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Post Info TOPIC: Wheres the kids


FAR BEYOND DRIVEN

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Wheres the kids


 

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Where Have All the Children Gone?

They are contained in structured, adult-led, indoor activities. 
 
 

Kerry McDonald | July 17, 2017

 
     
Where Have All the Children Gone?

Its summer vacation, but you might not know it from the absence of children on streets and sidewalks, in parks and public spaces. Just as afternoons and weekends during the school year are more void of children than ever before, so too is summertime.

Where are all of these young ones? Increasingly, they are contained in structured, adult-led, often indoor activities where they are told what to do, what to think, and how to act. Those play-filled afternoons with the neighborhood kids we remember from childhood? Gone. Those long summer days outside with friends, roaming in woods or water? A quaint memory. Today, for many children, nearly every waking hour of their day is orchestrated by someone else.

Free, unstructured, unsupervised childhood play in our public spaces is an artifact of a by-gone era. As Jay Griffiths writes in her eloquent book, A Country Called Childhood: "How has childhood become so unnatural? Why does the dominant culture treat young humans in ways which would be illegal if applied to young dogs? Born to burrow and nest in nature, children are now exiled from it. They are enclosed indoors, caged and shut out of the green and vivid world, in ways unthinkable a generation ago."

Quiet neighborhoods arent the only consequence of this trend away from natural childhood play. Mounting evidence reveals a rise in childhood mental health issues as childrens play declines.

In his 2011 article for the American Journal of Play, Boston College psychology professor, Dr. Peter Gray, argues for a causal link between the systematic decline in play and the corresponding rise in childhood anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, narcissism, and other mental illness indicators.

Gray writes: Today, in many neighborhoods, it is hard to find groups of children outdoors at all, and, if you do find them, they are likely to be wearing uniforms and following the directions of coaches while their parents dutifully watch and cheer.

Other researchers have found similar disturbing trends regarding play-deprivation. In her book, Balanced and Barefoot, pediatric occupational therapist, Angela Hanscom, describes the importance of free play and its healthy impact on emotional development.

She writes about children growing up today: We are keeping them from attaining the very sensory input they need in order to grow into resilient and able-bodied people. They need to climb, jump, run through the woods, pick up sticks, jump in mud puddles, and fall and get hurt on occasion. These are all natural and necessary experiences that will help develop a healthy sensory systemfoundational to learning and accomplishing many of lifes goals.

We need to reclaim an unenclosed, play-filled childhood for our children. We need to welcome them back into our public spacesinto our neighborhoods and parks and sidewalksand grant children the freedom to grow outside of fences, both physical and metaphorical. We need to replace the silence with the familiar sounds of childhoodfor their sake and for ours.

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http://intellectualtakeout.org/article/where-have-all-children-gone?fbclid=IwAR3unW8CK4au6m566CoUzK99vseWZh74gim6hlgxNQtZaza8k9j95rzkTdE



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I agree that kids today are too exposed and caught up into the virtual world, but I think there is hope and they will turn out just fine.

I got into computers at a real young age and I turned out ok! lol confusebiggrinhmm



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FAR BEYOND DRIVEN

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Fine is not the same as we had. I'm 65 in a couple months. Best of times, best music, best TV. AND WE PLAYED OUTSIDE SUNUP TO SUNDOWN.

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I think most kids do, up until a certain age... usually after 12 or 13 you do a lot less of the outside activities that you did when you were a kid.

Still, I do agree that cell phones are starting to become common place for even kids younger than that! And lets face it, a parent might give a kid their phone just to keep them entertained while they do something.

And it all starts there!

Heck I see some infants chewing on their parents phone and I just think - gee, that's going to be a lot worse of a shock than a 9V battery of our days if the kid happens to lick the right part of the phone! LOL



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FAR BEYOND DRIVEN

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It's changed. I was there, I'm here now and see the difference.

It's OK. I stay positive. Times change, technology changes, everything changes and we need to accept, adapt.

2 decades ago I looked at the kids staying inside, video games etc and thought there is some plan. YEAH, DRONE OPERATORS!!!!!!

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I didn't mean to say things were exactly the same, especially of times before the 1980's when I was five years old... But relatively speaking, kids still have recess and a lot of them still ride bikes and enjoy outdoor activities like sports and what not.

Maybe not to the degree of the days where families were outside all day working the farm or the ranch, but like I said, relative to the changes in the lifestyles we live due to technological improvements.



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