Windhoek — World renowned American educational play specialist, Dr Fred Donaldson, will officiate later this month as a guest speaker for the Ministry of Education at its annual conference on education.

Donaldson is a former professor who taught at the universities of Washington and California State Hayward, and the California School of Professional Psychology.

He currently travels the USA and internationally, lecturing and playing with diverse groups of people, organizations, and institutions.

He is the author of the Pulitzer-Prize nominated book, Playing by Heart, and has authored numerous articles on Original Play. Fred also has a school exchange programme in Poland, which is supported by UNESCO in Warsaw.

Fred became frustrated when he realized his need for being with people who were really learning was not being met at university level. And where did he find human beings who were really learning? At pre-school.

Through play, Fred learned numerous things: he could truly communicate with children; what adults deem to be play is not what children think play is and healing happens through play,

Fred also discovered all children play in the same way, whether they are gang kids, autistic children, special-care needs children, aggressive children or children with learning difficulties.

Extended time playing with children led Fred to wonder if animals too knew how to play like this? And so he began playing with wild animals such as wolves, dolphins, deer, elk, bears and lion cubs in their natural surroundings. He found that children and animals do play in the same way. In Fred's experience, behaviours of play consistent with Original Play are common to all life.

Fred teaches that we are all born with the talent to play - we just don't do it very much and that play has been replaced by something destructive.

Original Play is going to touch your heart and the heart of your family, be it your human or animal family, in an entirely new and unique way.

Original Play provides a forgotten choice - the choice not to fight, not to get into a contest and this provides a very powerful tool for peace.

What touches one about Fred Donaldson is his humour, the light of love in his eyes, his clarity and how genuinely enthusiastic he is about what he does.

Fred's sincerity and integrity are defined in the following words

"I don't play with wolves, I don't play with people with special care needs, I don't play with culture, I play with the face of God in front of me."

Children, animals and adults, too, love Original Play. They learn how to communicate, in a peaceful way, what it is they do and don't like, what it is that does not make them feel safe.

In his opinion for children to thrive schools must be safe.

"Safety is not merely a matter of the absence of violence, threat, and teasing; it is the presence of an environment of active compassion. This means that everyone - children and adults - can move, talk, and learn without threats, intimidation, harassment, or hurt.

"Such an environment requires not just the installation of metal detectors, taking physical management workshops, or joining gangs. It is rather a paradigm shift in how we all think and act as human beings, nothing else will do," he said in a press statement.

His special workshop will examine the elements and qualities necessary to foster educational environments that create a "readiness for kindness" in both children and adults. This course is designed to help teachers and administrators deal effectively, safely, and gently with issues of physical, emotional, and intellectual safety in school.

"We will accomplish this by both looking at the big picture of school safety and learning how to physically interact in safe ways with children. This course will be both lecture/discussion and experiential," the statement concludes.