ABSTRACT
This chapter explores to what extent does developing the awareness of how to interact at playtime prepare a child for coping in the adult world. Life in the playground involves the learning of numerous specific skills that are required in order to master and excel at a particular game or solve a particular social problem. But the children may be learning much more than is immediately obvious. Some of the skills, attitudes and beliefs acquired at playtime might transfer or generalize to other non-playground situations. In order to identify which playtime skills might transfer to adulthood, we need to have a fairly detailed knowledge of what adults do. By observing the playground world would lead teachers to share the author's conclusions. First, that children are learning all sorts of social skills and second, that in the activities of their own choice, many children are much more sophisticated than could be guessed from their classroom performance.
