The Moral Philosophy of Dramatic Play
The Second Graders are particularly fond of pretend play. The entire group of children is often involved in a complex imaginative game where everyone plays a part in a clear scenario. The children have a skill for naturally carving out roles that suit their interests and personalities, and they take their characters very seriously.
Observers of young children have long known that dramatic play is essential to the development of the whole child. Through imaginative play, children make sense of the world by acting out scenarios they encounter; they practice cognitive skills like planning, sequencing, and story-telling; they engage in rule-making and conflict resolution; and they learn to communicate effectively. In addition to all these, the Second Graders have been using their imaginative play to reflect on important philosophical questions like good and evil, right and wrong, the cyclical nature of life, and the nature of learning.
Consider the Puppy Game. Early in the year, children built a large “puppy jail” out of wooden boards. The jail was populated by a bunch of puppies who had been imprisoned for being “bad”, and the jailer wanted to “make them good”. In order to “become good”, the puppies were supposed to stay in jail for three jailbreaks (meaning, they had to refuse to join their friends as they escaped) and eat all their food. Every night, however, the puppies would escape, thwarting the jailer’s attempts to reform them. The game, described by the children themselves as a “cycle”, went on and on: escape, followed by capture, followed by exhortations to do better.
It struck me that the Puppy Game is a perfect illustration of the children’s incipient understanding of morality: goodness and badness are things you do, and you can switch from one to the other. There are authority figures who hold boundaries of goodness and welcome actors who have become bad to try again. And resisting the temptation to join others in doing wrong is a particularly valuable hallmark of goodness (alongside a healthy appetite.)
Jean Piaget, the father of Constructivism, believed that autonomy is the goal of education. He considered intellectual autonomy and moral autonomy as equally important to the development of a whole human being. In play, children are driven towards situations and ideas that they find compelling; for how better to learn important things than to practice them in a safe space, in a fun way, with peers? The Second Graders’ complex play bodes well for their development into autonomous moral actors.
