It was this central concern that motivated writer Sue Palmer and I to co-organise the two 'Open Letters' on childhood that appeared in the media this and last autumn.
Our letter highlighted the need for 'a wide-ranging and informed public dialogue about the intrinsic nature and value of play'. For while we all routinely talk about play, do we really understand its deep nature? Might the utilitarian, 'instrumentalist' mind-set that so dominates modern life unwittingly make play into 'a thing' - an object of manipulation by adults, which fatally compromises the essence of truly authentic playing? Perhaps we need to explore just what authentic, unintruded-upon playing might consist of, and how we might begin to think and speak about it, so that we preserve its intrinsic reverence, rather than betraying or destroying it through the coarse bludgeon of 'modernity'.
Educationalist Rudolf Steiner wrote eloquently about reverence, and what he termed the 'imponderables' of education - the subtleties and nuances, usually unconscious, that may be the most important aspect of learning experiences. Yet the anxiety-driven 'audit culture', with its accompanying anti-play mentality, is insidiously colonising the very heart of early learning environments. The vital creative space that is essential for free play to flourish is under increasing siege. Practitioners therefore surely have an ethical professional responsibility to do all they can to protect children - and their playing space, literal and metaphorical - from these low-trust values, attitudes and practices.
Richard House lectures in psychotherapy at Roehampton University and is a trained Steiner kindergarten and class teacher working in Norwich Steiner School.