"Authenticity in play looks much the same as what I just described. Stuart Brown (2009) describes three essential components of it:
Authentic play has an inherent attraction that draws the player in--players always have a choice
Play allows the player to experience a sense of freedom from time and a diminished consciousness of self.
the player engages in play for its own sake, without hope of termination."
"The first challenge, then, is that getting rid of grades isn’t enough if our classrooms are still more about performance than learning. The second challenge is this: While it isn’t easy to figure out how to assess learning in a way that’s constructive, or at least not destructive, it’s even more challenging to create a curriculum that’s worth learning. As one contributor to this volume (Aaron Blackwelder) remarks, “Assigning grades was the easy way out of doing the ‘actual work’ of teaching….When I eliminated grades it tested my creativity and patience. I was forced to rethink what went on in my class.” And that, presumably, is when the real work began."