For one of my term papers, I'm planning to write about the ways that modern society has been suppressing the ability for children to be as physically active in the past few decades. And I don't mean the way that it's become easier to be inactive (although that's certainly true as well). I mean that it is actually preventing them from being active.
For example, regulations for playground structure has become more and more strict. In the past ten years, the distance between monkey bars has been reduced by roughly half, the overall height of everything has to be lower, swing sets barely have any length to them, and the playscape as become, overall, extremely undynamic. By that I mean that playgrounds have largely turned into flashy pieces of colourful metal that have no purpose. Children are unable to really find anything to do with it at all. (Seriously, go onto one of those new playgrounds and see how much you're physically able to do on them.)
This becomes a problem because of a number of things. With the playgrounds having less actual purpose, the kids have less motivation to even play on them. (It's been documented.) For the ones that do, it's also a noted fact that as these playgrounds become "safer", children are more likely to try and find more challenging, dangerous things to do on them. More children actually get hurt on playgrounds than they do when playing in natural, forested areas, possibly due to a false sense of security and safety.
Other things that society is doing is creating EXTREMELY flat school yards. They now tend to be devoid of hills and trees, giving kids even less to do. Then there's the school districts that have begun shortening recess time. No wonder there's an obesity crisis.
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I'd REALLY appreciate everyone's input on this. Any personal experiences or opinions? What have you seen in your communities that relate to this? I understand that safety is a liability, but there needs to be a limit on this. And besides, no matter what you do, KIDS ARE GOING TO GET HURT. (Even IF you wrapped them in bubblewrap, they'd still endanger themselves by jumping off roofs or something. There's no stopping it.)
For example, regulations for playground structure has become more and more strict. In the past ten years, the distance between monkey bars has been reduced by roughly half, the overall height of everything has to be lower, swing sets barely have any length to them, and the playscape as become, overall, extremely undynamic. By that I mean that playgrounds have largely turned into flashy pieces of colourful metal that have no purpose. Children are unable to really find anything to do with it at all. (Seriously, go onto one of those new playgrounds and see how much you're physically able to do on them.)
This becomes a problem because of a number of things. With the playgrounds having less actual purpose, the kids have less motivation to even play on them. (It's been documented.) For the ones that do, it's also a noted fact that as these playgrounds become "safer", children are more likely to try and find more challenging, dangerous things to do on them. More children actually get hurt on playgrounds than they do when playing in natural, forested areas, possibly due to a false sense of security and safety.
Other things that society is doing is creating EXTREMELY flat school yards. They now tend to be devoid of hills and trees, giving kids even less to do. Then there's the school districts that have begun shortening recess time. No wonder there's an obesity crisis.
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I'd REALLY appreciate everyone's input on this. Any personal experiences or opinions? What have you seen in your communities that relate to this? I understand that safety is a liability, but there needs to be a limit on this. And besides, no matter what you do, KIDS ARE GOING TO GET HURT. (Even IF you wrapped them in bubblewrap, they'd still endanger themselves by jumping off roofs or something. There's no stopping it.)