Article extract: The Meaning of Play, by Mrs P M Hostler
‘LET’S play at schools. No, mothers and fathers!’ The little group wrangles for a while as to who shall be teacher and who the baby, and then settles down to play, arguing, quarrelling, changing the game in midstream or starting afresh.
Many a parent watching these games which never seem to lose their popularity, must wonder why children come back to them again and again. It’s a tiresome world they portray in their make-believe – a world where the baby is always howling and the mother fussing. And if school is the scene, the pupils are always late, rude and don’t know their lessons. Yet they never fail to get the better of the teacher, who is as vindictive as she is stupid.
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