Where Do the Children Play? Documentary
Film Explores Outdoor Play in Suburbs, City and Rural Areas
Jun 16, 2009
Where Do the Children Play?, is a PBS documentary inspired by Elizabeth Goodenough's book Secret Spaces of Childhood. The documentary is distributed by the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to improving children's health and well-being.
Climbing trees and spending the whole day outdoors exploring nature was a common experience for the children of a generation past. Today, children are more likely to be indoors for varying reasons. They may prefer electronic games; their parents are fearful of "stranger danger," they are involved in many structured activities and there aren't wild places to play in.
Rural Children Learn from Nature
The film considers the play life of children in rural Beaver Island, Michigan, where they catch frogs, learn to hunt, drive boats and are closely attuned to nature and appreciative of nature.
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, is one of many experts who appear in the film. He comments that nature can be "morally messy," and notes that many of today's children are not understanding the intensity and depth of life when all their food is covered in plastic. "When you take kids into the wild, you are actually taking the wild out of them. Nature makes us more civil," he says.
Suburban Kids Deprived of Outdoor Play
The fim shows that the suburban children tend to be most deprived of the opportunities for outdoor play. Suburban communities can be isolating and children tend to be more involved in indoor activities or structured outdoor activities. The film's narrator comments that with suburban parents, "Play is not as important as something that will get you into college."
Lack of unstructured outdoor play results in a lack of imagination, says Robin Means Coleman, professor at University of Michigan.
"We're raising a generation that looks at screens instead of streams," says Louv. He adds that nature is the only place where you use all of your senses at the same time.
City Children Enjoy Healthy Play
One of the surprises of the film is that many city children are actually having healthier play experiences than their suburban counterparts. In areas that are not too unsafe, the children are still playing outside; there are many other children to play with, and parks and sidewalks to play on. In city neighborhoods children still walk to school and walk to the store.
Experts Look at Parents Role in Outdoor Play
One of the reasons children don't play outside is an unsubstantiated fear of "Stranger Danger," said Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play. However, statistics show a decline in crimes against children and that a child is 10 times more likely to be abducted by a family member or friend than by a stranger.
Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., lead author of the AAP report, "The Importance of Play," says parenting has become professionalized and children's free time is being divided into slots for music lessons, team sports and other structured activities. "Childhood has become adult-driven rather than child driven . . . It suppresses any of their inherent talent they may have discovered in play," says Ginsburg.
Goodenough ends the film with a comment that it is not hard to bring children back to play. Schools, park districts and other organizations can use this documentary as a springboard for discussion about the importance of outdoor play. Screenings of the documentary can open parents and communities to find a means to return outdoor play to children's lives.
 |
