Nanny state takes aim at play
If kids can’t wait to get to the playground, parents can’t wait to leave. For the young, the playground is a place of fun and excitement; for adults it’s a place where anything can go wrong. At a time when something as simple as letting kids to walk to school has become unthinkable, no one should be surprised playgrounds are so hotly contested. Sometimes quite literally.
The issue heated last week when the city boarded up a metal slide at Corktown Common and put up a sign. “Caution,” it warned. “Playground equipment may be HOT.” No kidding, especially in direct sunshine when the temperature hits the 30s. The mayor wasn’t impressed. He wondered why there weren’t trees to shade the slide. In fact, there are trees nearby, but they’re not big enough to cast much shadow.
No surprise then that the nanny state has made the playground a battleground where a war rages between those who believe kids must be protected from themselves and others who say play is how kids learn. The latter don’t deny playgrounds can be dangerous but, they argue, the risks are worth taking.
Obviously, burning hot metallic slides play into the hands of the Nervous Nellies. And in- deed, one can’t help wonder why some other material wasn’t used.
But do we really need to be told that playground equipment gets hot? So does sand, asphalt and stone. And it’s not just summer, or playgrounds. In winter the problem is “slippery trip hazards.”
No one should be surprised that we have turned playgrounds into spaces of sterility and boredom. Far from being death traps, the contemporary version comes with everything but safety belts and helmets. What does it say about the city that it’s infinitely more dangerous getting to and from a playground than using one?
As Scott Fraser and Marco Di Buono explain, however, a new model playground will soon appear in Toronto. President and operations manager respectively of Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, they are preparing for the opening this fall of a 15,000-square-foot playground at Earl Bales Park. The motivation behind the $1.2-million facility, Fraser says, is “to give kids autonomy to play.”
“There is a critical need for inclusive playgrounds where all kids of all abilities can play autonomously and independently,” he continues. “It needs a place to interact but also quiet zones where kids on the spectrum can isolate themselves for a little bit.”
To eliminate barriers, the ground will be surfaced in recycled tires, which Canadian Tire has in abundance, not the usual sand or wood chips, which are tough to negotiate in a wheelchair. And before you ask, slides will face north to avoid overheating.
“Play is critical to the development of kids,” Di Buono notes. “We’ve been working for a number of years with Rick Hansen Foundation and Canadian Paralympic Committee to gain an understanding of kids’ play and kids’ sport.”
Of course, not every playground looks like a playground. When Trillium Park opened on the waterfront a year ago, there wasn’t a slide, swing or see-saw in sight. But kids loved it from the start. They played on rocks instead of equipment. Arranged cleverly to allow climbing, hiding and jumping, the boulders sat on sand, grass or other boulders. Naturally, the park is a kid-magnet. It provides a backdrop to endless play, solitary and in groups. Changes in grade provide yet another source of fun. What more could a kid want?
Trillium Park reminds us that the main ingredient of play is imagination; everything else is peripheral. The advent of the “junk playground” in Copenhagen during the Second World War made that abundantly clear. Assembled from old tires, discarded furniture, wooden planks, bricks, netting and the like, these postapocalyptic fun zones seem incredibly dangerous by today’s standards. The closest you’d come in Toronto would be an illegal dump site. Back then, kids set fires and happily gathered around. Here, police would be called and some underage delinquent dragged off to headquarters in handcuffs.
It goes without saying, kids loved them. If play is about experiencing danger, controlling fear and testing limits, junk playgrounds are the best. But ask any parent, fun is much too serious to be left to kids.