育學(xué)教授趙勇指出，在中國，一個(gè)形容畢業(yè)生的常用詞就是“高分低能”，也就是說“分?jǐn)?shù)很高，能力很低”。因?yàn)閷W(xué)生們幾乎把所有的時(shí)間都花在學(xué)習(xí)上，很少有機(jī)會(huì)發(fā)揮創(chuàng)造力、主動(dòng)性，或是發(fā)展體育和社交技能：簡而言之，他們很少有機(jī)會(huì)玩。

不幸的是，我們?cè)酵n程標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化的方向發(fā)展，越是讓孩子們?cè)诠φn上花更多的時(shí)間，我們的教育結(jié)果其實(shí)正越來越像那些亞洲國家。證據(jù)之一源于一系列被稱為“托蘭斯創(chuàng)造性思維測試”（TTCT）的創(chuàng)造力評(píng)估。評(píng)估采樣來自于幾十年以來從幼兒園到12年級(jí)的美國學(xué)童的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)樣本。弗吉尼亞威廉和瑪麗學(xué)院的教育心理學(xué)家金庚熙（音譯）對(duì)評(píng)分進(jìn)行了分析，指出評(píng)估分?jǐn)?shù)從1984年或其后不久便開始下降，而且從此以后持續(xù)下降。

創(chuàng)造力無法傳授；你所能做的只是讓其發(fā)展。小孩子，在上學(xué)前，就天生富于創(chuàng)造性。我們最偉大的那些革新者，我們稱之為天才的人，是那些多少保存了那種童年能力，并在成年期以之為基礎(chǔ)建功立業(yè)的人。艾伯特·愛因斯坦顯然不喜歡學(xué)校，他將自己在理論物理和數(shù)學(xué)方面的成就稱為“組合的游戲”。大量研究表明，當(dāng)人們認(rèn)為自己投身某項(xiàng)任務(wù)只是為了好玩，當(dāng)他們被游戲的精神所鼓舞時(shí)，其創(chuàng)造性是最旺盛的。你在擔(dān)心其他人的評(píng)價(jià)時(shí)是很難有創(chuàng)造力的。在學(xué)校里，孩子們的活動(dòng)卻會(huì)不斷受到評(píng)價(jià)。

想要擁有一段幸福的婚姻、擁有好朋友或者有益的工作拍檔，我們就必須學(xué)會(huì)與他人的相處之道——這或許也是所有孩子獲得美滿人生所必須學(xué)習(xí)的最關(guān)鍵的技能。社交游戲是學(xué)習(xí)社交技能的學(xué)堂。

玩游戲之所以是傳授社交技能的一種有力方式，就是因?yàn)槟鞘亲灾髯栽傅摹Ｍ婕铱梢宰杂赏顺鲇螒?，所以如果他們覺得不開心，就會(huì)離開。每個(gè)玩家都知道這一點(diǎn)，因此，對(duì)于每一個(gè)想讓游戲繼續(xù)的玩家，他們的目標(biāo)就是在滿足自己的需求和愿望的同時(shí)也要滿足別人的需求和愿望，這樣他們才不會(huì)離開。想要在社交游戲中獲得樂趣，你必須得有主見但不專橫——這一點(diǎn)，在所有的社會(huì)生活中亦是如此。

在學(xué)校，或是其他由成年人掌控的環(huán)境中，大人們?yōu)楹⒆幼鰶Q定，為他們解決問題。在游戲中，孩子們得自己做決定，自己去解決問題。在大人主導(dǎo)的情境中，孩子們是虛弱無助的。在游戲中，他們是強(qiáng)壯有力的。游戲的世界，就是孩子們實(shí)踐成人身份的世界。我們認(rèn)為游戲很幼稚，但是對(duì)于孩子來說，游戲是一種扮演大人的經(jīng)驗(yàn)：學(xué)會(huì)自我控制和承擔(dān)責(zé)任。

在近幾十年里，我們整個(gè)社會(huì)一直在做一個(gè)剝奪孩子游戲權(quán)利的實(shí)驗(yàn)。剝奪游戲權(quán)利于兒童無益。此外，這么做還加劇了焦慮、沮喪、自殺傾向、自戀心理以及創(chuàng)造力的喪失。是時(shí)候要結(jié)束這個(gè)可怕的實(shí)驗(yàn)了。