Where Do The Children Play?

I heard a statistic on the radio this morning.

What do only 20% of all middle schoolers have in common?

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Only 20% of them get recess.

When I was a kid, we had not one, but two recesses in elementary school. By the time I got to middle school, though, recess was out the window.

We're dealing with an "obesity epidemic" in this country, and yet we're chaining children to school desks - why? So we can later chain them to the desk in their cubicle?

What's wrong with this picture?

"Free play is slipping away from children’s lives. Yet time spent building forts or exploring outdoors, caring for animals, pretending or problem-solving with peers are now being shown by a wide body of research to be essential to healthy development, spiritual attunement, and emotional survival. Open-ended play in places that offer access to woods, gullies and gardens, ditches, boulders, and bike paths enhances curiosity and confidence throughout life. Play takes many forms. It may be best defined from within as a spontaneous human expression that relies on imagination and a sense of freedom. Players invent alternative contexts for conversation, visualization, movement, and interactions with real objects. They find release and involvement, stimulation and peace. Although play may arise anywhere, even in a cement cell, children are beckoned by the natural world to enjoy sensations of being alive."(Taken from the Where Do Children Play?" Website)

I'm glad we live in a place now where my children can go right outside my back door and explore the wide world of nature. They have a place to go to play that's safe, exciting and physically challenging. I don't worry that they're going to get kidnapped, or hit by a car or run into a drug dealer on the corner. I can look out my kitchen window and watch them build snow forts, climb trees, and play "sword fighting" with sticks.

I don't think I'll ever live in a city or suburb again. I guess I'm a convert! Not that there aren't dangers, of course. Including things like poison ivy and rattlesnakes (believe it or not.) But I've found that playing in the grass and picking flowers and collecting insects really holds their interest much more than being contained by cement and fences ever did.

Michael and I saw a wonderful documentary on PBS a few months ago that illustrated this point perfectly (and is the source of the quote above) - unfortunately, I didn't tape it, and they only showed it once! But they are bringing it back, and they are having special screenings of it as well. There's one in our area (sort of - it's a hike for us!) which I'm considering attending:

Where Do The Children Play
Detroit Screening
Wednesday, January 23, 2008.
Reception, film screening, and panel discussion.
Detroit Waldorf School, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
For more information call 313-822-0300.