I agree with this article, but this approach is incomplete.
Animals, including humans, instinctively play to learn, both in free play and guided play. They work particularly well when the kid is young. I don’t find “play” to have a negative connotation (in contrast to “work”). My hobbies as an adult often start with play.
However, there is something to be said about discipline. That also has some mixed connotations, so I will be clear. I am talking about discipline to mean the various inner psychology to focus, and sharpen one’s skills even through adversity. It includes what Angela Duckworth would call “grit”. Instilling this kind of discipline is not something I’d do at an early age, because it requires a sufficient level of mindfulness.
Discipline is how one can become truly great … but it is play that allows for a kind of creativity that allows one to generalize from a solid foundation. You need both to attain mastery.
I'm in general agreement, but I'd nuance it by saying that you need to take into account the underlying enthusiasm of the person. If there's something I need to get good at for my job but I find it very boring, then that's going to take a quite a bit of discipline. However, there are some other things in my life that I've had to extert almost not discipline to learn (and, IMNSHO get very good at) because I have an innate enjoyment of the subject.
I guess what you said needs to be said. It’s not really play if you make someone do it. For my son, a lot of it is redirecting and guiding the things he is already trying to do. (For example, my toddler takes his clothes off, so my wife and I would then have him put it in the laundry basket. He thinks it is fun).
As far as discipline goes, the value is being able to generate it from within. It’s a long grind, and it is not always fun.
For a pithy quote, I once read discipline defined as, "Eliminating the bad to make room for the good, and eliminating the good to make room for the great."
I think the conflation with "punishment" has made it very difficult to teach self-discipline to kids and young adults.
I learned “discipline” from the martial art world. Someone had pointed out to me that “discipline” shares the root word of “disciple”, so it is not really about punishment. With that meaning in mind, you don’t discipline a child so much as initiate a child into a discipline.
Related things I learned from the martial art world are, “don’t cheat yourself”, and the idea of gongfu — mastery accumulated over time. And to bring some perspective to this, I also learned from the martial art world that “play” is crucial to develop the creative aspect of mastery. Some teachers will tell students to “play” with an idea, instead of running through a drill.
Animals, including humans, instinctively play to learn, both in free play and guided play. They work particularly well when the kid is young. I don’t find “play” to have a negative connotation (in contrast to “work”). My hobbies as an adult often start with play.
However, there is something to be said about discipline. That also has some mixed connotations, so I will be clear. I am talking about discipline to mean the various inner psychology to focus, and sharpen one’s skills even through adversity. It includes what Angela Duckworth would call “grit”. Instilling this kind of discipline is not something I’d do at an early age, because it requires a sufficient level of mindfulness.
Discipline is how one can become truly great … but it is play that allows for a kind of creativity that allows one to generalize from a solid foundation. You need both to attain mastery.