Playful is the best way to learn: joyfully and experientially. In the season that ushers our children to camps, we should all take a lesson from the active learning of Jewish sleepaway camps. While we have hovered over Talmud texts for generations, immersed in primarily intellectual endeavors, our tradition does include experiential practice: tactile learning with games at the seder, hiding the afikomen and dipping our karpas, candle lighting, wearing costumes or sitting in a hut. The chagim are experiential. What our holidays and Jewish day camps have in common that enable participants to be fully present is the rejection of social media and smartphones.
Jewish day school leaders gathered with the Jewish Parents Forum to learn the research of Dr. Jonathan Haidt about a mental health crisis among kids. The cause: the joint development of decreased experiences in the real world and increased learning and play in the virtual world, along with over protection in the former and under protection in the latter. He encourages us to send children out to play with peers, have independence and take risks, while significantly limiting time in the virtual world, in other words, camp or Shabbat all year!
When I close my eyes, thirty years ago at Camp Stone feels like yesterday, the lessons from holding candles by the lake on Tisha B’Av and hiding from the Greeks at late night capture the flag, will be part of me forever. Playing is learning, posting is not.
