Janusz Korczak with the orchestra of the children’s home in Warsaw

This exhibition derives its name from an excerpt from Janusz Korczak’s “Rules of Life”, A Childhood of Dignity:

“ It is not proper to be ashamed of any game. This is no child’s play.

It is wrong for adults to say - and for the more intelligent of the children to repeat after them

‘Such a big boy and he plays like a baby; such a big girl and she still plays with dolls.’

What matters is not what one plays with, but rather how and what one thinks and feels while playing.

One can play wisely with a doll or play childishly and foolishly at chess.

One can play with great interest and imagination at being a policeman, making a train, being a hunter or an Indian, and one can read books without any thought or interest.”

“In embarking upon research for this exhibition, we thought that our findings would be limited to the children’s moments of comfort or consolation. Now we have learned that far more was involved. Fantasy, creativity, and play were the manifestations of a basic instinct for survival, a prerequisite for life in this context. Korczak’s claim “No Child’s Play” has been proven irrefutably correct.” (Yehudit Inbar, Curator)

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