The Serious Business of Fun

By Nicholas S. Thacher

Victorian parents and teachers have often been criticized for treating children as though they were little adults. The period's keenest social critic, Charles Dickens, satirized this ignorance in a collection of brilliant caricatures of schoolmasters and parents ranging from Mr. Creakle, the vicious proprietor of David Copperfield's Salem House, to Mr. Gradgrind, whose merciless doctrine of "hard work" and no play spoke for a culture which would have considered my school's developmental philosophy an abomination.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about work and play and the role of fun in the lives of children and adults. No doubt this philosophical preoccupation can be explained largely by the fact that after 21 consecutive years as a school principal I have embarked upon a six-month sabbatical. But it is also the result of intensive consideration of my current school's "mission statement" as we prepare for our impending 10-year accreditation.

Although a final version of the statement has yet to be approved by our board, one theme has emerged forcefully from discussions with teachers, parents, and trustees: Everyone agrees that we need to reiterate the importance of "childhood as an end in itself," a concept eliminated from our mission...