• Let the Children Play

  • How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive
  • By: Pasi Sahlberg, William Doyle
  • Narrated by: Randye Kaye
  • Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

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Let the Children Play  By  cover art

Let the Children Play

By: Pasi Sahlberg,William Doyle
Narrated by: Randye Kaye
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Publisher's Summary

Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed - skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function. Expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control agree that play and physical activity are critical foundations of childhood, academics, and future skills - yet politicians are destroying play in childhood education and replacing it with standardization, stress, and forcible physical restraint, which are damaging to learning and corrosive to society.

But this is not the case for hundreds of thousands of lucky children who are enjoying the power of play in schools in China, Texas, Oklahoma, Long Island, Scotland, and in the entire nation of Finland. In Let the Children Play, Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator and scholar, and Fulbright Scholar William Doyle make the case for helping schools and children thrive by unleashing the power of play and giving more physical and intellectual play to all schoolchildren.

©2019 Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Painful.

I found this to be extremely repetitive... basically the title restated differently for hours and hours... I was paid by my job to listen to it and still found it a painful waste of time despite my strong agreement with the concept...

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  • Super Spur
  • 10-07-19

What a wonderful and helpful book for anyone involved in childhood.

An inspirational yet sobering look at how far we have fallen from allowing children to be children......and what we can do to restore a level of integrity back into the way we do school. Hugely interesting and written by people with a passion for children getting the best deal out of life in all levels. So much is based around the incredible and brave work that has gone on in places like Finland (where Pasi Sahlberg is from) but also countries and states in America where they have been brave enough to try a more child centred approach. An evidence-based (the size of the bibliography/reference section is impressive) and convincing argument to let the children play. You get used to the slightly robotic narration and actually appreciate the clarity in the end. Excellent.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 09-05-19

Interesting, a bit too American focus.

Struggled with narrator, sounded too like a computer at times (I had to check it was being read by real person). Content more focused on American school system than had expected. I think would have enjoyed book more reading it than listening to it.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 08-03-22

Awful recording. 😖 😱

A great text, read by a robotic voice with no phrasing. It’s almost impossible to listen to.
very disappointing. Waste of a credit.
Why not pay for someone to read this properly?

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  • Michael H
  • 06-16-20

Reccomend to all

Throughly researched, if you are a parent or a teacher this could be one of the most important books you ever read. play is vital to helping children learn creativity and interpersonal skills.