A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
About Stuart Brown

Stuart Brown's research shows play is not just joyful and energizing -- it's deeply involved with human development and intelligence.

Education: In his first major education speech last week, President Obama misinformed the public with major claims that simply weren't true. The cumulative effect of these untruths was to paint a picture of public education that is much gloomier than it really is. Before turning to FactCheck.org and other sources to set the record straight, a larger question needs asking: Why did Obama make these false claims? Logically, the possible answers seem to be either: a) Obama himself was misinformed by his advisors and/or speech-writers, and was unaware that he was misrepresenting the truth; or b) the president knew about the distortions, but found it expedient to spread them anyway. (If I'm missing other possibilities, fill me in.) Both answers are disturbing. If Obama innocently passed his talking points along from Arne Duncan's team at the DoE, then we have cause to worry that our Secretary of Education lacks either knowledge or intellectual integrity, and neither explanation is encouraging. If Obama did know about the distortions, then we have to ask what his motives were for spreading them. Read the whole story: Clay Burell If you want to receive my future posts regularly for FREE, please subscribe in a reader or by e-mail. If you have concerns, Contact Me at anytime.

Why you should stay young at heart... and act like it. I had just bought his book and am looking forward to reading it despite having gotten a great summary from this talk. Some really touching, funny and insightful material here.

A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.

Dr. Stuart Brown came to research play through research on murderers -- unlikely as that seems -- after he found a stunning common thread in killers' stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he's interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity.