Everything Tagged with 'free range kids'
Tim Gill: ‘The End of Zero Risk in Childhood’
Tim Gill, in the Guardian:
The time is right to move beyond unproductive debates about the “blame culture” and instead to build momentum behind the idea of expanding children’s horizons. What is needed is nothing less than the wholesale rejection of the philosophy of protection. In its place, what we need to adopt is a philosophy of resilience that truly embraces risk, uncertainty and real challenge – even real danger – as essential ingredients of a rounded childhood.
Determination, strength, independence – those were the qualities I worshiped in my favorite movie hero, the Lone Ranger. I went to the movies every Saturday, and sometimes I even snuck in through the fire escape when I didn’t have the money to buy a ticket. I felt just like the Lone Ranger the day I set off to ride my bike across the George Washington Bridge to New York City. Ten years old, I pedaled twenty miles down unfamiliar roads and busy streets, past neighbors and strangers, out into the unknown. Just like the Lone Ranger, I didn’t need help from anyone. It took me all day, but I found the way and did it myself.
– Buzz Aldrin, recalling a moment from his 'free range' childhood.The Boundaries of ‘Home’ for Children
Mike Lanza, of Playborhood, takes a moment to consider the geographic range of mobility afforded to his own children and others in his neighborhood. As Mike prefaces, it’s important to realize that the concept of ‘home’ for kids can and should extend well beyond their family’s own physical house or property:
Our house is as shown, but our boys freely and regularly roam well beyond its walls. Their natural border even extends beyond our yard. They frequent all front yards of the properties two to our left and right, plus the sidewalks and part of the street in front of all these properties, plus the entire house and back yard to our left (they frequently run in and out of there), plus two back yards behind us.
“Home” for my boys is a place well beyond our house that they feel comfortable in. They feel an attachment to every corner of the area I circled. They’re always surrounded here by people they know and like and trust.
It’s an interesting perspective to think about your neighborhood in, and to ask yourself: just how wide is the range of mobility my children are allowed around their home? What defines the boundaries of that range? And what kinds of environmental diversity, terrain features, and opportunities for stimulation are actually afforded to children within that space? To cut to the chase: Just how ‘big’ and how ‘playable’ is your neighborhood for children, exactly?
The great thing about children is that they like being busy. Since parents like being lazy, it makes sense for the children to do the work. This idea was partly explored in the 19th century, when children as young as five were sent into the factories. The fact that meddlesome liberals have since introduced child labour laws does not need to prevent idle parents today from exploiting their own offspring.
– – Tom Hodgkinson, in his book "Idle Parenting"A Summer Without Camp
With the current tumultuous state of the economy, many parents are finding they can’t pay for their kid to go to camp this summer just as a number of school districts are finding they can’t pay to run summer school either. Might this one actually be a summer for many without camp or summer school? A summer where kids might actually (gasp) be left on their own?
While I had to laugh at how the New York Times tried to paint summer school as some fun, nostalgic thing for kids – I think “living nightmare” might be closer in description to how many students regard it– the Times did make a fair point in highlighting how a lack of summer program options seems to have a disproportionately worse effect on lower-income families. Many of these families live in perhaps less play-friendly or safe neighborhoods, in addition to having fewer resources and finances to spend on “constructive” outlets for the summer hours. Without these other options, often these kids can just end up at home in front of the TV. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but speaking as a former kid it is nice to have options.)
Still, not having summer school around - regardless of how important you portray its benefits - doesn’t necessarily have to mean kids’ summers are devoid of substance, no matter the kids’ socio-economic status. As Parent Dish points out – while considering the threat of a summer without another hallmark pastime, summer camp – there’s plenty of perks to just not planning anything:
Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, psychiatrist and author of “The Overscheduled Child,” tells Newsweek, “Boredom is not necessarily our children’s enemy. It can stimulate [children] to think, create, and hear the soft murmurings of their inner voice, the one that makes them write this unusual story, draw that unique picture, or invent some new game.”
It really is all a matter of perspective. We don’t have to have our schools and camps direct every moment of summer for our kids “so they won’t get bored” – and we don’t even have to worry about making those three months out of school “productive.” If we just give kids a library card, a couple of bucks, and full permission to roam the neighborhood, good things are bound to happen on their own.
Dogs Take Daily Commute on the Subway
Stray dogs in Moscow have learned to commute into town via the subway to beg for scrapsduring the day, then back to the suburbs at night to sleep:
Experts studying the dogs say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train…. Dr [Andrei] Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: “They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”
So if even dogs can manage riding around town alone with public transportation, why do we go collectively nuts when someone lets their nine-year-old do the same?