I worry that I represent the last of a dying breed: a child of the 60's and 70's, the end of what
Peter Gray refers to as the "golden age of childhood play."
We were the ones who had television, but whose mothers, when wanting to get us out from underfoot would open the front door and shoo us outdoors where we played for hours, unsupervised, with other children and few toys. The limits to our roaming expanded as we aged until we would spend our days at the far ends of where our bicycles would take us.
This was not the world of the children of the 80's and after, people who today are having all the babies. I worry that they will never know what childhood could be like. Oh sure, there are places that still look a bit like this, but for the most part a mother who did what our mothers did would have Child Protective Services on her doorstep within hours. I'm not here today to argue about whether the world is really more dangerous than it used to be or if it just seems that way because of the fear-mongering of a mass media that thrives on the sensational. And I'm not here today to debate the very real dangers represented by the screen-based technology that has come to replace playing outdoors, unsupervised, with friends, few toys, and lots of time.
Today, I'm simply here to argue for the return of swings. They're being removed from playgrounds at an alarming rate, right across the country, under the irrational notion that they are unduly dangerous.
Swings are for flying.
Swings are for taking risks.
Swings are for hanging around.
Swings are for working together.
Swings are for invention.
Swings are for challenging ourselves.
Swings are for sharing.
Swings are for being alone.
Swings are for looking at the sky.
Swings are for being in the sky.
Swings are for experimenting.
Swings are for playing. Without swings, the world is lesser.
Next time we will discuss what concrete is for . . .
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5 comments:
is that a pallet made into a swing in one of the photos? Brilliant if it is!!
Swings are so Important to the developing vestibular system...an important system that supports self regulation.
I was a kid of the 80's and O had this childhood we would be out the door ny 7:00 a.m. and not come back until lunch then be hone again until sunset. We played outside all day and roamed the neighborhood and later our town. I am doing my best to give my two young sons the same experience, thankfully we live in an old fashioned town that is more tolerant of kids playing unsupervised. Still I feel the pressure to helicopter from some parents all the time.
I was a kid of the 80's and O had this childhood we would be out the door ny 7:00 a.m. and not come back until lunch then be hone again until sunset. We played outside all day and roamed the neighborhood and later our town. I am doing my best to give my two young sons the same experience, thankfully we live in an old fashioned town that is more tolerant of kids playing unsupervised. Still I feel the pressure to helicopter from some parents all the time.
When I was 12 years old I remember swinging and swinging and thinking I'd never stop loving this activity. 36yrs on and I still like a swing. Btw I love your pallet swing - that looks great fun.
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