A few days back on a playscheme I sat in the sun (indeed it was one of those rare days Britain gets sunlight) and began to observe the play on the site.
For the whole session the children present were largely uninterested in the presence of playworkers, being far more interested in each other than us or the loose parts. However the playscheme lent itself as a foundation for the social events to follow. So I spent most of that session observing, trying to keep out of the way and let things exist as they are.
However...it was not the easiest sessions to sit back and observe. There were four girls, three boys, tubs full of material and five mattresses. The boys had piled the mattresses high and were lounging on them, like basking lions, and the girls endeavoured to build their own dens with cardboard, materials and a tepee. But what I observed was not moments of magical play, of discovery or hilarity, but of social discomfort and frustration.
One of the boys, "Carl" had been dating one of the girls "Julia" (obviously not their real names) up until the day earlier. So the entire playscheme revolved around these two and their now non-existent relationship. The boys would run over to the girls and say "Carl wants to go out with you again" and then the girls would run over to the boys and say "Julia thinks Carl is ugly". Meanwhile both individuals remained silent. And while Julia was quite vocal throughout the session, Carl remained mostly silent. Only now and then telling Julia that she looked like she had been hit by a bus.
But what was hard for me was how tyrannical Carl became, running around kicking over the girls dens, calling them names, robbing their phones, bikes and materials. It was clear that he had some feelings that he was unable to articulate, and that they manifested themselves in these behaviours.
In truth he reminded me of a documentary I had seen on chimpanzee behaviour, erratic, aggressive and distressing to others. The other boys found it funny, as no doubt they would. And as the session went on I noticed that the girls always kept a distance from him, a circle that they all kept outside of. Like a crocodile surrounded by flamingos.
I found it quite difficult not to say anything as, like I said before, he was quite tyrannical and only a few of the girls were left by the end of the session. The others having retreated to higher ground.
I had to think back to one of my favourite Playstation 2 games to stop me from saying anything: Jurassic Park; Operation Genesis.
In the game you basically built your own Jurassic Park, and for a child who wanted to become a Palaeontologist it was perfect. However once you got so far through the game the player unlocks a different mode called "Site B". And it was Site B that helped me as on it you chose your dinosaurs, designed the island and then they were born.
That was it.
There was no theme park, visitors or blockbuster disasters, it was all about creating the environment for the dinosaurs and then watching them exist. It was about building the right trees, planting rivers in the right place, choosing the right dinosaurs that could eat one another or live alongside each other.
I had to remind myself that I was on playscheme, I wasn't trying to make sure everyone had a turn on the rides, or that turns were taken. I wasn't trying to instil harmony or police behaviour.
It was playscheme...it was Site B.
So I sat back and held my tongue, observed behaviour and ensured that I remained a playworker, difficult as it was.
