Let the Children Play, William Doyle
Let the Children Play, William Doyle
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Let the Children Play
How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive

Author: William Doyle, Pasi Sahlberg

Narrator: Randye Kaye

Unabridged: 11 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/06/2019


Synopsis

Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed—skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function. Expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control agree that play and physical activity are critical foundations of childhood, academics, and future skills—yet politicians are destroying play in childhood education and replacing it with standardization, stress, and forcible physical restraint, which are damaging to learning and corrosive to society.

But this is not the case for hundreds of thousands of lucky children who are enjoying the power of play in schools in China, Texas, Oklahoma, Long Island, Scotland, and in the entire nation of Finland. In Let the Children Play, Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator and scholar, and Fulbright Scholar William Doyle make the case for helping schools and children thrive by unleashing the power of play and giving more physical and intellectual play to all schoolchildren.

About William Doyle

William Doyle is a New York Times bestselling author and a TV producer for networks including HBO, the History Channel, and PBS. Since 2015 he has served as Fulbright Scholar, Scholar in Residence, and Lecturer on Media and Education at University of Eastern Finland. He is also a Rockefeller Foundation Resident Fellow and advisor to the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland.


Reviews

The ideas in this book get a rating of 5, but the book itself gets a 2 from me, so I'll settle for a 3-star rating overall. The ideas presented are thought-provoking and backed up by evidence, and while I was reading it really made me excited about education in a way few books about education have b......more

Goodreads review by Yasin

Here is the basic layout: play is important, American kids don't play and American schools are horrible, Finnish schools are great and some promising research and some play initiatives. Though the layout was disappointing and cliché, still it was a good read.......more

Goodreads review by Morgan

3 ⭐ due to some serious redundancy of information in the middle of the book, but 5⭐ for thought-provoking, highly-compelling information on the needs of children and the nature of schools today. Overall: 4 ⭐ The last three chapters of this book in particular are worth reading for the sake of finding......more

Goodreads review by Jamie

When I read a book like this, I simultaneously feel like a great teacher and a horrible one. It's so confusing. Some of the ideas feel so privileged... "children should spent time with their families, playing games, making dinner together, and sitting on the couch reading bookes joyfully, instead of......more