Kids Playgrounds are an Oasis for Safety and Well Being
City streets are unsatisfactory playgrounds for children because of the danger, because most good games are against the law, because they are too hot in summer, and because in crowded sections of the city they are apt to be schools of crime. Neither do small back yards nor ornamental grass plots meet the needs of any but the very small children. Older children who would play vigorous games must have places especially set aside for them; and, since play is a fundamental need, playgrounds should be provided for every child as much as schools. This means that they must be distributed over the cities in such a way as to be within walking distance of every boy and girl, as most children can not afford to pay carfare – Theodore Roosevelt, 1907.
Riding the petticoat tails of the suffrage movement, kids playgrounds were built to give children a safe place to play. Before playgrounds were ordered built in the 1900s, most children played in the middle of the street or in alleys – alleys of dense and often violent immigrant neighborhoods.
A century later, kids playgrounds still protect children. The external threats of overcrowded and disease ridden alleys or untamed traffic may have diminished, but there is an even greater internal threat that kids playgrounds fend off – isolation. Advances in video game technology and the proliferation of entertainment options easily lure children indoors to sit alone in front of a screen. Greater demands for high standardized test scores remove recess from the curriculum and force children to silently sit in a desk for the full school day. Throw in a sedentary lifestyle combined with a poor diet and you could argue the internal threats of today could have a more wide-reaching effect than those of yesteryear.
Kids playgrounds offer an escape from the isolation. Imagination breaks free from the confines of two-dimensional game play. Perspectives come from experiences rather than rhetoric and repetition. Social interaction happens with eye contact and speech instead of keyboards. All these benefits coexist among the dynamic chaos of physical play.
While some political officials may not understand the positive impact of playgrounds, school officials do. Here are some quick things schools can do to make turn a playground from a meeting place to a haven for kids.
- Choose a design that focuses on open space with lots of play events (an industry term meaning things for kids to interact with). Space encourages running from new experience to new experience while a variety of play events keeps the play experience fresh every time.
- Focus on fitness. As playground design changed over the decades, many schools found success with playgrounds that added creative elements. The shift in focus today leans towards physical fitness. By offering play events such as bridges and climbers, you can combine the creative aspects of playgrounds with healthy and challenging equipment.
- Build with safe materials. At the very least any manufacturer of your playground materials should be a member of the International Play Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (IPEMA). This includes the plastic of the individual play components and softfall materials.
It’s been 100 years since Teddy Roosevelt stated the importance of playgrounds. In that time, playgrounds have changed, but kids have not. Make sure you school or kids playgrounds provide the same retreat. If your school could use a new playground, contact School Daz, Inc. today and let’s build fun for our future generation.
