Children, like all mammals, are born completely dependent on adults for survival. The primary task of childhood is to grow increasingly independent of this care, and so they are also born with instinctive drives to practice independence to the degree that they can. The most powerful of these is the drive to play.  In play, children learn the most important lessons in life, lessons of personal empowerment, responsibility, and effective social engagement — and when we don’t let kids play on their own, we undermine this development.  The reasons children play You can predict what young mammals will play at by knowing the main skills they must acquire to become independent adults. For example, predatory animals play at predation, and prey animals play at dodging and darting and getting away from predators.…