A New Playground?

[Xmac]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/9650581/School-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies

[Jilly]

Cool.

[mtnlaurel]

Amen.
We went camping with another family recently from my son's school and I didn't really realize what a long lead I let my kids have - I think we horrified the other family.... I let my son test himself on his bike going down gullies, go ape in the mud, etc. (while I test my nerves :)) The other family was like obsessed with keeping their RV clean (it was a nice RV, so maybe I would be that way too in the same circumstance)
Both my kids are athletic & and seem to have good sense of balance, so I let them test their bodies/reasoning (or maybe they developed these senses because they get to test??? ... chicken or egg)

2 things that totally bug me about my kids' school (mainstream public) --- not enough recess&PE to get the wiggles out and they have to wolf down their lunches

Hopefully my kids will benefit in the pendulum swinging back toward the middle on many things

[catherine]

Yeah, I was reading it and thinking, this is what playtime was like when I went to school and then I read:


But this wasn't a playtime revolution, it was just a return to the days before health and safety policies came to rule.

I can't stand the whole "helicopter mom" revolution. I agree with mtnlaurel--you have to know your kids and trust them to play with their own limits to a reasonable extent.

[Gregg]

I'm not sure my mom ever even saw us play. "Be home before the sun goes down." That was about it. If we got a little bit hurt we knew how to take care of it. If we got a lot hurt we knew where to find someone who could take care of it. Getting a lot hurt was an exceptionally rare occurrence. My kids suffered from the same level of parental neglect and they are doing just fine.

[Lainey]

I'm not sure my mom ever even saw us play. "Be home before the sun goes down." That was about it. If we got a little bit hurt we knew how to take care of it. If we got a lot hurt we knew where to find someone who could take care of it. Getting a lot hurt was an exceptionally rare occurrence. My kids suffered from the same level of parental neglect and they are doing just fine.

ha, sounds similar to my parents who told us we "had to be inside when the street lights went on." Which meant in the summers we were playing til well after 7 pm. I did a similar thing raising my son, who is now an adult and tells everyone "My mom raised me like a free range chicken" !

[Gardenarian]

I love this - thanks for posting! I'm sure there will be squabbles and skinned knees, but kids will learn better how to get along and take care of themselves, and each other.

[early morning]

Not so sure it was as much before "health and safety policies came to rule" as much as "before lawyers and insurance premiums came to rule"..... I know our playground rules changed after a (very stupid) kid decided to jump off the top of a large slide, busted out a bunch of teeth, and his parents sued the school.

[Alan]

There are parallels here with so many aspects of life. Imagine if our government allowed us the same levels of independence.