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The playground is an integral part of our children’s
experience. In fact, play is what children do to learn about their worlds and to construct their own worlds. They
need physical challenge from a playground: the opportunity to literally reach new heights and to run free. They
need the stimulus of risk; they need choices in climbing, sliding, and swinging so they can determine the excitement and challenge
they are ready for.
Structures are necessary that allow derring-do with which to build self esteem. Equally important are break
away points for those who change their minds or need time to act – alternate routes up and down, graduated challenge,
and a range of opportunities to build self esteem without pressure. American children with their sterile playgrounds
are tremendously behind European and Japanese children physically. Children in Europe have more extensive experiences
in climbing, jumping, swinging, balancing, judging, perceiving, and in risk-taking than American children, who typically
have 20 to 30 minutes of playground time at a time on fixed, uninteresting equipment. In Tokyo, Japanese children three to five
years old engage successfully in unusually challenging climbing activities involving ropes, ladders, and climbing platforms
at heights forbidden in American playgrounds.
The other advantage of playground time is the opportunity to be out of
the air conditioning and the things that people control into a world of varying temperatures, humidity, animals, and
light. Our children need to learn how to adapt to lots of conditions, and more than to adapt, to enjoy. Learning for
adults and for children is not something to be poured into them and spit out in practice. It is an active, intellectual, and
hands-on process. Our children need to learn that there are very few, if any, right ways to do things, but that there are lots
of ways that work. On the playground, they get a chance to try some of those ways in a noisy, sometimes push and shove way.
We really work at Greystone House to have our children on the playground at least four hours out of the twelve that the school
is open each day. If rain is not actually falling from the sky (and even if it is when we have on our bathing suits), we are
outside that day.
Our staff are here to share cold and hot, wet and sunny. The children can do things at the school like dig
in the dirt, move equipment around, and share with their friends that they generally can’t do at home. Our staff only
keep a watchful eye while the children are given the opportunity to learn to construct their own worlds.
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