The Gift of Play: And Why Young Children Cannot Thrive Without It
(This work provides psychological insight into the signifi...)
This work provides psychological insight into the significance of play for children, explores the biological roots of play, stresses, that play and learning are inseparable, and debunks myths, concerning the relation between play and sex roles.
Maria Weigl Piers was an American psychologist, social worker, educator and author. She devoted her career to the study of psychosocial development, particularly among children. Despite the fact, that Piers wrote widely on child development, she was mostly known for her work in two areas – the importance of a game in children’s development and the origins of and motives for infanticide.
Background
Maria W. Piers was born on May 17, 1911, in Vienna, Austria. She was a daughter of Karl Weigl, a composer, and Elsa Pazeller Weigl, a singer and anti-nazi political activist in Vienna. After the divorce of her parents, Maria Piers grew up with her mother, but spent many weekends and summer months with her father.
Education
When Maria was a child, she attended a Montessori kindergarten, the impact of which, as she noted, remained with her throughout her career in child development.
In 1939, she received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Vienna. Later, Piers continued her education at Northwestern University and Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Also, Maria did her postgraduate work at the University of Basel, in Switzerland.
Maria began her career at the Department of Public Welfare in Vienna, Austria, before venturing to the United States as a social worker for the Illinois Society for Mental Health and later for the Association of Family Living. In 1949, she joined the Chicago Medical School faculty as an assistant professor and later taught at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis and the University of Chicago. In 1966, Piers became a dean at Loyola University (present-day Loyola University Chicago).
Moreover, in 1966, Maria, together with a social worker Lorraine Wallach, educator and activist Barbara Taylor Bowman and businessman and philanthropist Irving B. Harris, founded the Chicago Institute for the Education of Young Children, which was later renamed the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development. She also created educational programs for radio and television before retiring in 1986.
Maria was also a prolific author. Among her books are "Wages of Neglect" (co-authored with Robert Coles), "The Wonderful World of Play: A Guide to Fun and Learning in the Romper Room Years" (co-authored with Genevieve Millet Landau), "Growing Up with Children", "Infanticide" and "The Gift of Play" (co-authored also with Landau). Moreover, Piers authored numerous papers and articles, which she contributed to professional journals.
Maria became a naturalized United States citizen in 1944.
Connections
Maria married Gerhardt Piers, a psychoanalyst, in the spring of 1938. Their marriage produced two children — Margaret, a family therapist, and Matthew, a civil rights lawyer.