Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Stifling Childhood. Are Playgrounds too Safe?

They took away the jungle gyms. Then the little metal merry go rounds in the parks of my hometown.

A few years later, at my kids' grade school, the wooden maze with rings, swings, slides and tires that the PTA had funded and parents had put up--had to come down.

Last I checked it was plastic with manicured sand, low to the ground.

In middle school they had lockdown--no recess for fear they would play pick-up football or throw snowballs at each other. When I was a kid we used to build snowforts and have snowball fights. If it got too rough the nuns would come out and give us the look.

Young skulls full of mush, as El Rushbo would say, who used to come to my door with literature for a nuclear-free zone, now appear with a petition for safe-playgrounds legislation.

Are today's playgrounds too safe? You bet.
Anne Leary
Ain't it the truth RT : Thank you, lawyers! RT : Today's playgrounds may be too safe
22 minutes ago
...but it's OK to show them frightening movies in school.

  --Thanks for the link, Pundit & Pundette

4 comments:

SpearWolf said...

Yep, same thing at my kids' school. Every time some kid gets hurt on a piece of playground equipment for doing something stupid, the idiots in charge remove that equipment. NOBODY thinks that this might be an educable moment to teach all of the kids that their choices & actions have consequences. And, once the equipment is gone, the "playground police" ban normal childhood games such as "tag". "Someone might fall & get hurt". UNBELIEVABLY IDIOTIC!

Zilla said...

How sad. Scraped knees and bumps on the head are integral parts of childhood. If kids are never allowed to get a booboo, they'll have no experience or resistance to the aches & pains that come with getting older and will fall apart at the first scratch.

Anne said...

Yeah, it's really doing kids wrong.

Normal childhood is banned these days.

Another reason for school choice.

Joan R. Wanamaker said...

I was a kid in the late 80's / early 90's. Back then we had the best playgrounds! Ok, so there was pavement on the ground, and metal everywhere and wood to get splinters on and tires. Big deal! I would spend hours climbing and exploring and sure I hurt myself plenty. All part of being a kid. I think in elementary school I came home each day with a scraped knee. My mom didn't care. I was a kid being a kid. The playgrounds of my childhood need to return. These kids today are too safe! They are missing the fun and adventure of playing! Today it's all plastic and cookie-cutter molded. BORING!