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David Elkind. The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative
Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children.
Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong
Books, 2008. Notes, other references,
index. 240 pp. $24.00 cloth. ISBN:
9780738211107.
by Thomas Armstrong
[First Paragraph]
The real power of David Elkind's new
book The Power of Play lies in the fact
that it takes us inside the mind of one of
the greatest developmental thinkers of our
time. A disciple of Jean Piaget, Elkind was
a key figure in the resurgence of the Swiss
psychologist's work in America in the
1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s,
Elkind turned his explorations toward social
critique, indicting our modern, fastpaced,
technological society for pushing
children out of childhood too quickly. The
hurried-child syndrome is his legacy from
that period. Now, in The Power of Play, Elkind brings these two facets of his work
together—along with his experience as a
Freudian-influenced clinician, a teacher,
a father, and a grandfather—influenced clinician, a teacher,
a father, and a grandfather—to give us a
rich and varied perspective on the value
of play for our postmodern era. |
