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Can a Playground Be Too Safe?
Hugh Pickens writes "John Tierney writes that the old 10-foot-high jungle gyms and slides disappeared from most American playgrounds across the country in recent decades because of parental concerns, federal guidelines, new safety standards set by manufacturers and — the most frequently cited factor — fear of lawsuits. But today some researchers question the value of safety-first playgrounds. Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries — and the evidence for that is debatable — critics say that these playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone. 'Climbing equipment needs to be high enough, or else it will be too boring in the long run,' says professor Ellen Sandseter. 'Children approach thrills and risks in a progressive manner, and very few children would try to climb to the highest point for the first time they climb. The best thing is to let children encounter these challenges from an early age, and they will then progressively learn to master them through their play over the years.' After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr. Sandseter identified six categories of risky play, although fear of litigation led New York City officials to remove seesaws, merry-go-rounds and the ropes that young Tarzans used to swing from one platform to another."
The whole risk=reward philosophy is just a way for people who are comfortable and have never needed to take any risks to push others to do so, so they can leech off them. Tell people that something will make them a man and they'll run into the middle of a battlefield.
A society's advance is measured by risk reduction, so stuff can be achieved without a large proportion of people being harmed in the process.
Like most of Tierney's articles, this one is iconoclastic but has no evidence to back it up. The "study" he cites is just one psychologist's opinion, with no actual data behind it.
Speaking for myself, I do think I'm more well-adjusted psychologically as a result of all the dangerous stuff I did as a little kid, but given the medical bills and the permanent scars, I can't honestly say it was worth it overall.
At the park nearest my house they recently put in a new playground. Thankfully it still has some "unsafe" equipment. My oldest (almost 3) wanted to swing on the big swings a couple of weeks ago. So I put him on and started pushing him. Eventually he wanted me to get on the swing next to him. When we were both swinging he fell of and did a nice face plant from falling forward off the swing. He had a few little scrapes and a mouth full of sand, he cried a bit but I told him he was ok. He then went and got right back on the swing. He has also fallen off slides and rope things (a cargo net like structure) and still goes back. There is an older "safe" playground at this park but he never want to go there.
Time to offend someone
On a similar note, the Atlantic recently ran this article about how
coddling children robs them of an important part of childhood.
When a parent says something like that they want their child to "just be a kid for one more year," that's just selfishness on their part. It isn't about letting the kid enjoy childhood, its about the parent holding their child's development back in order for the parent to take pleasure in the kid's innocence.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
My 3.5 year old broke her arm at the playground, and I was very proud of her. We made the whole thing, including the hospital trip all part of the fun.
It does seem that the playgrounds are becoming less fun, but I let my kid do all sorts of stupid things, so the way I see it, as an adult she'll be at an advantage over her peers.
I take it you were never were in Boy Scouts. When I was young there was nothing better then chasing each other through the forest, often with big sticks, climbing pine trees and dropping stuff on others. Truth is kids are probably less likely to get hurt in a forest than in an urban landscape since forests tend to be squish compared to concrete and asphalt.
Time to offend someone
Far *greater* than half of the world's population are below average intelligence. If you do not understand the previous sentence, then I say to you - albeit very slowly - you are in the lower portion.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I was on the swings one day with a bunch of children, then noticed that they were all swinging higher a few of them were flipping their heads back for the thrill of it. So I decided to try it, and it was scary. Especially the vertigo from flipping my head back.
It made me realise how safe I, as an adult tend to act and how it takes all of the thrills out of life.
The musem's founder, Bob Cassilly, says that $1 of every $12 admission ticket goes to pay insurance, and he has posted a 'wall of shame' listing all the lawyers who have sued the museum.
There's an excellent and relevant article in the WSJ about it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304159304575183463721620890.html?KEYWORDS=city+museum
Our homeowner's association has a park across the street from my house. Some time back they pulled out the swing set and monkey bars and put in an attractive looking rubberized steel play structure with several platforms but kind of low to the ground and really nothing to climb on or hang from. The kids ignore it and climb the trees instead.
Life finds a way.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I grew up with my parents divorced. We had an awesome house with a huge yard that backed into a ravine. Mom had to look after 4 kids, which is a hard task, so we had a lot of time to make our own fun.
We used to make forts out of whatever sticks and branches we could find, sometimes making chairs and toilets (every good fort has a toilet). Usually onve the fort got good enough, some older kids would destroy it, and we would start all over again.
The ravine had lots of poplar trees, which are great for climbing. We used to climb up the trees seeing how high we were brave enough to get. None of my siblings or I fell out of any tree, but several of our friends did, with minor injuries (bruised tailbone was the worst). One tree behind the house was particularily good for climbing, but the lowest branches had been trimmed off. We cut some plywood with a saw, and grabbed a hammer and nails, and pounded the strips of plywood into the tree to make a ladder.
One day, we decided to make a fort in that tree. We had this grand vision of a tree house that would be just like Bart Simpson's tree house. My brother and I found some scrap wood and cut a few pieces (I was allowed to use the circular saw when I was in grade 6 or so, as long as I was careful) and climbed up the tree with wood in one hand, a pocket of nails, and a hammer in the other hand.
We climbed soo high in the tree (a trip back when I was an adult showed that we were only about 20 feet in the air, maybe a little lower) and nailed down a few boards. We got 3 boards in the tree before we realized that the tree house wasn't going to happen.
About that time, I was given rock climbing lessons for my birthday, and so I had a caribeaner. We climbed up our favourite tree with a rope and tied the rope to the bottom of another tree to make a rope slide. Another ring of rope attached to the beaner, made the seat.
Being so young, a 15-20 foot drop seemed a lot higher, so we were a little scared to try out the rope, so we convinced our sister to try it first. She climbed up the tree, hooked onto the rope, and down she went. Everything wen't well; a little rough landing, but nothing too bad. Now that the rope had been tested, we had a blast for several months.
While we were in the trees, my sister used to make chairs out of plywood and 1"x1"s. The first chairs woudn't stand on their own, but eventually they would, and one would even support her weight! My brother, who was into skateboarding thought he could make a funbox, so the tried that out. For about a year we had this ugly, deathbox on the driveway. It was super unstable and was about to fall apart, but it just begged to be climbed on. It caused a few minor injuries. One day I tried to make Napalm. Another just pounding nails into wood. One time we made a jump and landing ramp, and would go down our steep driveway at top speed, and hit the jump. If it was successful, we would pull back the landing ramp and try again. Eventually, my brother fell short, made a huge dent in the rear wheel of the bike, and took a little spill.
The best memories I have of playing when I was younger, were the moments where there was danger. Even when I was young, I had a sense of danger, and would be careful. Even today, danger is fun. My top speed on a snowboard is 95kmph. That is very, very dangerous, but it sure does make you feel alive! I don't think that kids today know what danger feels like.
As a horse owner, I see how various parents approach risk. Some parents hover, constantly watching their kids ride. (One barn in Silicon Valley caters to those parents. They have bleachers where the parents watch the kids take lessons.) The kids whose parents just drop them off do better with the horses. Kids do fall off, but it's better if they have their falls when they're 10 or 12 and on a pony.
An old friend of mine is the complete opposite of the overprotective mom. Her kids (one son, one daughter) grew up riding, and by their early teens, were competent to go off alone on horseback into the mountains. By their late teens, the kids were taking road trips of hundreds of miles on bicycles. Both kids are in their 20s now. The son is still in school, taking a year off for a startup right now. The daughter has graduated, and took a trip around the world alone, bicycling across whole countries, riding in a cattle roundup, surfing, kayaking, and coming home cheerful, uninjured, with hundreds of pictures. She works as a lifeguard (ocean rescue/climbing/EMT).
Interestingly, these kids are cautious. When encountering something new, they tend to hang back, carefully watch others, see how it's done and what goes wrong, then do it. They don't charge in blindly. It's not about being bold. It's about being competent.
Last weekend I went to a local art festival and they had a giant picnic table that you could climb on. Perhaps 20 feet high? You needed a ladder to get up on it. It was installed on a grass median and had no fence. As I was on top with my 2 year old, an 8-year old kid ran by me, jumped off, and vanished over the side as he went down. For a moment I thought the kid was crazy! But shortly thereafter, 2 more boys joined in, only they flipped off of the top. It was quite impressive.
It turns out that they were 3 brothers with their dad. The father was a martial arts instructor and he was coaching his middle boy to use his ankles to cushion his landing, and telling his youngest how to roll if he falls too hard. They weren't crazy - they just saw this stuff growing up and learned to do it safely. The dad told the youngest one that he was only allowed to flip off if he could do one from a standing position. It isn't that they had no rules, they just weren't overly afraid. They had a coach, and they knew their own limitations and followed instructions.
Amazing what a trusting, confident parent can teach an 8-year old kid. I want to know what they are like in 15 years.
I'd vote this up if I had mod points. Anyway, 'controlled risk' is the key word. All the playgrounds I've ever been on in my entire life have been controlled risk environments and decently safe. Compared to the other places children can find to play, playgrounds are a fucking safe haven.
Playgrounds aren't supposed to have no risk. No place is supposed to have no risk, because that's impossible. You cannot construct a place where people can't find a way to injure themselves. Even padded rooms can cause injury if someone wants to ram their heads into the walls at full speed. Playgrounds are supposed to have LESS risk than other choices. As a kid, I often had to choose between cool places like construction sites, abandoned buildings, and playgrounds. A lot of kids played in the others, and a lot of them got seriously injured. Making playgrounds shitty and devoid of cool things to climb on will just lead to more kids getting hurt.
It's basically shifting the blame. The city can now say, sorry folks, we can't make flat ground any safer, and we aren't responsible for your kids that went to play in an abandoned building and died when the roof collapsed. They do this by necessity, because so many people feel like they're owed something for nothing. My kid sprained his ankle, I want a hundred grand for medical bills and pain/suffering. Which won't go to the kid even if they win, it'll be used to buy things for the parents anyway.
I guess what I'm getting at is that there's a level where you can't make playgrounds any safer without just removing them. Kids need to learn that the ground is hard and to watch where the hell they're going or they'll never learn. Running full speed into a metal post when they're a kid is less damaging than doing it as an adult.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Some books related to your excellent points:
"In defense of childhood: protecting kids' inner wildness"
http://www.chrismercogliano.com/childhood.htm
"As codirector of the Albany Free School, Chris Mercogliano has had remarkable success in helping a diverse population of youngsters find their way in the world. He regrets, however, that most kids' lives are subject to some form of control from dawn until dusk. Lamenting risk-averse parents, overstructured school days, and a lack of playtime and solitude, Mercogliano argues that we are robbing our young people of "that precious, irreplaceable period in their lives that nature has set aside for exploration and innocent discovery," leaving them ill-equipped to face adulthood. The "domestication of childhood" squeezes the adventure out of kids' lives and threatens to smother the spark that animates each child with talents, dreams, and inclinations."
"Last Child in the Woods"
http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/
"In this influential work about the staggering divide between children and the outdoors, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation--he calls it nature-deficit--to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression."
"Underground History of American Education"
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
"A huge price had to be paid for business and government efficiency, a price we still pay in the quality of our existence. Part of what kids gave up was the prospect of being able to read very well, a historic part of the American genius. Instead, school had to train them for their role in the new overarching social system. But spare yourself the agony of thinking of this as a conspiracy. It was and is a fully rational transaction, the very epitome of rationalization engendered by a group of honorable men, all honorable men -- but with decisive help from ordinary citizens, from almost all of us as we gradually lost touch with the fact that being followers instead of leaders, becoming consumers in place of producers, rendered us incompletely human. It was a naturally occurring conspiracy, one which required no criminal genius. The real conspirators were ourselves. When we sold our liberty for the promise of automatic security, we became like children in a conspiracy against growing up, sad children who conspire against their own children, consigning them over and over to the denaturing vats of compulsory state factory schooling."
And a TED Talk:
"Gever Tulley on 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do"
http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids.html
We've taught our kid early on to use a sharp knife to cut up vegetables and fruits, in part because US emergency medicine to deal with knife injuries is far better than US medicine to deal with chronic health problems that come from not eating enough vegetables and fruits. Related:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/children/default.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJAePZFg90
Unfortunately, we listened to advice from doctors to "protect" our kid (and ourselves) from the sun and ended up with vitamin D deficiency and related health issues.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions//kids_fall_short_on_vitamin_D.aspx
We're slowly learning. There is a l
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I grew up in a traditional village in Malaysia during the early 80's. I know this is going to sound like one of those get off my lawn stories but my experiences while growing up there was very beneficial. At that time, my playground was the snake-infested semi-jungle around the village, the monitor lizard infested nearby river and the limestone quarry lake where they were blasting rocks with explosives. We kids will form roaming bands of 10 or more and play soldiers and communists (it was only 1 year after the communist insurgents surrendered), make our own "hand grenades" (got scars to prove it) out of firecracker fillings and spark plugs as detonators, even our own bamboo cannon filled with carbide. We will climb trees, slingshot monkeys, take a swim in the river and fish for tilapia and catfish in the quarry lake all the while explosives were going off nearby. On Eid days and the Chinese New Year, we will go to war with the kids from the neighbouring village, launching firecracker raids and ambushing the counterattack which will sometimes end up as fist fights. Looking back, I couldn't believe I lived that life now that I am living in a modern suburb where everything is gated and sanitised. Firecrackers are now banned in Malaysia. I look at my own two kids and see them playing video games, and the only time they can play outside is when I am supervising them out of fear of speeding cars or kidnappers (this is a real problem).
Now, everything revolves around the nuclear family. I could do all those risky things in the village because all the adults in the village will keep an eye on you, regardless if you are their kid or not. All adults may scold or cane any child in the village if they cross the line. Complaining about this to your parents will result in another round of caning. You could drop in on your friends house and their parents will serve you food and treat you like you are their own. Now get off my lawn.
My son (23 months) loves the "big kid" playgrounds. He is a cautious child, and he definitely follows the progressive learning model in how high he climbs. However, he is adopted, and we have to worry about social workers disapproving of how we raise him, and we could get in big trouble if he got hurt, so I am one of those mothers who tends to hover around her child on the playground. It's not because I am overprotective, but because society has gotten to the point that the state will take away your child if he cuts his finger, practically. In a civilization's progress, I think sometimes we start to go overboard, and that's when society becomes corrupt and a new, younger society takes over. Look at the cycle of civilization. Ancient powerhouses are no longer around. We don't just get more civilized, we go back and forth.