I kept waiting to get my pat on the head this morning while I was reading the New York Times Magazine cover story on taking play seriously. I just knew I'd be congratulated for not overscheduling my children. The author was certain to conclude my kids' preschools were excellent choices -- devoid of any emphasis on academics and early reading and Suzuki violin classes as they were.

But no pat. No congratulations. Likewise, no admonishments or wagging fingers that my children aren't being adequately enriched. What I learned from the piece is that there's still so much to learn about play -- why kids (and other animals) do it, what the benefits of play are, whether a lack of play harms, and whether totally undirected play is better than directed play (there's no evidence that it is!). 

So what do we know about play? For one, parents and educators are slightly freaked out about it (guilty!). Do they get enough? Too much? Does it need direction? Are adults too involved? We know that we don't know enough.

Researchers in play also know that as intuitive as it may be, there's no scientific evidence that play is a way of rehearsing for real life.

But we do know some stuff about play and brain growth. One researcher found that cerebelum growth tracked perfectly with the especially intense period of childhood play -- from 4 years old to puberty. Fascinating, but what does it mean? This discovery prompted other experiments -- giving baby rats lobotomies, raising some in play-free environments -- and then examining their brains at puberty. They found that the brains cells in the play-deprived rats weren't as refined and organized as those  who got to play. Which, again, means what? Who knows. The researchers can only conjecture -- maybe it means those played-out rats were better with subtle social cues. But they don't know whether it's made up in some other way. 

Come on, we want some play/brain answers! Play is THE most important form of childhood development and education, no?

No. In fact, some of the play experts think that the effect of play might be one of the many brain redundancies -- a another means to a certain human brain end but by no means the only.

So which is better -- turning the kids loose in a room full of dress up clothes or toddler Mandarin classes? Answer: we still don't know. Crap. I hate being not entirely right.