Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/planning-intentionally-for-childrens-outdoor-environments-the-gift-of-change/5020046/
When I was a child 50 years ago, nobody planned my outdoor environment. My home was close to flower-filled meadows that I could explore freely, and my preschool and elementary school classrooms opened onto beautiful woodlands that we children used as an important part of our day-to-day learning. The last time I visited my old school, I noticed with dismay that the meadows and woods were gone, replaced by high-rise apartment buildings and other signs of ‘progress.’ The outdoor spaces were now made of asphalt and plastic.How easy it would be to fall into the trap of thinking that “everything was better back then.” Certainly many things have changed for children since I was young, and undoubtedly some of the changes have been difficult ones. However, over the past ten years, as I’ve worked with people around the world who are interested in children’s outdoor environments, I’ve come to understand that even the upsetting changes have pushed us in ways that have helped us discover new gifts. More on this in a moment.
First, the bad news. No doubt today’s children are facing a host of daunting challenges that will take hard work to fix:
In 1995, Marion Wright Edelman described some ...