Schools being built without playgrounds
Development experts say children suffer due to lack of unstructured fun
This article is depressing. And frustrating.
Here’s the next one in the series: Creative play makes better problem-solvers
You know what makes me sad about this series? It’s the reminder that Noah will not have the care-free childhood I had. Even if we lived in the out-lying suburbs as I did as a child, there aren’t enough stay-at-home families to sustain the kind of running free that I enjoyed. When I was growing up, there was a mom in just about every house on the block and so it was safe to have the children cutting across backyards to get to each other’s house. My neighborhood here in Columbus was built on a big U-shaped street so that all of the backyards touched each other. The neighborhood code didn’t allow fencing so it was like we shared this big community backyard. It sucks that Noah won’t have that.
This neighborhood where we live now isn’t the kind of place that Noah could take off on his bike someday when he’s older. And there are no kids on our street. None. So I have to drive him to playdates where the time is already mapped out. I hate that. I wish he had more unfettered time with friends. More casual time. More just showing up at each other’s house time.
Well, at least he’s not growing up in the London blitz, right? It’s a luxury to be worried that my son’s play isn’t playful enough, I think. I guess I better quit my moping and go count my blessings instead.
What pisses me off is that the pResident who shames us for not working out, is the same man who won’t fund education/schools the way he should. thus schools cut things like gym class & recess. My hubby is a local school councilmember. When we were campaigning, one young girl walked up to him & asked him if he believed in recess. How sad is that?!?
And it’s not just that schools are being built without playgrounds, but also that children are expected to spend all day in school without PLAYING. I think they could get by without playgrounds, provided there was free time to play.
My hubby’s school has a brand new playground. It just taunts the kids who don’t get to play on it.
Dawn, Your childhood neighborhood sounds just like IDEA #4 on my website. I am sad, too, that so few children today have such freedom to play. You might also like reading my latest posting on A Balanced K-12 Curriculum (IDEA #8) which addresses the need for more movement indoors and outdoors for children at school. Also, I’d be interested in your views as a homeschooler of my idea for Neighborhood-Associated Primary Schools (IDEA #7). I talked with a friend about this idea and she said that was exactly the kind of school she went to for the early grades in her semi-rural neighborhood growing up. She agreed that children in the same town have a very different experience of going to school today. I’ve been accused of trying to protect my family from the future. Maybe so, but there is so much that we took for granted that is lost to our own children and grandchildren.