ipl-logo

Play In Stephen Asma's Reclaiming The Power Of Play

1099 Words5 Pages
The author, Stephen T. Asma, claimed that play is the most essential part of humans from his excerpt “Reclaiming the Power of Play”.
The author started off by saying that of all human activities play is second to none, given what he mentioned of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and the description of the “three-step development of the human spirit” – first the human spirit takes on the form of a camel because it has to be highly responsible for taking on cultural duties such as ethical duties, social hierarchy, and the burden of tradition; second the camel changes into a lion and gets into the rebellion phase where a law-abiding person is freed from being submissive and is transformed into someone with power; and third the rebellion phase transforms into the highest level of humanity which symbolizes innocence and creative.
It is true that play is very important, everyone started out with “play”. It is said that 75 per cent of the brain develops after a baby is born and will keep on developing ever since and it is play that triggers the brain to connect the nerve cells together. Play from infancy to teens to adulthood helps the brain to develop even more connectivity. The executive function – which is the mental skills that allow one to manage time and attention, to plan, to remember details, and to make logical decisions – is what helps growing/developing children to learn from their past experiences and not make the same mistakes in the present
Open Document