Ashley Tudor

Professor Erin Newcomb

English 170

9 September 2019

 

If you take a walk outside, you are likely to see a stick lying on the ground. Sticks are common objects that we take for granted. They don’t seem like anything special, but to a child, there are endless opportunities for playing with sticks. With a little bit of imagination, a stick can become a sword, magic wand, or a fishing pole in the eyes of a child. They can also be used to build forts and draw in dirt or sand. Sticks are a great tool to help expand the imagination of a child and teach them valuable life skills.

From the time a child is a toddler, they have a strange fascination with sticks. As they grow older and their minds expand, they begin to come up with new creative ways to play with the sticks. Kids can pretend to combat each other using their sticks as swords or a lightsaber. Kids like to play games where there is a “bad guy” as well as a hero figure that is meant to defeat the other. They are able to engage in this imaginative combat scenario without the dangers of actual weapons, as long as the kids are old enough and intelligent enough to not stab each other with sticks. They can also use their imaginations to pretend that the stick is a magic wand with supernatural abilities. This one is safer and will really allow a child to use their imagination. The child will have the ability to come up with creative ways to use this wand, whether he is by himself or with a friend, having him imagine along with him. Playing with sticks as a child expands the imagination, which expands the mind and creativity of that child in their adult years. They will be able to come up with creative ideas more easily since they had many opportunities to do so as a child. Children can also use sticks to build forts. If they find enough wood, children can make their own secret hideaway to come to with their friends outdoors. Learning to stabilize the fort so that the wood doesn’t fall allows a child to problem solve. They also can figure out which designs are most effective and look the nicest. These skills help a child learn to engineer, and may even inspire them to become an engineer when they get older. 

As time goes on and society continuously changes, the ideas of parenting also change. In the past, the wellbeing of children was not one of their parents main priorities. Recorded history shows instances of children being forced to labor, arranged marriage with the goal of obtaining wealth, and physically beating children was more accepted than it is today. Modern society now deems these concepts unacceptable. Parents typically nurture their children, many parents getting them all the toys they can afford to buy them as well as making sure they eat organic food. Some overprotective parents of this time period discourage their children from playing with sticks, since they see them as a safety hazard. To some parents, “it might as well be a firearm” (Bonior). Although caring about the wellbeing of a child is a good thing for a parent to do, prohibiting them from utilizing their natural resources to have fun is unreasonable. This leads us to wonder “why must [children] be chastised for being physical and creative” (Bonior). Andrea Bonior, a qualified psychologist put it best, “The more we teach our kids that nature is dangerous, creativity is out of bounds and physicality is not to be tolerated, the more I worry for our society”.  It is important to let children experience the beauty of nature and interact with it, it can expand their minds and abilities more than sitting inside and playing video games can.

Playing with sticks allows children to have fun while expanding their imaginations as well as problem solving abilities. They are a very useful object during childhood development.

Works Cited

 

Bonior, Andrea. “Why Sticks Are Good For Kids.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 21 

May 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendship-20/201405/why-sticks-are-good-kids.