At the same time, can we really protect kids from every danger or risk? 'The spongy surface really just teaches them that the ground is soft, which, of course, it's not. recent fire in singapore 2022 Or back out of it?). Risky play is important for child development. KIds were definitely stronger and tougher back then. However, the dividing line between Abenteuerspielpltze (adventure playgrounds) and traditional play zones is increasingly disappearing. It sort of looks like a minimalist Ikea version of a play structure. A Brief History of Playground Design, Part 1. The first thing that caught our eye in the photos up there is this thing: parallel poles pretending to be a slide. Some may not call that progress but anyone who does probably cant say so without some degree of bias. Before metal merry-go-rounds was Everwear's wooden model, a portable, 1500-pound oak monster that all but guaranteed wicked splinters. Professor. But there were always one or two jocks who could do it with ease and show off. Their results, published in 2018, found that while the occurrence of injuries was quite rare, a 'statistically significant majority of them' took part in a playground where the equipment was fixed and seen as 'safer' vs an adventure playground with more dangerous and wobbly equipment. They were flat boards, on long chains, that you could jump from at the apex of your swing. But back in the day, playground proprietors combined both into one. When the ride really got going, swirling and zipping from side to side, kids frequently fell off or smashed their legs on the center pole. And we even drank water from the garden hose. You will always want to look for the equipment listed above when visiting a new play area and avoid these areas, especially with younger children Early iterations were often called the Witches Hat. Teen Suspect Arrested In Murder of Texas Mother Killed While Visiting Her Son's Grave Colleen Dilthey Thomas 00:00 / 00:00 ALSO SEE: Vintage Erector Sets were toys that made toys: See old sets & find out their history. Professor Rolf Schwarz of Karlsruhe University of Education, argues that 'safe' playgrounds prevent kids from learning how to handle risk in the early stages of . According to the 1930 catalog, the bather released the swing with a foot pedal and swooped along the waves, pausing at the top of the arc before being hurdled forward. It was great fun and we learned to hang on. (They were actually called incline poles or sliding poles.). It's important to note that there is no mention of cultural enrichment in this documentary. They'd then run around the pole, leaping and swinging through the air. Take average children, brimful of the primal instinct to develop through play, provide for them proper playgrounds fitted with modern playground equipment; and tomorrow, they will step forth vigorous, healthy, clear-thinking men and women to make the world a better place to live in.. The idea for letting kids develop some basic climbing competency has grown in popularity in Germany. The landscape is gorgeous. In my view, it is good that playgrounds are safer now but there are drawbacks to not allowing for the freedom of individual risk-taking. Actually, that was great fun too! Thank you, Click Americana, for creating this very interesting page. Thus does American childhood remain, for the most part, a mulch-chip, no-slip, primary-colored plastic safe space. When will the Beast from the East be at YOUR door? I stumbled on this when looking into a piece of vintage playground equipment that myself and others were discussing on a Facebook group for our hometown. It sort of looks like a minimalist Ikea version of a play structure. ALSO SEE: Remember the fun of an old-fashioned treehouse? On this particular one, you entered an oval shaped hole and climed up through the center of the rocket. In the spiderweb inside the structure, the maximum fall height is 1.8 metres. Required fields are marked *. Back in the day, kids play on a playground. The site was designed to provide kids (6+) with space and materials for self-directed play, discovery and productive risk-taking. slide 1 to 4 of 37. The Rock'n'Roll 3. The news comes after a group of accident insurance companies last year called on German town planners, councils and playground to develop structures that help children to cultivate 'risk competence', as many of Germany's kids were spending so much time inside amid the pandemic. Theres a realisation [in the UK] that playgrounds have become too sanitised: if you look at them only as a series of potential hazards, you are missing something important., Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. But that doesnt negate the premise of the story. (With chains that long, can you imagine how much lift you could get on this one?). Sorry lady, just because it didnt happen to you, or in front of you, doesnt mean it didnt happen fairly regularly to others. Its interesting though when you look at all the children in the photos they are all smiling! The Jungle Gym was still the most common name for the metal apparatus found in parks and school recess areas in the 1960s, all metal. That's only because all of the merry-go-rounds, and see-saws, and monkey bars have already been uprooted. Lots of injuries from falls, and just like the TV shows, if we could walk, the coach would say walk it off. The big problem with wood log play equipment is that it rots within a relatively short period of time making it not only dangerous and unstable, but expensive to repair. TV Smith - Dangerous Playground TV SMITH's new EP "Dangerous Playground," comprises four new songs specially written for the play "Der Kalte Kuss von warmem Bier" (the cold kiss of warm beer) by German playwright Dirk Laucke, which will premiere in the Stadttheater . I left school at 16 with six GCSEs - and became a self-made millionaire. Even so, Germanys dizzying climbing towers could soon become blueprints for playgrounds in Britain and the US. It opens in half an . I do think, however, that there is a reason playground safety has evolved over time (although, of course, injuries still happen today). The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. It was common to pose like that for class photos or group photos. A metal maze. You pulled on the wheel to spin the bench, and boy, could you really spin fast! The whole thing was maybe six feet at the tallest point. 'When you are feeling insecure, you are also extra careful. "Even international safety standards organizationsso often the 'fun police' when it comes to playgroundsare coming round to a more balanced, pro-risk view," says Tim Gill, author of Urban Playgrounds: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities. Which way you faced just depended on whether you wanted to throw up on bystanders, or on the other people on the ride with you. Lawyers and regulators have all but killed the traditional Jungle Gym, a piece of playground equipment that was tall and unforgiving of mistakes. Gutfeld reveals why Germany is installing more dangerous playgrounds | Fox News Video. Tail end of the BOOMERS here am so glad I didnt miss the adventure! 'Children need to learn their limitations!'" Yes, I do. An article in the Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention noted that kids were twice as likely to sustain injuries if the drop is over 5 feet. You probably werent even there, so how would you know. Really high. There's a study saying children's playgrounds should be dangerous. 4. 'The reason that they have accidents sometimes is because there's a lot of adults around who are very cautious and nervous and keep telling them to be careful and watch out.'. New German playgrounds are constructed to be harmful, forcing kids to negotiate perilous obstacles whereas risking harm in the event that they fall in accordance to a professor of motor growth. This way of making a giant stride keeps the children far apart, the ropes seldom get tangled and it gives the children a much better swing., A similar version, with a long tree trunk as the center. Sign in Home It was a skinny metal tube with a steel ladder welded to the inside. As I went to the hospital to stitch up my eye. Todays playgrounds are just engineered to avoid lawsuitshas nothing to do with exercising the child. It was so high that it smelled musty up there! (Photos from the Seattle Municipal Archives Collection). All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews . Barrel of fun? But I survived. Unlike the North American standardcookie-cutter tubes, swings, monkey bars, and slides in splashes of primary coloursthese playgrounds avoid a safety-first mentality in favour of fostering experimental . Thanks for the memories. The Most Dangerous Playground Equipment Rated for Doom Written by OwnPlayground Team Playgrounds can be excellent, but can also lead to some serious injuries if not appropriately monitored. Variations of this type of log swing survived into the early 1970s, but today multi-person swings are frowned upon because of their great mass and the risk of catastrophic impact injuries [PDF]. See 20 forts built upon branches. Due to the danger presented by Giant Strides, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission putthem on the equipment not recommended list [PDF]. With 7 kids in my family growing up on the equipment we had only 2 ER injuries, my older brother falling off the monkey bars and breaking an arm at 5, and me breaking a nose at 7 by flying off a 60s swing set glider (riding it on my belly). Yes, there are fall limits and specifications for surfaces and safety is very important, but encouraging age appropriate risk taking is still an important part of playground provision. 'What the spongy surface playgrounds don't do is teach kids that there is a consequence to falling, and they won't learn anything from it,' said Faulkner. Our grade school playground had a spinner that could go so fast no one could stay on it. There were no lawsuits are calls to tear down the equipment. A few of the violent youngsters shown in the included video clips appear to be ethnic Europeans. And there were always those kids who seemed to enjoy getting rope burns when they slid down. I grew up with metal slides and steel jungle gyms and I was just fine. Berlin's playgrounds are some of the most physically challenging in the world, and German parents are fine with that. Last picture of a two-page spread in the 1976-1977 yearbook. Once a climbing frame has got past the TV, however, manufacturers can use the certificate to defend themselves in court against lawsuits relating to accidents. Monkey bars and seesaws are both on their way out of most American playgrounds because they're seen as too perilous by concerned doctors and traumatized parents. That's music to an actuaries' earsand also to some parents. Would that work on the plastic slide to make it slicker? In 2019, a family that had sued the Howell Township, New Jersey, school district when their daughter fell off the slide and broke her arm won a settlement of $170,000. My heart was in my throat as I eavesdropped on the other parents at pick-up the following day. One of my favorite stunts was to climb one of the 12 tall pipes on the swing set and sit on top. As late as the 1990s, kids could climb a 30-foot metal slide and really get some speed, not to mention some burns as they sped along that sun-roasted metal [PDF]. Instagram's algorithms would have shown Molly Russell Two children killed at sleepover are laid to rest two days Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 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Almost every town or city park had swings, teeter totters, a jungle gym, monkey bars, horizontal bars (for the girls to do knee spins on), one or two or more steel slippery slides (what we called them) (and yes, they did get hot!). The old people-powered spinners have been around for generations, which means people have been falling off them, crashing into other kids, and being rocket-launched off them for at least a century. Why, yes. "The Land! | Even insurance companies agree. Here are some girls getting fit at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, way back in June 1911. Spielpltze gefallen kleinen Kindern. Images of the log swing in action show children overloading the beam up to 14 kids deep, while others reveal that some youngsters rode the oscillating piling of doom surfboard-style. The burning slides. Im 73 years old and recognize some of these, although many are from my grandparents time. Sitting was the safe way to ride, but standing was often the norm when no adults were looking. Playgrounds By awen1b Definitely a nice addition to center parc, worth visiting for kids to have fun. 03:40. Business. I was laughing because on my birthday park outing I got hit in the forehead with the end of one of these and vividly remember the goose egg. Giving maximum play area per dollar, the General Playground catalog offered the tallest version of the Fire Chief at the price of $178.. ago. Merry-go-rounds werescrapped by the dozen. They replaced it with a tiny, useless version of itself. It was rated to hold up to 40 kids or five tons. For real: On sunny days, and without shade, temperatures on these metal slides could get up past 160 degrees. Here is what they were up way up to back in 1900-1910 at Trinity Play Park in Dallas, Texas. Use equipment properly slide feet-first, don't climb outside guardrails, no standing on swings, etc. Once up top, you exited the tube through another oval shaped hole and could walk around a circular platform that went around the outside of the rocket till you got to the slide. Even with a soft landing in four feet of water, calling this monument to mirth a safety swing might be a bit of a stretch. But, at least the injuries on playgrounds today are minor. And while I appreciate your perspective, and hear your argument, I absolutely do not appreciate you telling me shame on you. I have done nothing remotely shameful, and honestly dont understand why youre so angry at a stranger about an article topic that may have some degree of personal meaning to you, but is not actually about you or your choices, past or present. And as a denizen of play conferences, I can attest that many play scholars are eager for more exciting playgrounds. It also means our ancestors had to successfully navigate the old playgrounds at school and the parks, surviving all manner of swings, spinners, slides, jungle gyms and other old-school vintage play equipment. Was the above photo too tame? 11 items. The name came from the fire pole mounted down the center of the structure, allowing tykes to drop around 15 feet to an unpadded concrete slab underneath. I remember playing on the Jungle Gym AND Splinter Delivery System, but both were miles better than todays mania for bubble-wrapping your kids and sticking them in front of a TV. less common: m. m. Kinderspielflche f. Very similar to the catalog page above, this huge, sprawling metal structure is part of the Hiawatha Playground in Seattle. Way up. Neuland-Park 65 Parks Playgrounds By Hawen12 Has big events too. Ironically, "safety" culture is stunting kids' risk assessing abilities, in their estimation. German Translation of " playground" | The official Collins English-German Dictionary online. It sort of looks like a minimalist Ikea version of a play structure. The initial version of German standard DIN 7926 - Playground equipment appeared in December 1976. Skinned knees and bruises only last a while. Not so shipshape! par | Juil 2, 2022 | handbook of discourse analysis | Juil 2, 2022 | handbook of discourse analysis However, we had a solution to the problem; us boys would take our shirts off and slide down on our shirts. Accordingly, the Triitopia tower in Berlin-Frohnau is encased with boards and netting to ensure no child can take a tumble from a height above three metres. Sure, there were bound to be some breaks, bumps and bruises among the survivors but, based on the simple fact that youre reading this right now, your ancestors clearly made it through childhood with their personal equipment intact. Should others be held liable for accidents if people CHOOSE to go to the playground? Indeed in part, they made it a better place by replacing some of this scary old playground equipment like the slideless slides and the spinning barrels with what has evolved into the brightly-colored plastic playgrounds of today. Play:ground NYC's research suggests that children are better than we think at assessing risk, while Faulkner claimed that over sanitising and scrutinising kids could in fact cause more accidents. Now that you know, have fun looking around! Keen to get away from the neighbours? Even back then was anyone being forced to participate? This article may be worth a skim: The Fallacy of the I Turned Out Fine Argument: You didnt use seatbelts when you were growing up and you lived to tell about it? Insurer Zurich Municipal in 2019 withdrew its cover from several of Britain's adventure play parks, blaming the move on an increase in the number and cost of claims arising from play-related accidents.