Good lord - so much anxiety! Yak yak yak yak yak

You want to really increase "play"? Here are some concrete tips:

Reduce the amount of teaching to the test in schools. Return art, music, gym class and recess. Put decent play structures up at the schools or at least buy some decent balls.

Make parks accessible to local pedestrians. My local parks are all at least a mile away (I live in a residential suburban neighborhood). Two require walking down a street where cars regularly go 55-70 mph (posted speed limit is 45). There is no median separating cars from peds - and the cars regularly go over the curb. The other park doesn't have a restroom. That's just unrealistic for anyone with young kids.

SLOW DOWN! People regularly drive 35mph past my house. They don't look both ways when they take turns. I saw a guy almost hit a delivery truck the size of a one-car garage because he didn't look where he was going. It'd be suicide to send a kid out there on a bike.

Ah,but these things cost money and inconvenience people. It's so much easier to Yak yak yak yak yak

I agree with bringing arts back to school. These classes were gutted in Ontario, very sad.

But I am not so sure of traffic fears. We do need to slow down, but I do recall quite a lot a speed growing up through the 70's and 80's. Kids can be taught to respect and fear the idiots on the road.

I believe we simply need to allow kids out of the house. Perhaps they will need to be kicked out at the start! As a Canadian I also cannot believe how many 'No Road Hockey' signs have sprung up. Good Lord! its our clean claim to culture and identity. We had great games full of rival neighbourhood kids. I felt a connection to the Stick Ball kids I saw on TV. It has been a long time since I have heard the cry of 'CAR!' and seen the quick moving of nets as I drive down suburban streets.

I guess I am just lucky because I live in an area where kids all walk to school everyday and when they get there they have art, music, and recess (more than once a day through elementary school). They also spend their afternoons organizing neighborhood games of tag and now that summer is here the water balloon wars are in full swing. They do spend some time playing video games and watching movies but I can't tell you how many afternoons my kids beg to have a movie put on (and at least 5 other kids from the street come over) only for me to find them all back outside 15 minutes later. I know that it is not possible for kids everywhere to spend so much time unsupervised outside, but why do playgrounds need to be high tech and full of stuff? Why not just enclose a large grassy area and turn them loose with balls, jump ropes and loose lumber to build themselves a fort? Keep adults around for security, but that's it. Kids simply need to be given the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild and they will. They will develop a love of nature, outdoors and play all on their own if we adults just back off.

Hazel,

Out in the west of USNA I find that the sprawl contributes to the lack of availability and access to park space as a part of urban planning. There is less emphasis on community space in general and more on cramming those over priced cracker boxes on as little square footage as possible for profit. If more housing purchasers demanded the focus on the need for play space for everyone it would change this prevalent trend. It would also reduce the need for speed if the focus created housing, park and retail space in an accessable community form. With Home Owner's Associations you get a NIMBY prohibition order to builders and developers to limit accessable park space, retail space and services.

Okay I know this is running on.

As for the education system, it has always taught to the test in one form or another. I think modern kids have too much structured play and less free form play both in school and at home.

Good points, especially about the traffic. A friend of mine currently enjoys speed bumps in the middle of their neighborhood roads! However, a mile should not be considered far. I'm encouraged about kid play when I watch and play with my neice. Her imagination gives me hope for other kids. She makes up the craziest games (mostly without toys) and it's so fun to let yourself go and be sucked in to her crazy world.

Isn't some of the problem the reluctance of parents to allow the kids to "go out and play?" There is the understandable concern about safety and not just traffic safety. Still, it seems sad to me to rarely observe a pickup ball game (You still see them in the city if it's basketball), hide and seek and the like.

As a guy working in an elementary school I see how little capability for play most kids have. Kids have very little imagination and cannot seem to come up with ideas of their own. They are the embodyment of the line in that Nirvana song, "here we are entertain us". Left to their own devices (and taking away their devices) they will just mope around or argue about arcane rules for whatever game they are playing. I once watched some kids argue for twenty minutes over weather you can lead off in kickball! Give kids building supplies (blocks etc) and they want to know what to build, give them paper and markers and crayons and they have no idea what to do. Most of them will play board games or card games but they have never faced defeat. Their overindulgent parents always let them win so as to not damage their self esteem then they play me! I NEVER let a kid win they have to listen to how to play and beat me fair and square. Talk about raising self esteem! The kids that do stick with it and win have bragging rights. My point is a lot of kids today have no idea how to play unsupervised and that is really sad