Play, Learning and Intelligence

Play is Learning is one of the best introductions to Joseph Chilton Pearce, one that embodies a number of his fundamental themes: ages and stages of development, the model imperative, the difference between real learning and conditioning (the behavior modification and training we call schooling) and how authentic play represents natures design for optimum learning and performance, at any age, meeting any challenge.

It was Einstein who said that imagination was more important than knowledge. He understood that our greatest discoveries and most profound works of art have come to us through imagination and play. Far from being idle day dreaming, the fantasies of childhood, build the foundation for all higher learning.

Fred coined the term “original play” to describe his 50 years of direct experience and research with children and wild animals. His playmates include special needs children, gang members and street and refugee kids, prison inmates, cancer patients, dolphins, whales, lions, grizzly bears, wolves, baboons, and butterflies. He travels extensively but spends much of his year in Sweden, the United States, Poland, and South Africa. Recent travels include the Czech Republic, Namibia, Brazil, Singapore, Bali, Lebanon, and Bahrain.

Jaak was Emeritus Professor of the Department of Psychology at Bowling Green State University. He coined the term 'affective neuroscience', the name for the field that studies the neural mechanisms of emotion. "We finally got a handle on the nature of psychological pain. What would it be? The answer was playfulness. There was not yet a science to play. We decided to go with a good ole laboratory rat and we said well how do you get them to play in front of you? The answer seemed pretty obvious. You make them hungry for play."

We said well there must be something fundamental about the social principal that is in the arena of joy. What would it be? In 1965 there was no conversation about the nature of emotions, certainly not in the sense of understanding affective feelings deeply at the neuroscience level. Panksepp gradually started developing the field, which is now called Affective Neuroscience, that has a lot of implications for understanding ourselves as creatures of the world and what we share with the other creatures. The goal is to gain a fundamental understanding of the nature of emotions and feelings.