ABSTRACT
The subtext of the 1959 UN Declaration is that play, as long as it serves the overriding goals of education, is not only good for children but also good for the community. By the time the 1989 "Convention on the Rights of the Child" was adopted, the UN had clearly become aware of the implied colonial logic linking play to education in the earlier version and, consequently, had separated the right to play. In so doing, the more Convention makes a new and interesting link between recreational play and a child's right "to participate freely in cultural life and the arts." In addition to the right to play, Carlos Rubio also argues paradoxically for the right not to play, especially when "play" is equated with participation in adult-organized sports. That is, he wants children to have the opportunity to choose and to invent their own recreational activities.
