Introduction  » The ECRS Approach  Games  Cultural Messages  Play Parties  Dancing  Singing  Exploring Outdoors  Dramatics  Informal Dramatics  Small Scenes  Storytelling  Puppetry  Crafts and Art  Special Populations  Program Planning  Dear Eddie  Past, Present, Future  Resources

       The ECRS approach to play activity starts from the first day at a school session with most of the introductory communicating being done through activities such as games, songs and dances. The message is clear. This is what we're about here. You can leave your personal history in the car or bus, step into the present, do, enjoy, communicate through play. You don't have to have played before. You will learn by doing and the leadership will facilitate your learning.

       Let's assume I'm a new student at ECRS. How do I see the process here and what might it mean to me? One thing I may notice is that the person leading the activities is looking straight at me in a friendly way, and for an instant I feel a little self-conscious. But soon I notice that she is taking in every other person as well. When the leader looks my way again, I begin to feel differently about it, maybe even a little pleased. I remain as anonymous as I choose to be, but I still count as an individual. While we are playing, I am relieved that I am not required to do anything I don't want to do, and if I do participate, whatever I do is OK. My performance apparently isn't being rated by some criterion of excellence.
       Soon I seem to be dancing a folk dance, something I've never done before. I'm sure I'm going to make a fool of myself. Each step is being taught as a sequence of a few simple movements: walk four steps in the circle, starting with the left foot and then hop on the right foot..... But when a few of these steps are put together and we're moving to music. I find myself making mistakes. I hop on the wrong foot, stumble, and bump into the person next to me. Now I've done it! But contrary to my expectations, the leader doesn't seem to have noticed. She says, "Let's try again without the music; remember when you hop on your right foot, that's where the weight falls and you're ready to turn and lead with the left." Fantastic! Somehow only the mistakes were noticed, not me. So we go on, and finally I'm able to do these first steps, albeit clumsily, with the music. It's really a remarkable thing. Before you know it we're all dancing together like we've been doing it all of our lives. As I look around the circle, I see others making mistakes too and I'm relieved. Maybe I'm not the worst dancer here, maybe not even next to the worst. The person on my right, though, seems to be moving so smoothly, like she knows what it's all about. She's really the best dancer here....The next thing you know, I'm stumbling again. While my mind was wandering, I wasn't really paying attention to the music and the instructions. The stuff I've brought with me (baggage, you might call it) has been taking over the focus of my attention. I've slipped into the outside world, the world of who's better than whom, top dog/under dog, who makes the most money..... That's an activity, too, called "How am I doing compared to you?" I can't play that game and learn to dance, so I get back into the dance and stop watching other people's mistakes.
       I'm not a dancer by talent. What I've learned from this experience is that I can learn to dance and enjoy dancing. I'm enjoying the physical movement of my body, more or less in time with music that is pleasing to my ear. I'm enjoying the sense of somehow being in harmony with nature and the fantastic feeling of being part of the group, moving together, touching, moving together and apart in response to a common musical context.

       The newcomer to ECRS often experiences the freedom to play for the first time. A person's discovery that playfulness is natural to the human condition does not happen merely by interaction of good leaders and willing participants, but by intent and design. The essence of the ECRS approach has to do with where the focus is placed.
       An ECRS leader's FOCUS is on the activity: the leader's CONCERN is with people. This differs from other approaches which, as valuable as each is in its own right, serve different objectives. At one extreme, the individual serves the activity. An illustration of this occurs in commercial theater where "the show must go on" epitomizes the primacy of the dramatic performance. On the other extreme is the subservience of the activity to the needs of the individual, such as in the utilization of occupational therapy in the treatment of patients in a mental hospital, or to a lesser extent, the utilization of play media in "centering the self" in consciousness-raising groups. Common to these alternative approaches is the fact that the focus on the activity is always secondary. The play activity is not perceived as having a unique character, worthy of doing it for its own sake. A Trust Fall, for example, is designed to teach individuals to trust other people, and the leader can structure it in a number of ways.
       In ECRS, a particular activity is selected precisely because of its unique character or essence. It provides participants with specific challenges or problems to be solved in the course of playing. The underlying premise of selecting a medium of play, and a particular activity within a medium, is that the range of problem-solving is to some degree prescribed by the kind of activity selected. The game "Face to Face" (see Games chapter) provides a limited range of opportunity for problem-solving and is often the first activity on the program precisely because its challenge will not be experienced as too awesome or scary. Further along, the ECRS leader may initiate a dramatic game such as "I'm Thinking of a Word that Rhymes With" (see Games chapter) because the group is ready for the greater challenges provided by this activity.
       In this chapter, we have tried to lay the foundation for what is to follow by pointing out the unique framework of the ECRS approach to play and recreation leadership. We have alluded to the responsibility of ECRS leadership in teaching play activities that all participants can learn. One of our most important beliefs is that play is open to all of us, and that our individual experience of fun and enjoyment is always enhanced by the total group's enjoyment of the shared activity.

       Ed Moyer was right to the point in most things he did. Recreation is fun, so get off your keister, come over here and have some. He conveyed this point and did it without the participants feeling like they were obeying a drill sergeant. An earthy, almost but not quite down-home air of enthusiasm rolled out of this man who grew up in New York City but spent most of his life in rural America. Work is work, yet it can be rewarding, enjoyable and fun, whether it's recreational therapy, farming or campaigning for social justice. All such things were interwoven in the life of Ed Mover and all contributed to the development of his philosophy and practice of recreational leadership.
       Good recreational leadership demands that you know and have enthusiasm for the activity you are leading while respecting people. It demands that you share something of yourself with others. When you are willing to share of yourself, then most of the harriers are down and you are accepted even when you make mistakes, ...and we all do. Ed made his share but his honest actions were recognized, so if the dance instructions were not working out, Ed could stop and find the solution without losing his participants. To do this requires life experience, knowledge of the subject and an honest enthusiasm for what you are doing.
       So many times in life, we are stifled by others. Oppression takes many forms. Good recreation allows us to feel free, to be free and to share ourselves with others. If you have the enthusiasm and honesty of Ed Moyer, all you need is the practice and basic knowledge of the material and you will be successful.
       A book honoring Ed affirms that success is not measured by material acquisitions, but by the love amongst one's extended family and how free you feel.

       My very first memory of Eddie is when we were up at Geneva Point, NH, around 1970. I was in a "fog," going through a difficult time in my life, and coming up to ECRS for the first time as a safe place to share a vacation with my daughter. All week I wandered about the grounds, observing groups together, not even realizing they were "classes"! I just didn't know what was going on. Towards the end of the week, I wandered into the chapel where there was a theory class going on. It started with a skit in which two people dramatized two different styles of leadership, one very directive, one non-directive. The group was asked to comment. As I had gotten very involved in the skit, I surprised myself by raising my hand. Eddie, who was the moderator, zoomed in to welcome the stranger, to include someone who had been an outsider all week. He asked my opinion in a way that made me feel he was so pleased I was offering it. It was a wonderful affirmation, so quietly done. It was nothing he said, just his generous heart reaching out to an outsider. I felt so included and accepted, it was the beginning of my years of attachment to ECRS.

- Theda Ticktin