“Pedagogy of play” focuses on the educational value of this field of experience, by claiming that play characterizes the two fundamental guidelines which are at the basis of education; the spontaneous and natural direction on the one side, and the intentional one on the other side. It is commonly assumed that pedagogy of play concerns only the latter of the two above-mentioned aspects of education, that is to say the design and management of playing experiences and materials with clear educational (...) goals; instead, this discipline critically analyzes the whole playing experience, therefore trying to grasp its potentialities, its material conditions, and its overall meanings in the making of the subject. Moving from some considerations about the discovery of play as an emblematic index of the “discovery of childhood” at the beginning of Modern Age (Ariès, 1960), the first part of this essay underlines three aspects: the first concerns the investment on play as an educational device (from Locke to Montessori, up to Children’s Museums), pointing out the shift from the classic principle of ludendo docere to the modern ludendo discere. The second aspect focuses on the retrieval of the natural dimension of play, which finds in Rousseau its main source; the third takes into consideration toys and their identity both as pedagogical devices and as media. In the second part of the essay, the focus is on free play and its educational value, which is here interpreted especially as the first field of experience for children’s “political education”. The final remarks include some speculations the relationship between play and daily life, suggesting the idea that “life-long playing” could be defined as a meaningful aspect of long-life education. (shrink)

Children love theater without knowing that they “do theater”, without someone teaching them to “play a part”: representing roles and situations is a spontaneous and natural playful dimension. We can call this “animation”, a characteristic feature of childhood: in the proper sense it means “giving life” by impersonating roles or creating scenarios with toys. Theater becomes a pedagogical device when it recognizes and enhances these assumptions by acting on two levels: on the one hand, making theater with children and young (...) people, soliciting their communication and interpretative skills, as a laboratory that, starting from the body, involves all languages. On the other hand, making theater for children, producing shows able to enter a relationship with the imagination of children, as an aesthetic experience; at its best it is experimental theater. (shrink)