I had been carrying around the Feb. 17, 2008 New York Times Magazine with the cover story entitled ‘Why Do We Play?’ by Robin Marantz Henig for the past ten days, mildly dreading the time when I’d finally read it, because I sensed that I was going to have issues with it. The cover art was composed solely of children playing. That tipped me off. (If the cover art were to have added some baby otters getting eaten by sea lions, rats with half their brains cut out, and children crying with bloody noses, it would have even more accurately reflected what was within.) Henig’s article starts promisingly, with a psychiatrist explaining to parents why play is important to all ages, but then proceeds to make a series of turns down increasingly narrow passages dealing with parenting and scientific research, and leaving a lot of vital stuff unsaid. (more…)