ABSTRACT

These days children are often described as gene carriers, or as cultural entities, and more ‘cosmic’ views of children that describe them in terms of their planetary, astronomical or psychic/spiritual context tend to be unfashionable. And yet, children are members of one of many evolving species; their only habitat is a living planet and they look out onto a galactic backdrop that is as overpowering as it is beautiful; as unknowable as it renders humans insignificant. To provide an analysis of anything children do, without putting their actions into that context not only marginalises them, it also avoids a great deal of what makes children what they are. So, whilst most forms of out-of-school provision use education, containment and entertainment rationales to describe their purpose, evolutionary playwork attempts to use this ‘cosmic view’ as its starting point, as a way of determining what support children need, if any, and how that support should be delivered.