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The Value of Play: A Common Good Initiative to Restore Recreation to America's Youth

Fear of lawsuits, excessive safety regulations, and society’s growing aversion to risk have fundamentally altered the nature of play and recreation in America.  Playgrounds have become boring – stripped of seesaws, swings, and jungle gyms – and recess is becoming a thing of the past.  Opportunities for sledding, swimming, and diving are disappearing as well.  Yet we know that play is critical to children’s physical, social, and mental health.  And the loss of recreational opportunities is particularly troubling in this age of rising childhood obesity rates. 

Because of this, Common Good is working to protect and restore play and recreational opportunities to American life.  We are currently developing legislative solutions and raising awareness of the effects that removing all risk from our children has on their lives.  

FEATURED STORY Taking Play Seriously New York Times Magazine “[P]laying, though it might look silly and purposeless, warrants a place in every child’s day.”  According to Robin Marantz Henig’s piece, there is a growing “consensus view [among scientists who study play] that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories.” If play were indeed nothing more than exercise and stress relief, concern over its shrinking role in children’s lives would be justified. But play, as Ms. Henig’s article examines in depth, is “more than a frivolous luxury...it is a central part of neurological growth and development — one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains.” more »	RECENT NEWS Reinventing Recess: Schools Try to Play It Safe Dallas Morning News Obese Kids Face Higher Risk of Heart Disease in Adulthood Wall Street Journal Sports Injuries and Your Children Signal (CA) Skateboarding Could Be Banned in Seneca Anderson Independent-Mail (SC) Children ‘Over-Protected from Risk’ Western Mail (UK) Liability, Funding Concerns Surround Morgan Hill Skate Park Morgan Hill Times (CA) Teen Board Ponders Safety at Future Skate, Bike Park Arizona Republic New Playground Equipment Proposed for Orland Schools Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Weston Requiring Parents of Skate Park Users to Waive Right to Sue South Florida Sun-Sentinel Mamaroneck Skaters Push to Build Skate Park Journal News (NY) » More on parks and playgrounds » More on recess	DID YOU KNOW? A 2006 survey conducted by the National Parent Teacher Association found, in part, that: • Nine out of ten teachers say “recess and the free time spent with peers is an important part of the school day and is crucial to a child’s social and emotional development”; and  • Three-fourths of PTA leaders say that taking a break in the day helps kids concentrate and more than half think kids are less disruptive after recess. (“Press Release: Recess Is at Risk, New Campaign Comes to the Rescue,” The National Parent Teacher Association, March 13, 2006)
RECOMMENDED READING: Cotton Wool Kids "If we never took a risk our children would not learn to walk, climb stairs, ride a bicycle or swim; businesses would not develop innovative new products, move into new markets and create wealth for all; scientists would not experiment and discover; we would not have great art, literature, music and architecture." --Sir Digby Jones, Cotton Wool Kids	THE VALUE OF PLAY: A Forum on Risk, Recreation, and Children’s Health In May 2006, the AEI-Brookings Joint Center and Common Good convened a conference to consider the relationship between America’s growing aversion to risk and the development and health of our children. Learn more.	SELECT RESOURCES ON PLAY Risk, Responsibility and Regulation -- Whose risk is it anyway? Better Regulation Commission (Great Britain), October 2006 The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds American Academy of Pediatrics, October 9, 2006 Cotton Wool Kids: Releasing the Potential for Kids to Take Risks and Innovate HTI (Great Britain), 2007 Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder Richard Louv, 2005.  » Facts supporting the importance of play » Quotes and book excerpts