From the Clear Spring School wood shop...
Today Greg Thomas' ESSA wood turning class is in its third day and the students have made great progress. This morning's meeting with the staff of Clear Spring School, we talked about play. Where else in the world would the subject of play come up but at Clear Spring School where we know that play has important purposes reaching far beyond idle entertainment and distraction.

So what exactly is the purpose of play? We sometimes call it "recreation, and you should note the creation at the heart of the word. You can also call it "innovation", and while parents these days are constantly supervising and directing their children's activities to match their own perceived needs for the future, the future is not really theirs to imagine. Children who have been prepared for the future through self-directed play will be the ones empowered to lead the world... if there are enough of them left.

I am struggling to learn a bit of Swedish language by examining Hans Thorbjörsson's book called Nääs och Otto Salomon slöjden och leken Leken means "play".