Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/are-we-losing-ground/5015040/
I have a recurring nightmare: I'm very, very old and surrounded by young children, all looking at me with sad, reproachful eyes; a mournful chorus asking - "How could you ruin childhood?" Then I wake up in my nursing home with its multi-generational child care program. I'm outside on a bench watching the children, in a small, mostly treeless area with a climber and sandbox, free at least for an hour from the gleaming floors and florescent lights. The children and I are there, day after day - they for nine hours a day, me for 24 - pleasant, safe, healthy, and dreadfully lifeless. A child approaches and asks: "So this is life, huh?"It is impossible to adopt a bright and cheery, positive, and inspiring tone to this article - better a rant, a scream, or worse, a dirge. There is a Sisyphus quality to writing about outdoor settings for children in America for over 20 years - regularly lamenting the growing indoor nature of children's lives and the taming of the child's outdoor experience, rolling exhortations and design prescriptions up and down the hill. But it is no less necessary to do because the stakes are enormous.
Losing Ground
With ...