William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children
A few months ago, William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg published their book about the importance of play, called Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive.
Checker Finn Jr. criticized their book in the conservative journal Education Next, maintaining that middle-class and affluent kids need to play, but poor kids need to keep their noses to the academic grindstone.
Doyle and Sahlberg respond to Finn in Education Next in this article.
They write in answer:
Chester E. Finn Jr.’s review in the Winter 2020 Education Next of our book Let the Children Play reveals a startling lack of knowledge of medical guidelines for children in school, including children in poverty.
Finn contends that our policy message, the need for more intellectual and physical play in school, “portends damage to children and society at least as severe as the practices the authors rightly deplore.” The reason, Finn asserts without evidence, is that playful teaching and learning “does little harm to middle-class kids,” but “for CONTINUE READING: William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg Explain to Checker Finn Why Play Is Good for ALL Children | Diane Ravitch's blog