Thursday, April 5, 2018

It's About Time

A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.

I'm glad I lived in either a neighborhood undergoing urban renewal, where there were railroad tracks on which to balance and abandoned houses to invade when we played "army", or at my grandparents' farm in the big woods where there were animals to stalk and fish to catch.  I would spend whole summers with scrapes, minor cuts, and bruises.  It was great.

I credit my rude health in later life to those wild days.  I hope some of that may be re-introduced to our culture.