Playgrounds at the Crossroads

Abstract

Public playgrounds in the United States have entered a crisis stage in their evolution. They have been criticized as adults’ attempts to control children’s behavior (Wood 1977), damned as irrelevant to children’s developmental needs (Frost & Klein, 1983), and described by children as boring, hurtful, and anti social (Moore, 1989a). More often than not, these supposed spaces for healthy child development contain vast expanses of hot, hard asphalt, poorly maintained old metal equipment—oftentimes installed without adequate safety surfaces—water features that have not worked for years, pokey sandboxes without sand, and vegetation—if it exists at all—installed as an esthetic buffer rather than as a play setting (Bruya & Langendorfer, in press). And yet these spaces where children spend so much of their time could very well support educational principles and stimulate child development (Schools Council, 1974b; Sebba & Churchman, 1986).