The prize for the most superfluous academic definition of the year must go to Mac Armitage. His paper on outdoor play presented at a conference at London’s Institute of Education a couple of weeks ago starts by defining terms:
“Most school systems around the world provide a time and a place for children to play in ways that are seen to be outside the formal curriculum.
“Although the titles given to these times and places are different . . . we could summarise them as being ‘playtimes’ and ‘playgrounds’.”
We know exactly what he means.