No one walks into math class expecting to play.
And that’s exactly the problem.
We’ve treated play like recess — a break from learning. A reward after the “real” work. But neuroscience tells us the opposite: play is the real work. It’s where thinking begins.
The Brain on Play
From the moment we’re born, play is our first teacher.
Babies play peek-a-boo to discover that people and objects still exist even when they disappear — an early lesson in presence, trust, and prediction. Toddlers build towers of blocks just to knock them down, testing cause and effect. Children invent games with shifting rules, negotiating fairness, and learning how to solve problems together.
None of this is wasted time. It’s the brain at work, wiring itself for problem-solving, social understanding, and persistence.
Play is the most natural laboratory the brain has. It sparks curiosity, lowers fear, and keeps learners engaged long enough to wrestle with big ideas.
And yet, in many math classes, play is stripped away. There are classrooms where the laboratory is traded for worksheets, drills, and a belief that being fast is the same as being smart.
Without Play, Fear Takes Over
The result? A math culture built on anxiety instead of curiosity.
By as early as first and second grade, nearly half of students report feeling ‘moderately nervous’ or more when doing math, and by grades 7–10, a survey finds that 82% of U.S. students describe themselves as fearful of math (BusinessWire, 2021; Harvard Business Review, 2019).
They don’t associate math with play—they associate it with fear of being wrong, fear of being slow, fear of not belonging. And that’s how the ‘I’m not a math person’ story takes hold, and gets written, over and over again.
Take play away, and we leave room for fear to define the culture.
One of the Fundamental Flaws
One of the fundamental flaws in math class is the belief that play is frivolous.
At MIND, we believe the opposite: play is rigorous and necessary. If play is how every brain begins learning, then play should also be how every student begins math.
And research keeps proving us right. A growing body of evidence — including Jonathan Haidt’s recent book The Anxious Generation — highlights how early learning, all the way through elementary school and beyond, is supposed to be play-based. When we ignore that truth, we miss the boat. We rob students of the most natural, powerful way their brains are built to learn.
Serious Play = Serious Learning
Why does play drive serious learning? Because it engages the brain in ways passive instruction never can.
- Neuroscience confirms it -> During play, the brain’s prefrontal cortex — the center for reasoning and problem-solving — lights up more than during direct instruction. Play literally strengthens the pathways for persistence and flexible thinking.
- Psychology affirms it -> When learning feels like exploration, students stay motivated. They take risks, recover from mistakes, and keep going.
- Human behavior proves it -> Think of your own life. The skills you truly mastered didn’t come from hearing instructions once. They came from trying, failing, adjusting, and figuring it out yourself.
This is why play isn’t frivolous. It’s not extra. It’s essential.
And yet, in math classrooms, play is too often dismissed or replaced with “gamified” versions of old models — points, badges, prizes. That’s not serious play. That’s candy coating on drills.
At MIND, we don’t add play on top of math. We make play the engine of math learning — the place where serious thinking begins.
What Math Programs Should Do
If we know play is where thinking begins, then math programs should do more than march kids through procedures. They should:
- Be mindful of instruct-first approaches. When instruction becomes the social contract for “start getting it right, right away,” students miss the chance to explore, make sense, and play with ideas first.
- Choose active, playful materials. Look for curricula or complementary tools that put students in motion, experimenting and reasoning instead of passively listening.
- Value curiosity over correctness. For the most curious learners, correctness will follow. It rarely works the other way around.
- Resist rescuing too quickly. When a student is stuck, don’t rush to provide steps that strip away problem-solving. Too much rescuing replaces play with learned helplessness.
- Elevate ideas, not just answers. Invite students to share thinking — whether correct or a misconception — instead of chasing the one “right” response. A classroom where mistakes feel heavy is not a classroom where play can thrive.
This is what math should do. And at MIND Education, we’ve spent nearly 30 years proving that it can. Through ST Math and InsightMath, we’ve seen classrooms shift, student voices grow, and achievement rise — all because play is the foundation, not the afterthought.
Because when math begins with play, everything changes.
A Call to Rethink Math
We’re in a math crisis. More drills and more fear won’t fix it.
But changing the culture will.
It starts by reclaiming play — not as a break from math, but as the most powerful way to learn it.
Perhaps Johan Huizinga said it best: “Play is older than culture… and culture itself bears the character of play.”
If we want to change the narrative around mathematics education, we may just need to look at how we are playing.
