Politics of Playgrounds

The CityLab website featured a great article, "The Politics of Playgrounds, a History" which looks back at the history of the great playground debate:

"On the one side, you have the safety advocates who want lower structures, softer ground, and less opportunities for falling off or over, well, anything. On the other, those who worry that a safe playground is a boring playground that will do little to stimulate a child's imagination.

"The debate can seem" quite technical – should playgrounds have foam floors, or wood chips? What would be better for the 5-year-olds who tumble off the monkey bars? Should there even be monkey bars, or is that just asking for
trouble?....

"The debate has a very 21st century feel to it but it's actually nothing new – these types of questions have been asked for at least a century."

Contributed by Nature Explore

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