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by Lauren de Moll, Assistant Principal

Over my years of working at SRV, one of my greatest pleasures has been observing children's play. There are many things that come up year after year that I and others can literally predict according to the calendar. For example, the kindergartners will spend a lot of time on the green bars in September, and the six to eight year olds will start boy/girl chase games in March or April. There are also certain themes that recur annually or every few years and typical games or activities that come up every so often, which is why we have rules about "chipping rocks," for instance.

Fort building in the woods is a classic example of a relatively predictable activity. It is popular in the beginning of the school year, when the children first return to school. I suspect they are seeking to reestablish their social relationships and their attachment to and safety within their school environment. Fort building is a way for kids to explore their independence almost but not quite out of sight of the adults. It lets them manipulate their environment and create spaces to call their own.

Disputes around fort building are just as inevitable. About ten years ago a student committee developed a set of "fort rules" to manage such questions as whether the children who start a fort can be the "bosses" (they can), whether other children can be excluded from a fort (they can't), and how to share the limited building materials fairly. Children periodically revisit these rules to see if there is need for revisions.

Not long ago, a socially astute seven year old was observing an episode of the daily struggle for power and control over "fortdom" and my facilitation of a particular conflict. He asked me why we don't just get rid of the forts altogether to eliminate the conflicts. I explained that if we eliminated the forts, the children would have the conflicts over something else, and that they need to have conflicts so they can learn how to solve them. He wasn't convinced.

The usual themes around fort play that I see are related to the actual activity of building, the quest for territory and resources, and the issues of fairness and belonging. Rarely is the end actually playing in the forts. It's all about building them and negotiating with the other builders.

The reason I am writing about fort play today is that, fascinatingly, so far this year is proving to be a little different. This year, the fort theme seems not to be so much about controlling territory, resources and belonging (one kind of power), but around economics (certainly power, but of a different nature).

This year throughout the fort area, children are busily engaging in a variety of activities that, combined, make up a little market economy. There are children collecting raw materials – some "mining" clay and valued kinds of rocks, some searching for ideal sticks and broken bricks. Other children are laboring intensely manufacturing several products, primarily by scraping and grinding sticks, rocks, bricks or charcoal. They are making smoothed sticks, shaped pieces of rock and slate, and various "powders." Some of what they are making is used in play; the charcoal is fun to put on faces, the smooth sticks make good wands. But they are also using their products to exchange with members of other forts for other commodities – sometimes for more raw materials for manufacturing, sometimes for the tools they need (really good scrapers and at least one "plow") and in some cases for other manufactured goods.

A couple of snapshots:

• One group's fort has the typical central structure of limbs and sticks leaning against a tree. But it also has a kind of wall all around it made of logs, bricks and rocks. On top of the length of this wall are products for sale. The fort is a store.
• A boy found or made a good walking stick, then acquired a glob of "clay" and used it to make a handle on the stick. He walked through the woods demonstrating and telling anyone who would listen about the usefulness of his new product (advertising!).
• Two boys were arguing over possession of two of what used to be stepping stones to the old pool enclosure. What was unusual was that once ownership was established, a bargain was quickly struck. Both boys happily came out of the interchange with a stepping stone and went back to work. (I don't know what else passed hands!)

I have no idea what any of this means. In previous years I have jokingly called the children building forts as having "gone native." Is a market economy a more advanced stage of civilization? Is it a symptom of our children growing up too fast, being more exposed to commercialism or having too much pocket money? Or is it simply that they found some really cool rocks on the first day of school and an industry was born?

What I have noticed is that there has been less conflict than usual for the first few weeks of school. Somehow, they are working out their relationships, their need for belonging, and their control of the resources in a way that isn't bringing the teachers running. This may be a good thing. But as I would have said to that seven year old years back, "Now what are they going to fight over?"

Three Main Circle Fort Publications: The Fort Inquirer, The Weekly Scoop and The Reader

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