Think Outside the Ball: Why Play Matters | Devin Sommer | TEDxCoeurdalene

Playing more is more important than you probably realize. Learn how play shapes your mind, and the devastating effects of not doing it enough. From problem solving to communication, discover how better playing habits can create a better and more balanced world. Devin is a performance poet & community activist from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Devin spent 6 months living in Argentina and nearly 8 years living and teaching in Turkey where he witnessed the Syrian Refugee Crisis and an attempted military coup. Transformed by his experience overseas, he is an outspoken advocate of international study, regularly performing Hip Hop music with artists from all over the world in an effort to support cultural exchange programs, empower youth, and uplift communities. Devin currently manages one of the most successful toy stores in the country, where he supports teachers and hands-on play-based learning. Devin has been recognized by the Institute of International Education, The Fulbright Scholarship Program, and the New York Times in Education for his contributions to education and the arts. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

So what is this?

Is it a shape? A color?

It bounces.

I can throw it.

It rolls.

And the more I continue to play with this
the more I start to learn from it,

and the more creative my interactions with
it become until a simple object evolves

into a wheel that carries wagons or cars
or trains.

It becomes a piece of medical equipment
that saves lives.

The structure of a molecule,
foundation of chemistry.

When we we play with something as simple
as a ball we are introduced to a sphere,

nature's most efficient form in geometry.

We begin learning about the properties
of gravity and find creative new ways of

manipulating space and our bodies.

It's the structure of our planet,
our solar system, and galaxies.

And on the other side of infinity,

it's the protons, electrons, and neutrons
that make up everything.

Think about golf, tennis, the NBA,
the world football league.

A ball, can generate a
seven-figure salary,

and is the cornerstone of multi-billion
dollar industries!

In my job as a toy salesman, I get to
observe, everyday, adults and children

learn and explore through a natural
process that is so vital to our species,

yet so many of us are
forgetting how to do.

As a culture, we are starting
to play less and less,

when actually, we should be playing more.

Did you know that play, is second only to
parental influence in affecting the traits

and behaviors that we exhibit as adults?

Play is so fundamentally important, that
it is literally hard-wired into our DNA.

Just like other animals, humans play to
learn and develop skills.

But unlike other animals,
humans are unique in that they

possess the capacity to continue
playing their entire lives.

Why is that?

It's because nature designed us
to be life-long learners.

Even the most intelligent animals stop
playing sometime in adulthood,

but most humans don't.

And you might be surprised to learn

that when your brain is completely
immersed in active play,

even at 50, 60, 70 years old,
it is still learning

still creating, and still testing
new neural pathways.

In essence, the more we play,
the smarter we become.

So, as children, we begin getting an idea
of how things work

through functional and constructive play.

We start to explore
the characteristics of an object,

and begin re-arranging it
in different ways.

Functional play is important in sparking
curiosity and the motivation to learn,

while constructive play hones our fine
motor skills, our focus

and our ability to set goals.

And the complexity of play,
evolves with our intelligence.

At some point, we're introduced
to games with rules,

which involve greater degrees of planning
and self control.

The younger the child, the more simple
the rules need to be.

We learn tic-tac-toe for example
before we learn how to play chess.

Games with rules teach us: concentration;
They teach us how to understand limits and

they teach us to regulate our behaviors.

And most importantly games with rules
teach us how to win graciously

and how to lose graciously

and I suspect, that many of our prominent
business and political leaders, I suspect,

did not have enough quality play time
as children.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

See, a game of baseball
just like a company or a government

requires individual players and teams
to operate within a mutually agreed upon

set of parameters, and in a finite game
the goal is to achieve a certain outcome,

commonly in the form of points.

Playing cards and board games
are other examples of finite games

and can actually strengthen our neural
pathways as we age.

Then, there's imaginative play, where we
learn creativity and how to generate ideas

During imaginative play, we form mental
pictures,

and use abstract symbols to
represent real objects,

just like this ball can represent the
structure of an atom,

or the orbit of a planet.

It's how we learn our native languages,
and learn to express

and communicate ideas
to others.

And as we grow and study
algebra, or literature, or history,

we go through the same process.

When learning to read for example,
we have to form a picture in our head to

give meaning to the words in front of us.

Math, requires us to visualize a problem
so we know whether to add, or subtract,

or multiply or divide.

Imaginative play sets the foundation for
all future learning

and has a profound effect on our problem
solving abilities as adults.

See, a little while back, this father
brought his son

into the toy store that I work at for his
fifth birthday.

They were visiting from out of town so the
dad hadn’t had time

to properly arrange a party.

So, after about an hour of just
walking through the store and laughing

and playing, and just having a good time,
the dad came to the check out counter

to speak with me, cash in hand.

He looked at his boy and he said:
“Ok Kiddo! Go pick out one thing!”

He learned that day just

how big his son could dream as the
gigantic German imported fire truck

made It’s way to the check out counter.

And he was sighing when he asked me:
"Do you guys take American Express?”

So a year later that same father and son
came back to the toy store.

He said to me, “You know, my son has been
bugging me for 2 months to come back here,

this is all he wanted to do
for his birthday.”

“Smart kid,” I said.

“How’d he like the truck?”

That dad said to me:
"Oh man, it's been a blast!"

"We’ve had so much fun playing with it,
it's still his favorite toy!"

And now, every year that same father and
son

make the 4 and a half hour drive
so that they can come to a toy store

and select the perfect gift.

And I think 6 is gonna be
Dad’s favorite birthday

because all his son ended up wanting
that day was a bag of marbles.

You can’t replicate that kind of
experience by just “getting it online."

The purpose of toys and a toy store
is to educate and inspire,

and hopefully make enough money
along the way to continue doing it.

The process of finding
that right toy is an integral part

of the playing experience,

and frequently requires me to take a toy
away from an adult

so that I can make sure
that their kid gets a turn.

It can be heartbreaking.

I mean, how many of you
remember your favorite toy?

Do you remember how much
that meant to you?

Do you remember how
much fun that was?

And how much you
learned from it?

You see, we live in kind of paradox
at the moment.

On one hand, society revere’s creativity
and innovation, yet, as a whole,

we embrace a way of life that
systematically diminishes creative thought

and marginalizes play.

As a result, we are playing less and less.

Now, I don’t need to go on a tirade about

the ills of the world, all of us know
that there are problems.

My concern is that as a species,
we are becoming less apt to solve them

because we aren’t engaging enough
in active and stimulating play.

The human race is walking a very fine line
right now between

a new age of enlightenment
and a fall back into the dark ages.

If we wish to avoid the latter, I think
that we really need to be honest

about how we interact with technology,
we need to think about our approach to

education, and we really need to think
about our ideas of human culture so that

we can adjust our behaviors and get back
to a healthier lifestyle

where all of us play more.

We have have entered into a very unhealthy
and very unbalanced relationship

with technology.

Instead of remembering names or
information we just tap a screen

and voila, it’s right there.

We pop off emoji’s instead of using
vocabulary, and we

build online personas instead of investing
in our own confidence and self worth.

I mean, instead of playing in the dirt,
and feeling the earth in our fingers,

we make a virtual farm, how does that
teach us anything about agriculture?

(Applause)

I know all of us have witnessed parents
using smartphones and tablets to babysit

their kids or avoid temper tantrums.

The problem is, this:
is not play.

This is not how nature
designed us to learn, and is actually

altering our brains in some pretty
frightening ways.

Did you know that our short-term memory
pathways, the same ones that we develop

and strengthen through the different types
of play I mentioned earlier, actually

start deteriorating with the overuse of
smartphones and computers?

The world renowned German Neurologist
Manfred Spitzer, so clearly established

the link between heavy internet and video
game use, and the reduction of grey matter

in the hippocampus of the brain, that it
has generated it’s own medical term:

Digital Dementia.

Digital Dementia!

These preliminary studies are frightening,
and we need to tread very carefully

when introducing tech to a
classroom setting, as we still do not know

what the long-term consequences of this
early childhood interaction

with technology will be.

Nature designed us to learn through
unplugged and hands-on play,

not a computer screen.

There is a place for tech in education,
but I would caution both parents

and educators against "buying into the
hype" and introducing it before

young brains have had a chance to fully
mature and develop.

(Applause)

Technology alone cannot and will not
solve the systemic problems

of our current education practices.

I mean think about this, we go to school
so that we can take a test.

We take the test
so that we can go to college.

We go to college
so that we can get the job,

and when we get the job, if we’re lucky,
we get to attend

the occasional professional development
seminar,

and that’s about it.

Does that sound like fun to you?

Nature designed us to play and learn until
we die, because it knew that one skill

would never be enough to propagate our
species in an environment that is

infinitely complex and ever-changing.

We shouldn’t stop learning just because
we get a paycheck.

You know, recently, STEM, has become a
huge buzzword in education.

STEM stands for: Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics.

And let me tell you, any public, private,
or non-profit organization throwing

this acronym around loves it because
it is a great way to make money.

But STEM is not what
most people think it is.

A robotics kit, or a coding game
is no more or less

a STEM toy than
Lincoln Logs or a rubber ball.

In the same way that STEM fields
are no more or less important

to education than sports, or
the arts and humanities.

Believe me, I'm a toy salesman,
part of my job is to

market STEM products.

STEM was an analysis, presented to the
White House in 2001 by

the Department of Homeland Security
identifying these 4 fields as areas

that the U.S. workforce had
fallen behind in.

The analysis suggested that if we could
not “catch up” in these fields,

it would pose security risks,

and a threat to the long-term,
economic stability of the nation.

Now, are these fields important?

Of course they are, and their importance

to a well-rounded education
has not changed.

However, we would be foolish to think
that we could prepare an entire generation

for the future of work by simply investing
all of our energy and resources

into 4 fields of study.

Nobody knows what the future is going to
look like, we don’t have the faintest idea

but I can tell you right now that STEM
alone isn’t gonna to cut it.

Let’s face it:
we need comprehensive reform.

We need to take the money that we spend
on the military industrial complex,

and put it into our schools!

(Applause)

We need more teachers
and smaller class sizes.

We need to support our teachers
with specialized training programs

so that they can recognize and teach
toward multiple intelligences, and we need

that training to be ongoing throughout
a teachers entire career.

Learning needs to be play-based and
expeditionary not focused on test results,

and we should be teaching imagination and
creativity with the same

importance that we give to math
and literacy.

(Applause)

Alright so, we need to balance our
relationship with technology,

we need to renovate the model
of education, but none of this can

successfully happen until we go
much deeper, to the very core of

who we are as a species,
and re-think our human culture.

You see, most people define culture by
customs, or art,

or food, language, religion, but this
is actually a superficial understanding

of what culture is because underlying
every nationality and every ethnicity,

we share one common trait.

This world.

The game of civilization has drawn and
redrawn the lines on this planet for

thousands of years, yet none of them
ever have, and none of them ever will

“win” because the success
of this game hinges

on our very ability to
continue playing it.

This is an example of an infinite game,
something that varies drastically in

nature from baseball or monopoly in that
there is no fixed outcome,

the goal is simply to continue playing it.

In the great game of life, change is the
only thing that remains constant,

which means that new obstacles
will always be present.

And this is why nature designed us to play
and learn throughout the entirety of

our lives, so that we can adapt as rules
change and maintain an infinite game!

We live on a finite ball,
with finite resources.

The version of economy that we play right
now dictates that constant growth and

expansion which can only be fueled by
consumption is the only way sustain it.

Even a child can tell you that this game
doesn’t make any sense.

It generates a tremendous amount
of wealth for a few,

and scarcity for the vast majority,
something which does not change by the way

no matter which country you live in.

Our nations play war with indifference but
war, can only have one of two outcomes.

Isn’t a peaceful story with no definitive
ending, at the very least,

a more interesting story to tell?

If we continue to play the game of
civilization as if we can win it,

then I assure you
all of us are destined to lose.

Ok, I’m just a humble toy salesman.

I don’t have all the answers.

I can’t tell you what our relationship
with technology needs to look like

and I certainly don’t have
the cure for education,

or fixing our ideas of human culture.

What I do know is that the things
that need to change

are not going to change overnight.

But if you would prefer to approach life
as more of a game rather than a battle,

well I certainly have some
suggestions of where to start.

Life is hectic and busy, I get it!

So schedule a time to play,

even you can only do it once a week,
make a game night.

Travel, live abroad, play
with your perspective.

Play with movement and dance!

Play with sound and make music!

Play with color and texture,
even if you don’t call it art.

Because learning is life-long
no matter what age you are.

Unplug your phone and turn it off
at least one time a day.

Play with your grandkids,

watch your kids play.

Play with friends,

play with strangers,

play with your students,

play with your neighbors.

Ditch the tech and reconnect

all those wires in your brain.

Stop chasing checks,
show respect

for the infinite game.

You see getting back to the basics,
it’s really not that hard at all,

we’ve just got to stop thinking
inside this little box,

and get back to thinking outside the ball.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)