No Time To Play!

Quote of the day:
“I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.”
--Kurt Vonnegut

Quote of the day no. 2:
“I remember fondly a joy-filled childhood in which we came home from school, gobbled down a snack and ran out to play until dark. We made up games, taught each other to roller skate and ride bicycles, ran and jumped, climbed and fell, fought and negotiated, and generally had lots of fun without adults telling us what to do.”
--Jane E. Brody, New York Times, May 22, 2007.

So much has been written about this recently. The lives of children have become over-structured and over-supervised.

As with so many topics, this is usually painted with too broad a brush. Just as some children 40 years ago didn’t lead “joy-filled” lives, it’s also true that many (most?) children today have a very healthy amount of structure in their lives.

Yet there is a serious matter to consider here. It is very difficult for children with no unstructured time both to develop social skills and to learn to think and make judgments independently. How can we expect these kids to begin to understand leadership?

On a more basic level, how can we expect these kids to learn consideration, generosity and respect?

Are we already seeing the consequences of this?