Lieben, Arbeiten und Spielen

This is Autumn, and while it may LOOK like a professional photographer took this picture of her as a young child, it was actually her mom who snapped this very artsy shot! Autumn said, "My Mom is an awesome photographer! I always wished she would have done photography as a profession, but she decided to teach instead! Which was also a great choice!"

Autumn wrote our first entry on Chapter 1: Play, Love, and Work -- An Essential Trio. Happy reading!


David Elkind believes that love, work, and play are a “crucial dynamic of healthy physical, intellectual, and social- emotional development at all age levels”(p. 4). I agree with Elkind in that love, work, and play are crucial in all phases of human development.

While reading about the infancy and early childhood stage, I was reminded of my own recreating of reality. Elkind says that I was “not only creating that reality (play) but adapting to a new reality (work)”(p. 5). When I was younger, I observed my mom washing dishes, and I decided I wanted to mimic her and wash dishes in my own Playschool kitchen. In this paragraph Elkind also discusses the idea of a “permanent object.” I immediately thought of playing the children’s game of Peek-a-Boo. When the adult covers their face the child believes that they are gone when really they are still there. Once they reach the permanent object stage, they realize that the person is still behind the hands.

Over the course of the past year as a child development major, I have become more aware of the challenges of captivating young minds. This made me wonder how teachers are able to get children to pay attention long enough to learn in school. While reading the section on the elementary school years (ages 6-12), I was inspired by Dr. Seuss’ ability to combine learning skills, such as rhyme, with a playful element to make learning easier. I feel that adding a sense of play to school work would make children more willing to learn the material. Work will then be disguised as play. This is something that I will certainly keep in mind when I am teaching in the future.

Freud believed that the child’s sexual drive is repressed during the elementary school years (p. 7). That may have been true at one time, but now I would disagree with this idea. As times have changed, children are experiencing crushes, relationships, and sexual drives much earlier in life. The media plays a huge role in this change in our nation’s youth. Children want to grow up and be adults as soon as possible, so what better way to make kids feel older than by marketing sexually explicit ads towards them? They are exposed to more and more sexuality, which makes them aware of their own sexuality at a younger age. I know of young children who can sing sexually explicit rap songs word for word. They might not know what it means at the moment, but sooner or later they will ask what it means.

Elkind goes on to say that “during late adolescence (ages 16-19) young people have done their initial sexual exploration and the peer group loses its power”(p. 10). In my opinion, his statement about the peer group losing its power is inaccurate. I feel as though peer groups are at the most influential stage in development while in high school and the first two years of college. The change between high school and college seems to draw kids closer to being included in a peer group. Youths tend to rely on where their friends or high school sweethearts may attend college. Peer groups seem to become stronger, and sexual exploration seems to be at its peak during these ages. I do agree with the point made by Elkind that towards the end of late adolescence, youths start to explore different forms of play. I would consider them to be hobbies. They come to realize different activities that they enjoy such as music, painting, fixing up cars, or even writing blogs.

The last section about adulthood sounded very familiar to me. After thinking about it for a while, I realized it was familiar because I am at the beginning of the adulthood stage. Play, work, and love are now fully separated in my life. “Once we are grown, marriage and family relationships become the focus of our love”(p. 11). As of last year I became a married woman, and I am realizing how appropriate Elkind’s statement is with regard to the current stage of my life. The love for my family and my husband has become my greatest priority.