"There is No Evidence That Children Learn Through Play"

An early childhood educator recently told me that if "playwork" was a viable career option in the US, that she would have pursued that rather than "play-based preschool teacher."I get it. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with and alongside several highly regarded play workers in the US, Europe, and Australia. I've always felt a strong affinity for their way of working with children, far more so, in fact, than I do with most "preschool teachers."If you're not familiar -- and if you're in the US, you might not be -- playwork emerged from the adventure playground movement, beginning with Denmark's Emdrup "junk playground" in 1943. It spread to postwar Britain, most notably through the work of Lady Marjory Allen. Playwork is explicitly not about educating children. It is about respecting children enough to create and protect spaces for freely chosen, child-directed play with as little adult intervention as possible. Today, especially in Britain, it has evolved into a…