Children are born to categorize, searching for patterns to cue appropriate responses. Two eyes, walks on two legs, smiles, talks to me? Human. Four legs and barking? Not a human. Humans will try to meet my needs when I cry. Non-humans will not.
The early stages of language development are filled with such categories. My son connected immediately with the loud siren of a fire truck. After that, he pointed to all moving vehicles and made the sound of a siren. Categorizing is necessary for learning, and all children are desperate for identifiers that signal membership to one category or another; this object belongs to “Vehicle”, this object belongs to “Animal”, this object belongs to “Family.”
As children grow, they move from categorizing objects to categorizing behaviors. Our authentic feedback aids this process. “Thank you for putting away the block. That was helpful,” confirms for children that assisting with clean up belongs in a category called “helpful.” Likewise, when a toddler pulls her sister’s hair, we say, “Ouch. Pulling hair hurts,” to help the toddler learns the definition of a category called “hurt.” As she grows to understand the limitations of the “hurt” category, and the different behaviors that have membership in it, she will have to test and retest to form her conclusions.
Categories grow more complex over time. Not all vehicles get a siren sound anymore – my son has learned the sound of a train and the whir of a car engine.
Enter: Good Guys and Bad Guys
Good guy/bad guy play is tricky. On one one hand, GG/BG play offers children a chance to feel powerful, work out fears, practice self-regulation and communication skills, develop perspective taking, make important decisions, take risks, nurture a sense of agency and competence, and the list goes on. But GG/BG play can present some challenges for early childhood educators and parents.
This is a cage set up by the “zookeeper” for this fierce cheetah. Everyone involved was enjoying the play, so my involvement was unnecessary.
CHALLENGES:
Who is the bad guy? Children like to test out what it means to be the bad guy – fearsome, mean, and scary. But sometimes, children are coerced into the role of the bad guy when they have less experienced play skills or lack a voice to advocate for their position in the drama. The “good guys” might relegate an incoming player to the role of “bad guy” because they really don’t want their script to change in order to accommodate an extra player. Unwilling “bad guys” need help finding a voice to advocate for themselves.
Defining the bad guy. One of the struggles with good guy/bad guy play is that it can follow an inflexible, narrow script established by mainstream media: good guys are all good, bad guys are all bad, villains are beyond redemption, and conquest (often physical) is the only solution to a difficult problem. This understanding permeates children’s experiences, and solidifies as they rehearse the script over and over in their play.
This static understanding of behavior has consequences outside dramatic play. When one child is mean or aggressive, peers understand these actions to be the acts of “bad guys” and they respond in line with the script. Bad guys don’t deserve friends. Bad guys need to be conquered. Bad guys have no redeeming qualities. Bad guys are scary. Children repeating a simple script over and over need help complicating the storyline.
We all have the capacity for good and bad. Behind every behavior is a met or an unmet need. Raising children who are empowered to stand up for others and creative in their problem solving requires a complex view of human nature. We nurture this complex view when we support powerful play and extend its depth. Flat, rigid categories of good and bad resist this nuanced, full view of human beings.
So, what to do?
As with most things in early childhood, banning play that might result in a negative outcome will certainly backfire. Instead of constructing rigid rules about bad guy play, we keep a pulse on what unfolds, and support its sustained and child-directed nature while offering helpful feedback that encourages children to deepen their understanding of humanity.
Here’s how.
1. Watch for children who consistently play the “bad guy.” Are they there by choice? If so, not to worry! If not, support their attempt to change roles.
2. Is the same script unfolding day after day? Suggest new scripts by changing the environment, or enter the play to help it grow.
3. Avoid media with young children. Children’s media tends to simplify characters into boxy, rigid categories of good and bad.
4. Show children “needs behind behavior” in daily life. Demonstrate assertiveness in the face of aggressive behavior, always mindful of the perspective of the aggressor.
Below are three scripts taken (almost word-for-word) from the young children I work with. In each example, my goal is to keep the play going.
A young three-year-old wants to play with a cluster of older preschool children. Lacking the skills to successful enter play, his actions are aggressive. I sense that his desire is to enter play with his peers. Through observation, I notice there isn’t an existing script to tag into, so I generate a new script that remains powerful and provides a role for any interested players.
George: (scratching at the legs of one of the other players) “Argh! Grrr. I am a fierce cheetah!”
Aylah: (displeased at the aggressive paws of her cheetah peer) “Get away from me!”
George: (snarling, pawing, growling) “I’m going to get you!”
Aylah: (beginning to cry) “NO! Bad cheetah!”
Me: (entering the play at George’s level and pawing at George) “Grrr. Hi, Cheetah.”
George: “Grrr. Hi.”
Me: “I’m hungry. Do you want to hunt for some prey?”
George: “Yes! Grrr.”
Me: “We might need the help to get over this mountain. I wonder if any other animals around here know the way.”
Aylah: (transforming into a donkey, curious at my transformation from adult to cheetah) “I know the way. Follow me.”
To enter existing play and create a whole new script is unhelpful and disrespectful of the play that is already happening. Instead, helping children on the outside look for clues and find a gentle way to enter supports the existing script.
George: “You’re my prey!” (George is a T-Rex today, and pounces on another child playing house with her friends)
Ella: “No, George! Stop! Go away!”
Me: (coming alongside George, in a character to match his T-Rex) “Hello, neighbor T-Rex. It looks like you’re hunting prey.”
George: “Yes! I’m hungry.”
Me: “I see these humans are in their home. Let’s watch for a moment to see if we can join what they’re doing.”
After a few moments of watching, I attempt to enter their play.
Me: “Knock-Knock.”
Ella: “Hello.”
Me: “We are two starving T-Rexes. Do you have any prey?”
Ella: “Oh, yes. We just hunted this snake. Would you like to have some with us?”
Me: “We would be so grateful.”
Ella: “Let’s make you a place to eat in our back yard.”
George: “Grrr.”
Or, sometimes something like this:
A group of children suddenly turns on one of their co-players. Clare has inadvertently toppled a tower, and the other children, sensing her destruction as purposeful, label her the “bad guy” and begin to attack by throwing soft balls. Clare is clearly bothered by this, and tries several times – unsuccessfully – to redirect the attack. I try extending the play through a moment of perspective-taking to see if I can get it back on track. If not, I can interrupt the play in order to problem solve before allowing the children to continue with their adventures.
Clare: “I’m not the bad guy! Stop!”
Others: “Shoot! Get away! You destroyed our home. You’re bad!”
Me: (entering with the others) “Why do you suppose Clare is bad?”
Others: “Because she kicked our tower over!”
Me: “She looks worried about the balls you are throwing, and she doesn’t look excited to be the bad guy. Maybe the tower fell on accident.”
Clare: (from across the room) “Yes! It was on accident!”
Others: “She’s going to knock our tower over again!”
Me: (to Clare) “Clare – we’re worried you might knock over our tower again.”
Clare: “I won’t. I just want to play Mommy and Baby with them.”
Me: (to the others) “Clare wants to play Mommy and Baby.”
Others: “We have a Mommy and a Baby.”
Me: “Is it possible to have a second Mommy or Baby? Do we have an older sister yet?”
Others: “She could be the babysitter. Mommy needs to go to the dentist.”
Me: “Let me call Clare on the phone and see if she can come babysit.”
I mime a phone call, and Clare agrees to babysit. The play continues in a more productive, structured way.
Good guy/bad guy play provides an avenue for children to test some of their understandings about life, and it serves important functions that we don’t dare smother or ignore. Unsupported good guy/bad guy play (as with all types of play) can become chaotic if improperly supported. Our skills as mediators and fellow players can provide children with what they need to successfully manage these scripts.
…………………..
If you liked this, you might also enjoy:
Solving the Play Problem
The 10 Commandments of Play-Based Learning
Permission to “Just Be” (Video)
I look forward to it – thank you!
Brilliant ideas. My son is heavily into Lego police – police verses baddies/crooks. I really disliked it at first (would still love to retreat fully to the fully ‘good’ fire fighting theme that lasted From age 2 to 3.5). But it is giving us a chance to talk about asking not taking things, working and saving to buy things, learning important rules and remembering them, and how, when caught baddies need help to learn the rules and make better choices. Challenging times!
Playing with others has been interesting too. For a long time he would try and make everyone else be the baddie, and totally refuse to himself. When his friends refused to do it over and over, he would reluctantly have a go but say to me ‘I’m just pretending, I’m not really bad’. these roles are powerful in their minds. Thank you so much for some great ideas to extend play and help develop their working theories around gg/bg.
I’ve written my own share of articles and posts on the benefits of allowing children to play out scripts with power themes, especially for kids from military families who are identifying with and trying to make sense out of their parent’s role as a service member. But I appreciate that you’ve dug deeper into the possible downsides of having some kids be “bad guys.” It definitely rings true with my own teaching experiences – I remember my concern when I noticed that one little guy in my 4/5 yr old class was repeatedly cast in the “monster” role with a group of boys. He desperately wanted to play but had language delays that made it more challenging for him to communicate in the midst of fast-paced play. The only way he could play was by accepting the role the “leader of the pack” gave him. I was glad I had noticed and could work with them because it wouldn’t have changed on its own and it would only have added to the boy’s feelings of being different and on the outside. All that to say “thank you” for bringing up this important facet of pretend play!
Thank you, too, for providing the word-for-word examples of how you guided the play by entering it. Brilliant!! It’s such an effective strategy but if you’ve never seen or tried it, it’s hard to imagine exactly how it works. Your examples made the post extra helpful!
As usual, I’m sharing liberally
Thank you!
What a wonderful article, Emily. I know that often I just react to the language of GG/BG and try to shut it down. This post is giving me some strong reasons for rethinking my approach. Can I ask what you think about the labels of “GG” and “BG”? That is part of what bothers me – no one is completely “good” or “bad” – as you said, we all act out of needs we have. Do you ever feel the need to challenge the children’s labels? Would this even be useful in the midst of a conflict? If not in the moment, would you do so afterward? Thanks again for another brilliant post!
I think GG/BG play is problematic for exactly this reason. Children think in categories, and those categories are necessary, but we have to be intentional about complicating those categories in helpful ways. I’ll be exploring some of your questions in a follow up post in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!!
Thank you!
Great post. Good guy/bad guy play needs more attention. I loved your take on it!