Messing with Someone's Schema

So a few days ago, I was out with other grad students to celebrate a special event in the life of a mutual friend. Talk turned to what we are all working on at the moment, and I shared a little about my seminar on play. When I told the group about how we are going to have the opportunity to interview other people about their "play stories", one woman piped up, and asked me what my play story was. Now when someone spontaneously asks me a question like this, it's like the question sucks all possible answers out of my head before I can grab onto one, and I am left with...nuttin.' It's the same sort of thing that happens when people ask me what I want for Christmas, and I can't remember one thing until 15 minutes after I have opened my gifts on Christmas Day. Anyway, the one thing I could remember was what I shared in class; how as an adult my friends and I have always "played" by having wacky themed parties. I told her about the "Come as Your Favorite Cheese" party, the "Miss Marple Solves a Mystery," the "Redneck Birthday".  The woman was intrigued, almost disbelieving, and so began the questions:

• Were you all intoxicated? (No, no one was)
• How old were you? (in my thirties) Was everyone else significantly younger? (Nope, we were all around the same age)
• Did this involve illegal substances? (None whatsoever)
• Were you into theater/drama? (Not really)
• What did these people do for a living? (Several teachers, an insurance adjuster, a health care administrator, video game designer)

She shook her head at my answers and double/triplechecked about the intoxication and illegal substances. When I assured her that really, no, we were all in our sober right minds, and that there wasn't even alcohol at some of these events, she just looked at me as if I rocked her world. At one point she said something like, "I am trying to fit you into my schema, and it's not working!"

And that, dear readers, is precisely my point. What I think this story illustrates is that we as adults have lost some understanding of what it means to play, and the freedom to do so. It is so rare to see adults play imaginatively that the only answers that fit many people's schemas is drug use, extreme youthfulness, or being a dramatic artiste of some sort. What does this mean for our creativity, our ability to express who we truly are? Moreover,what does it mean to be educators to young children who haven't lost that gift, and long to be able to express it and have it affirmed in the life of school? How much do we shortchange ourselves and the students we care about by stifling this sort of imaginative play within ourselves? I can hear some of you say, "Yeah, but that's not who I am." And that's true. This sort of play doesn't resonate with everyone, and that's ok. What I'm saying here is you should feel free to play the ways that you love, the ways that free you to be who you truly are. Don't stifle who you are as a playful person because now you are "too grown up." So here's the deal. Technically, you don't need permission to get all "ludic", but if your grown-up self has to hear it, well then here it is: Go ahead. You have permission to play. So get out there and mess with someone else's schema.