My daughter goes to this school. She’s always coming home with bumps, bruises and scrapes, and she can never tell us how she got them because she’s having too much fun in the playground to notice. She also can’t wait to go back to school the next day. I picked her up from school one afternoon and there were kids climbing the traffic sign poles, sitting on walls and generally having fun while waiting for their parents to pick them up. One day, my daughter climbed a tree and took a nap there!
Every morning we see kids walking to school on their own, or zooming along the pavement on their scooters, or even getting off the train on their own to walk to school. In other words, just like things were when I was at primary school 30 years ago.
It’s not a utopia by any stretch of the imagination, some kids are still mean to other kids, but it’s not any worse than they’ll get in the real world. The real, physical bullying is much less, and the classrooms are quieter and more productive. It’s a really good school.
Actually I kind of wonder about that, like if there is any research around. This is just idle speculation, but I’d be curious if lack of creative outlets and self-paced physical activity contributes to bullying. I don’t mean forcing kids to all play the same sport together more, but rather providing a variety of more open options. Some of the kids I see are so pent up in so many ways. It’s almost like they are spending most of their time pretending not to be kids.
The disclaimer on the DVD says:
“These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
Actually, adventure playgrounds are quite an old concept, going back to postwar Britain. You can see one in this documentary, which was filmed in the early 60s:
FYI… there is an article at the Atlantic this week discussing this issue of overprotective parenting, and it includes a discussion on an adventure playground:
I was talking to one of the teachers at a school in Brooklyn (Wellington, not NY). Some years ago they got rid of their school pool … I don’t recall the reasons, exactly. Probably something to do with maintenance costs and the impracticality of an outdoor pool in Wellington. Anyway, the removal of the pool freed up some space, so they had to figure out what to do with it. In the end they decided on a jungle gym/adventure playground thing. It’s actually pretty cool - I’ve played there a few times with my own kids. And parts of it are quite high and quite challenging. So high and so challenging that in the first couple of weeks they had a spate of falls and injuries, including several broken bones. The school and school board were smart enough to have known that that was likely, and they were able to resist some parental complaints, They also stuck to the plan which was basically eveyone one can use the playground and there’d be only light supervision.
Pretty soon the kids figured out that they needed to be a certain size, strength, and dexterity before attempting some parts of it, and the accidents and injuries dropped right off. They still happen, of course, but fairly rare and even more rarely serious. Yay the school!
I read somewhere that Hayao Miazaki wanted to put a huge pile of dirt for kids to play on in the middle of the Studio Ghibli Museum. Got vetoed due to safety concerns.
I was always a little jealous of the attention other kids got when one of their limbs was wrapped up in a cast for several weeks. Everyone signing it and asking them to tell the story of how it happened. I shoulda took more chances.
Speaking of broken bones and lawsuits, this is all anecdotal knowledge but I hear about plenty of kids in the US getting broken bones and concussions from playing organized sports. I would bet you it’s more common in that setting where kids are running near or intentionally into each other (and being encouraged to do so by parents and coaches) than in playground settings.
The Post article does not make it clear that this was part of University study, not just some rogue principal deciding to save $$ on playground equipment. The “surprising results” the Post also fails to report are the fact that, broken arm aside, serious injuries actually went down, incidents of bullying and vandalism dropped sharply, and the kids were more focused and less disruptive when they went back to class.
We have this sort of play in our yard, the older boys (7 and 9) have a “tree house” 15" in the cherry tree, done without nails because. Well, because they haven’t graduated to using hammers safely, and we have tried. Mud is not off limits, at least not when my husband is at work (he is sort of a freak about that), the only rules are don’t hurt anyone on purpose, if you climb I will not help you up nor down, don’t climb the fence because the preschooler and toddler follow them and I can’t get to them easily if they do (and they don’t have fear of heights yet), and keep the mud off the house (mud grows things). The mud is the most frustrating because it gets cold after a while, but it isn’t too hard to have them hose down and then strip on the porch. Sometimes, if I have time, I prepare a pot of warm water for them to wash off in before heading to the tub.
Kids heal quickly, they do get scared of things that will hurt them with experience which helps, and they are washable. My oldest asked me if it scared me when he was 20" in the tree as it sways in the wind, I replied “I trust your sense of fear to keep you from getting hurt.” And I do because I have to, I want them to think about risks and how to minimize them on their own. FYI, the worst injuries in this house have been lacerations from toddlerhood and a sprained ankle.
