The Movement for Small Playgrounds

Abstract

The article focuses on small playgrounds for children. In a playground with proper supervision children for their own good soon recognize that they must regard others' rights, and that in order to enjoy themselves they must permit others to do so; that they must respect property, which they have in common as well as that of one another; and these habits help to build up men who make good citizens, carrying the same principles into adult life. The schoolyards and basements offer excellent space for play. The majority of city parks have no special arrangements for children, although in many parts of the parks the children are unrestricted, but it is a question whether the best interests of the city would not be served by copying the European method, i.e., by having a supervisor of sports and regular places in the parks given over to the exclusive use of the children as their right; for, though not restricted in their play, it naturally happens that the little ones are crowded out by the bigger ones, and that when grown folk wish the place the children have to give way.