NYT: Have School Playgrounds Become ‘Too Safe’?

Writing in The New York Times, John Tierney considers the implications of how American school-yard playgrounds are currently constituted

In his most recent piece in The New York Times, columnist John Tierney mulls over the debate on school-yard safety and potential implications on childhood development that may have.  He opens his column by recounting the “stand” New York City’s parks commissioner Henry Stern took when in the 1990's school after school, and neighborhood after neighborhood, was removing “dangerous” playgrounds for fear of litigation should a child be injured.

“I grew up on the monkey bars in Fort Tryon Park, and I never forgot how good it felt to get to the top of them,” Mr. Stern said. “I didn’t want to see that playground bowdlerized. I said that as long as I was parks commissioner, those monkey bars were going to stay.”

Although Stern’s general philosophy seemed reactionary at the time, today it is shared by some researchers who question the value of “safety first” playgrounds. Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries, critics say that these playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than any physical injury.

“Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” said Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University in Norway. “I think monkey bars and tall slides are great. As playgrounds become more and more boring, these are some of the few features that still can give children thrilling experiences with heights and high speed.”

Dr. Sandseter spent time observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia and identified six categories of risky play.  Those include: exploring heights, experiencing high speed, handling dangerous tools, being near dangerous elements, rough-housing, and wandering alone away from adult supervision. The most common is climbing heights.

“Climbing equipment needs to be high enough, or else it will be too boring in the long run,” Dr. Sandseter said. “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.”

Read the rest of Tierney’s piece here.