Outrage of the Season: No Winter Recess, Safety Ground Cushioning “Too Hard”

I understand from friends in Northern New York state that it has been an exceptionally mild winter. So it is entirely likely that a) the ground is not frozen now and b) it certainly won’t be though April. I know the ground in Toronto is not frozen. I do wonder what was under the playground before they replaced the surface (sand perhaps) and why that was considered safe in previous years.

At my kids’ schools here in NJ they don’t get to play outside at lunchtime reces if the temp is below 32*F. However, when we were stationed in Germany and the kids were at DoDDS (US) schools, the rule was “Dress them appropriately for outdoor play all winter except extreme cold temperatures or inclement weather.”

I cannot imagine that the soft-surface playground coverings are any worse than a blacktop ground. Short of leaving the country, I wish to be able to find a school that allows for “old-fashioned” (read: when I grew up in the 1970s and 80s with monkey bars, swings and real see-saws and merry-go-rounds) education. Not based on test scores and insurance policies. Although Australia might have its advantages… 😉

This is crazy! Here on Long Island, our winter has been so blessedly mild that both my kids have had outdoor recess far more often than they ever had in previous winters. That said, there still are issues. In my younger boy’s K-2 school, the principal (who I otherwise like) is notorious for cancelling outdoor recess not for cold temps, but if the ground is still wet from rain, or there’s sand on the blacktop (the kids alternate between blacktop/basketball and the playground). In my older son’s 3-5 school, the principal is more likely to let them out as long as it’s not raining or snowing or under 32 degrees. On those days they are supposed to have indoor recess in the gym, but that doesn’t always work if, say, one grade’s recess period overlaps with another grade’s gym period. In-classroom recess is terrible! It makes me pine for their daycare days, when we parents were told — you make sure you send in proper clothing for all weather, because we’re going outside unless it’s under 30 degrees, raining, or snowing. They bundled ’em up and sent ’em out even if it was to play in partly-melted snow with muddy toys. Kids and their clothes are all washable, after all.

The ground here in Maine is not frozen so i’m willing to bet it’s just fine in New York.

I am a little bit confused about this post, is there NOWHERE outside the kids can play? A yard, parking lot, anywhere? I can’t imagine the behavior issues that the school would be dealing with due to keeping these children indoors for months at a time. No matter how many activities and games you come up with to fill the void nothing beats letting kids run free OUTSIDE.

I’m 30yrs old and when I was in grade school, outdoor recess wasn’t called off until it dropped under 10 degrees. I went to a Catholic school and unless you brought pants to wear under your uniform, you went outside when it was 15 degrees, bare legs and all. We had no “playground”, just a big black top parking lot with jump ropes and basketballs. We fell on the ice and legs got smacked with jump ropes (the old kind that had plastic beading, OUCH!)….but guess what… everyone lived another day! I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have some sort of scab somewhere from falling. Wasn’t that the sign of an active kid? Now, we didn’t have these massive palatial swing sets or jungle gyms to fall off of either….but who would ever dream of sending a kid outside today without huge prefabricated entertainment (note sarcasm, that’s a whole other issue!) Well, rest assured that the kids in my area (northeast Ohio) will be properly protected from the elements. I have to send my 5yr old to safety town this summer, it’s 1 week in June, from I think 9-11:30am. Due to concerns from parents about sun exposure, it is now being held in an air conditioned building! I feel like my 80yr old Grandmother as I sit her shaking my head saying “I have never heard of such a thing!” …

Apropos the headline, I suspect that the issue is not that it is too hard, but that it gets too slick. Being more porous, I can see why that would be, even compared to blacktop.

But yeah, spray it down, salt it — there are lost of possibilities. Besides what Momofthree said — THE GROUND IS NOT A PERPETUAL SHEET OF ICE ANYWHERE THIS YEAR! Our bay on Lake Erie has had ZERO ice fishing this year because *there is no lake ice.* So even if it’s a few degrees colder on average up in Saratoga Springs, It is not impassable from now until April. The very *least* they could do is empower the principal to walk outside and say, “Oh, look, it’s 45 degrees and there’s no ice anywhere in the city limits. We can have recess today.”

At my kids’ school, the only person with the power to call off recess is the school nurse, and she’s only done that if a severe weather alert has been issued (severe cold/heat/wind/storm). Or if there’s lightning sighted. Otherwise, rain or shine, these kids are out on the terra firma playground for at least 30 minutes twice a day.

This is why I love my daughter’s preschool (I live in Rochester, NY). They have the 3-4 year olds out in almost any weather and they aren’t just playing in a playground, they are innertubing on the hill next to the school!

I can’t imagine indoor recess at -6C (20F). I live in Northern Alberta, Canada, and here, it’s outdoor recess until at least -15C (5F). After that, it depends on the age of the students. I remember working in one school where they had had 36 consecutive days of indoor recess due to -30C temps so the minute it was above -25, the principal bundled them all up for 10 mins and sent them out. Even that amount of time made a difference.

Maybe they come to school better prepared for cold up here, but you don’t need much to protect from -6C. And if they don’t get dirty…they’re not playing hard enough. That’s kind of the point, in my opinion.

My daughter attends school in West Des Moines, Iowa. The outdoor policy says that if the temperature is above 0*F, the children go outside. When there is a lot of snow, the children are required to have snow pants/boots to play on the playground. If they do not have these clothes, they still go outside and play on the blacktop instead of the playground. We have had a very mild winter and I think they have had 1 indoor recess and that was from rain. Not cold temps or snow.

I can’t believe this. I live in Canada in the central part of the province of Ontario. We don’t have any “protective matting” underneath any play structures on school playground. And I can’t even get my head around the fact that kids in some parts of the states aren’t allowed out because they can’t deal with snow on the ground or the temperatures !!! The rules here are they won’t let kids out for recess unless its colder than -20C (-4F) There’s ice, snow and slippery sections all over playgrounds here and no one would even bat an eye at not letting kids out for recess because of this. Unbelievable… really. And we have conditions like this for usually December until the end of March !!! I’m sure these school administrators in the states must think we are akin to child abusers allowing our kids to play in such “unsafe conditions” and let them out in such FRIGID weather. Please, give me a break @@@@@

Somewhere between my childhood and now, many people seem to have decided that playgrounds are for summer use only. I live in Minnesota, and the temperature often gets down below zero (fahrenheit) in the winter. Our neighborhood homeschool group goes outside to the parks in almost all weather, and we rarely see any other kids there (and we meet after school hours, so you’d think there would be kids coming from school). You do see kids outside at the parks for sledding after a big snowfall, but not often at other times.

I often think that part of this is that people’s houses have gotten bigger and so they let their kids run around inside and don’t care if they’re wild. We live with 5 people, two cats, and two dogs in a house that’s less that 1000 square feet. If I let the kids run around in here they would break something, step on an animal, or hurt themselves or someone else. I’m kicking them outside all the time, just as I remember my parents doing. But few people seem to do this anymore.

@onemusingmama – are we in the same district? That sounds just like my daughter’s school (broken arm and all).
Here in Minnesota we are having a very mild winter, but our kids are allowed outside as long as it’s above -10 F. They have wood chip mulch under the play structure that freezes and I just asked my daughter if it hurts to fall on that and she said (incredulously), “No, we have our snowpants on”. Alrighty then. I asked her about the kids who don’t wear snowpants, are they allowed outside? She said “Yes, but they have to be more careful”.

Thank goodness for schools who have kept their sanity.

Seriously tragic. I think the kids would have been alright – they don’t have padding in their yards at home I’m sure. I think if the adults are wimpy about being outside that’s more likely why they cancel recess. But if the adults enjoyed being outside too probably recess would be there – even in the winter.

My son’s turning three this year and I’m finding it frustrating that very few of the preschool classes (mornings 2 days a week) have an outside component… I guess it’s just the start. 🙁

Perhaps this is the time when I carefully and somewhat timidly point out the unpleasant fact that sending a child to a government school is voluntarily giving up much that is positive and enriching in the education of that child. Yes, I know that many feel they have no choice, have to work, can’t afford private, but it is and will be worth rearranging your life to better accommodate what is best for your child. There’s a great big wonderful world out there, and your local school system does not intend to properly introduce it, or prepare your child for it. There is NO Free Range mentality in modern public education. None.

My son’s school ROCKS!!! The kids are outside for recess everyday-rain, sun or snow! In fact, they make a luge during p.e. and let the kids slide down on sleds. Not only that, the kids slide down the slide on the playground with snow/ice on it.

Many days, my son has come home with wet clothes and socks stuffed in his bag to be washed because they got so muddy/wet at recess. We live in New England and he goes to a school that honors a free range childhood.

@SG – I think we went to the same school. Catholic school, blacktop parking lot for a playground, no equipment, just balls and jumpropes, and we would be out there unless it was a blizzard. I have fond memories of a cousin of mine playing king of the mountain on big piles of snow. while on crutches, because he had broken his leg doing something else stupid a month before. It had to be a freaking monsoon before we had indoor recess.

Incidentally, the worst blood I ever saw was in first grade when we had indoor recess. We all had clay to play with and the teacher stepped out for a bit. Two kids made clay guns and chased each other around the room, causing one of them to fall and split his head open on a desk. His mom got called, he got stitches, and they both got in trouble for running around when the teacher’s back was turned. Ah, those were the days.

I suggest the parents try to organize a “running club”. At my kids school I have been doing this once a week- in this case all they needed was one parent to volunteer for an hour (extra eyes for the back of the school). The teachers use a simple form for kids to log their laps so they can keep track of how far they’ve run (MATH!). Kids that don’t want to run can of course walk with their friends, and chit chat on their own. It’s amazing to me, though to see how many of the children RUN almost the whole time with huge smiles on their faces!

This is the opposite problem I’ve been having with that new squishy matting. I prefer my daughter to go barefoot as often as possible, and have found that, in our area, even the blacktop does not get too hot to walk on. Not so for the ‘safety matting’! That material heats up even more than the concrete and asphalt, making it necessary to constrict children’s feet in shoes if they want to play on the swings! And forget about crawling on their hands and knees, or rolling around, or lying down…

I don’t think this has anything to do with how well the safety measures in place are…well…safe. This is a another product of worse case thinking by an institution. What it all boils down to is, they DON’T WANT TO BE SUED. In a way, I can’t blame them. They are covering their own asses. BUT…at what cost? Adults are so freakin selfish that they put their own needs above that of their children. No, you aren’t protecting your kids, no it’s not about their safety, and no you aren’t smart at all. Smart people don’t make dumb decisions. They don’t get all paranoid because a pin drops. When they here of some isolated, rare and remote incident that happened on the other side of the world, they don’t run for the hills with kids in tow (or at least that mentality). They only way to stop this idiotic way of thinking, is to start making changes. Or should I say, start reverting back before these changes started happening. Revert back to when it WAS about the kids. Schools stuck up for children and their right to be children, and parents supported them. That the very, very few people at the time that had lawsuit in mind, were always trumped when they petitioned to close a playground, or stop certain activities for kids. Where they were laughed at and chastised. Only for them to realize they just made their own kids unhappy, and changed their attitude. The more people give in to all types of paranoia, the more our society crumbles. And believe it or not, the more authorities can control us. From civil servants to government. We need to take back our sanity and our lives from this perpetuating ignorance and madness. I for one will never give into this day and age’s paranoia and distrust. And will make sure that my own family will never either.

@ Susan: I disagree. I know some private schools who have or have more restrictions when it comes to their students. After all, they PARENTS are paying for their kids to attend these schools. So it’s in the best interest of the institution to make sure the PARENTS are happy. And these days, parents are parents. A paranoid parent who have kids going to a private school, is no different than a paranoid parent who has kids going to a public school. As for home school, I personally don’t believe in it. Not saying people shouldn’t do it, that’s really up to them. Whatever works for them and makes them feel better. But, IMO, we can’t spend every waking day with our kids, and not allow them to be among other kids to socialize. There are times when, unstructured, unplanned, “whatever happens, happens” is necessary for a child’s development. Mind you, it’s still up to us to educate our children to be able to deal with most things that will come their way. So that should anything happen when they are on their own, they are well equipped to deal with it. Kids have for thousands of years. It’s only in the last 20 years that kids have been a little more…well…let’s just say, ill equipped to stand on their own two feet. And that would be no fault of their own. Since they are only taking lead from the people they trust most…their parents.

It all starts at home. The mentality of the parents are passed right on to their kids. Parents’ negative thoughts, become the child’s. That’s just fact. However we raise our children, the most important thing that should be on our minds is what will benefit them, now and in their future. NOT, what will benefit and make US feel better about our decisions. Let kids be kids, like kids before them. It’s worked for countless generations, why try and change and age old tradition that has worked, for something that only quells the parents’ fears.

I’ll just chime in from Minnesota that kids go out for recess as long as it’s above 0 degrees and yes that is Fahrenheit. Happily my daughters school adheres by this guide lines and they even do Ice Skating Club in January where they horror of horrors take the children outside 3 days a week, no matter what the temperature with sharpened blades tied to their feet and attempt to teach them not to fall down. As parents we are expected to send kids dressed for cold weather and the school has a few spare pairs of snow pants to cover those kids who don’t have appropriate weather gear. Growing up here, I remember hating winter recess cause we had to go outside and freeze for 35 minutes whether we wanted to or not, we were excited when it was declared too old to go out and we could play games in the classroom, I can’t imagine having to do that all the time as a kid, or controlling a class that didn’t’ get outside time.

I live in Michigan and I feel lucky that my kindergartner goes outside almost every day for almost an hour. The only time they stay inside is if it is pouring outside. We have wood chips under the play structure and the rest of the playground is grass. The boys spend most of their time chasing each other around and play imaginative games. This school also allows the kids to wrestle with each other. I send him out of district. The district I live in doesn’t even allow the kids to play tag because there is a no touching rule. They also rarely go outside at that school.

THIS IS FOR EricS, regarding kids and socialization:

http://sandradodd.com/socialization/

http://livingtheunschoolinglife.com/2010/04/28/but-how-will-they-learn/

http://voices.yahoo.com/unschooling-homeschooling-socialization-6586014.html?

cat=25http://anunschoolinglife.com/homeschooling-and-socialization/

This brings to mind the school in Maryland that started a running club during recess, handing out trinkets for a certain number of laps, and created a more-fit, better-behaved, and more-attentive student body. I wonder if the teachers here can run the kids around the playground for 10 minutes at a time, or the outside of the gym during other classes’ gym time, or even around the block or up and down the sidewalk in front.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fredericks-orchard-%20grove-elementary-school-is-making-strides-in-fitness/2011/05/25/AGC2LOEH_story_1.html

(Is no one else suspicious that this might have nothing to do with safety, but rather with teachers not wanting to stand outside in the cold for a half hour or more to supervise?)

Ann, if that is the case, then the joke is on them! I hope they have fun dealing with all the distracted kids and the lowered test scores because the kids are fidgeting too much to learn the material!

Well, I can’t find stats for December, but a quick Google reveals that in late January in Oslo, they get just shy of 8 hours of from sunrise to sunset each day. Very few people live significantly farther north than that, so it’s not quite *that* bad. 🙂

Except that insisting the children wear headlamps was the staff’s suggestion, not my little quip.

Point is, even when it’s extreme enough to require a little extra help to keep the kids safe (and those situations DO happen), they’re still sending the 3 and 4 and 5 year olds out.

@Eric, et al; I went to public schools, I taught at public schools, my own kids went to public schools, and I can honestly say from all those experiences that public schooling just isn’t what it used to be. I do not believe that modern education can be fixed, it’s going to have to implode and let a new and better way of teaching children emerge. Education cannot be a cookie-cutter approach; all kids cannot, and should not, learn and experience exactly the same things. I hope today’s parents of young children will go out and find the situation that will give their children the education that they need and deserve, not the one that our bloated government committees, far removed from kids and the classrooms, devise.

61 comments, most of them about the lazy kids, or lazy teachers, and not a one of them thinks that maybe – just *maybe* – this sounds just a little fishy? My daughter heard this story and did something nobody else here bothered to do – find out if it’s actually true. I won’t ruin the surprise.

The fact that people are wasting money on “surfaces” for playgrounds just boggles the mind. Mother Nature has the perfect surface – it’s called the ground, AKA dirt.

Dave- you insinuate that this story is not true. Below is a link to a newsletter from Greenfield Elementary in Saratoga Springs which states that play on equipment has been suspended at the recommendation of the Saratoga Springs City School district because the regulating agency told them that the material is less effective at freezing temperatures. It does say that there is ample space for the kids to play besides the playground, and it does not mention April, but it seems rather in line with the story posted above. Perhaps there is more than one elementary school– one with ample space and one without? The newsletter is dated Jan 5, 2012… Where did you get your info??

Here’s a link… you do need to be able to log into GoogleDOCs to view it.. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Fvn7lM_92d8J:www.edline.net/files/_YFDgG_/1e59bd5ae9af2d6c3745a49013852ec4/Winter_Edition.pdf+saratoga+springs+school+district+playgrounds&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj50Stg52kHMK7oyU2Uu37ga9CDr2D-6Aik775hBP5HRXjFPv9B4mBght4HZ66dpB0MM5etRdxDzXaXPqLCCjL3EnOt6h4woSNfU9goP545rdH9lTqwggIBL53T6-Q4MibyOPxE&sig=AHIEtbSeWwML42akKiW_x_qgIf8njH7BdQ

In Canada (land of the frozen snow), we go outside year-round. The safety guidelines for extreme weather by Health Canada is -25C with windchill and -18C without. Some schools close their playground (but not the school yard) November to March (all depending on when the ground freezes/thaws) because the ground is too hard (due to freezing) to protect the kids should they fall off the play structure. Also, ice tends to collect under some structures. The students at my school have been outside pretty much every day this winter (it’s been unusually balmy), exception being a couple of rainy days. If it was my choice, they’d be out on rainy days too (it’s not like kids are like the Wicked Witch of the West and will melt if they get wet).

Pardon my ignorance, but don’t you all have snow and puffy winter coats to cushion falls? Snowball fights keep kids busy and warm. Don’t the Norwegians have a saying about there not being weather too cold, only inadequate clothing and equipment. My parents were expected to provide this since we walked and rode the bus through the cold Cleveland winters, and we played in our “playground” a parking lot, no matter what time of year. Though I seem to remember having a gym for dodgeball and other inside games at that time of year. Nothing like getting moving to keep you warm. Wish the grown ups would let the kids be kids.

Don’t your schools have an indoor play area? – I would have thought if you live in a climate where it is too cold to play outside for big chunks of the year then some sort of indoor gym area would be provided. We have just had a week of torrential rain in Sydney and I can tell you we (the teachers) are desperate for the kids to get outside and play. They all really need that time to burn off energy and socialise. They are bouncing off the walls and are bored silly being inside all the time. As for summer days when its really hot the rule is “no hat no play on the grass”, stay in the shade, close the basketball courts, encourage quiet games under the trees and if it is extremely hot 37 plus then we would keep kids inside in an aircon room. Believe the decision to keep kids inside is not made lightly, everyone recognises the need for the kids to get outside and play.

That’s strange, given that there is a gym. When I was a kid, we went out unless it was raining. If it was raining, we’d have gym recess in the gym.

Kids will fall off monkey bars and swings and skin their knees. It’s a natural consequence of play. I fell off the swings during recess plenty of times and lived to tell about it. My parents wouldn’t have dreamed of suing the school if I came home with a bruise. How can we expect kids to make decisions on their own, even if the consequences aren’t always pleasant (run too fast down the snowbank and you’ll fall and hurt your bottom) if we don’t let them have some freedom to be kids?

Akkk Pentamom, that’s not what I meant, I just reread what i wrote.

the kids in my area go outside for recess no matter the weather. I meant to say that the post about the playgound being closed because the matting was too cold was to avoid lawsuits. Heck I never have heaard about the playgrounds here being closed, or recess being cut out due to weather, only in severe rain do they do that.

My kids are older now, but when they were both in elementary school, the only guidelines for not going out to recess or lunch were extreme lightning storms and the temperature had to be at least -35C with the windchill. There were a few times when the temperature fell to – 50C and I still made my kids walk to school – they were dressed appropriately and the school was a half block from our house. On the few occasions that there was no recess, the school gym or designated classrooms became the playground because, let’s face it, the kids are getting cabin fever and no teacher or parents likes to deal with that.

“I suspect that the issue is not that it is too hard, but that it gets too slick. Being more porous, I can see why that would be, even compared to blacktop.”

Actually, I wonder if the issue is that it gets brittle and thus more BREAKABLE when frozen. A lot of those soft plastics do. The park across the street from my parent’s house put in that soft top stuff, and after a couple of years it has to be replaced because it’s completely broken apart.

“Actually, I wonder if the issue is that it gets brittle and thus more BREAKABLE when frozen. A lot of those soft plastics do. The park across the street from my parent’s house put in that soft top stuff, and after a couple of years it has to be replaced because it’s completely broken apart.”

possibly. Very open blacktop has that problem as well. Ideal for draining rainwater from roads so as to prevent aquaplaning, when it starts freezing it becomes extremely slick as any moisture in it gets driven out and forms a layer of ice on top. Plus it starts breaking up.
That’s why it’s not used in areas where temperatures regularly drop below freezing in winter for extended periods, too expensive to replace your entire road network every spring 🙂

Congress should, after declaring childhood obesity to be a dangerous national epidemic caused at least in part by lack of exercise:

(1) set up a nationwide workmen’s-comp-type program to pay for injuries suffered by children from school or day-care activities, recess, or normal play. This would free schools and daycare from any further liability, unless there is a criminal misconduct. (Workmen’s comp pays quickly for actual injuries, but not for nuisance suits or the non-economic “jackpots” that make risk-managers cringe. (Parents could still keep ther kids out of athletic events, recess, and play, provided they signed a waiver that they were aware of the risks of longterm obesity, and of reduced attentiveness by restless kids.)

(2) Where a school discourages physical activity and has a higher-than-average obesity rate, allow parents of obese children to file a class-action lawsuit demanding reforms to allow a reasonable amount of exercise.

We hiked up the side of a waterfall recently. It was muddy and icy and our kids ranged from 5-14. Afterwards, we walked down the semi-frozen creek. We had a blast falling through the ice, gliding down frozen parts, slipping into the freezing water and pulling up huge chunks of ice for photo ops. Our dogs were not impressed with the temperature of the water though. 🙂 How depressing to be locked indoors all winter.

Oooh! Which school do your kids go to?! Seriously, my daughter is 2 1/2. I would love to know.

btw, that captioned pic below the article: that giant metal slide must be frozen and iced over pretty well…i would SO GO ON THAT THING!!!!!

(2) Where a school discourages physical activity and has a higher-than-average obesity rate, allow parents of obese children to file a class-action lawsuit demanding reforms to allow a reasonable amount of exercise.

***

Sadly, this would just result in more structured gym time, which would turn these kids even further away from exercise, as gym class is no fun for fat kids.

What are the stats on this? The average North American home has, like, tripled in size over the last 60 years or so, I think. So yes, it makes a lot of sense that simply having more indoor space means we are more inclined to cut ourselves off from nature.

***

According to Elizabeth Warren’s book on the middle class, the average home has NOT tripled, but grown by an average of half a room, or about 60 sq feet (if I remember right). What has grown is the size of NEW homes. But most Americans don’t live in New homes.

I was sort of an indoor kid. I much preferred being inside, reading a book than being outside where I would get a sunburn or heat exhaustion.

This only applied to the summer though. In the winter, and particularly when there was lots of snow, you couldn’t keep me indoors.

I’m the same way now. Indoor activities in the summer, outdoor activities in the winter.

Wow! Makes my 780 sq ft home sound small…..No wonder I am filled with the urge to send the kids outside all the time!

When I was a kid in the 80’s when California had smog alerts at least twice a month we just moved PE and recess indoors into the large cafeteria. In fifth grade, the teachers and principal were smart as they just pulled up the tables into the walls of the cafeteria, scheduled each class for an hour and a half of PE and recess ( an hour for PE, half an hour for recess). Then each teacher was allowed to create an exercise program of their own. I enjoyed my teacher’s PE as she had us dancing an aerobics routine to 80’s electronic music ( still listen to those tunes now). If for some reason we couldn’t have recess in the cafeteria, she still had us push our desks against the walls and do our dance routines.

Where we recently moved to in Texas, the local school district does not schedule ANY recess into the school day. I found this out when my son came home from school very sad one day and when I asked him what was wrong, he said, “This school is no fun. We don’t have recess, etc.” What?! I was shocked. These poor children are in their classrooms from 8:15 – 3:15. No break at lunch. A neighbor told me they did away with recess about 10 years ago. I really wonder how many boys have been diagnosis ADD or ADHD since the “no recess” policy went into place. They do have gym class but that is not the same. I tried to tell the counselor that when she was concerned my son wasn’t making friends. I told her he had friends at his old school in South Dakota, and do you know where he made those friends? On the the playground, during recess!

It is sad, but I think we will never see a playground like this one in the United States anytime in the near future: http://www.theagitator.com/2012/02/09/photo-of-the-day-337/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+radleybalko+%28The+Agitator%29
We need them, though.

@Chris – seriously? Those rope things are really fun and pretty safe, especially with the safety matting underneath. You can do all sorts of things on one of them. They seem to be what is replacing the REALLY fun stuff, like the wooden forts and Tarzan swing ropes.My youngest has fallen from quite a height off one, and barely a scratch.

If you haven’t even got this sort of thing, what are your kids playing on?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of “playground cushioning”… I’m 33 and as a kid played at the local playground with a big steel jungle gym, big steel slide that got hot enough to fry an egg on in summer, etc. etc. And the ground of course was solid asphalt. And this was a normal suburban playground.

I don’t see this as breeding a generation of weaklings, as some would call it, just instilling an unfortunate mindset of fear and compliancy both in children and parents.

I love this blog but I’m glad I don’t have kids because I don’t think I could raise them the way, err, society apparently thinks I should.

About 6 years agoin the Brandon News & Tribune, I wrote a column(in response to the countless school shootings),that eventually, schools that require uniforms will also require as part of that uniform bullet-proof vests. Mark my words. It will happen.

I am a parent at this school and also attended the PTA meeting Saratoga mom mentions. Our principal, lunch monitors and custodial staff also attended this meeting to listen to the parents concerns and ideas. Since the playgrounds are off limits per the district the custodians made it a point to clear some areas for the children to play. We now have two small areas for the children to play basketball, two square and jump rope etc… also many teachers are taking their classes out for walk. Is this a perfect and long term solution? NO. But it is a start to solving this issue.

I am disheartened to hear this parent complain since there is group of concerned parents who are working to address this problem. I would encourage this person to join forces with this group to really find a solution within the Lake Ave community.

Good grief … I grew up in Montana, where below zero F (-18C) was the norm for most of the winter. If we had to wait for the playground to thaw, we would have gone 7 months with no recess.

Yes, the cushioning loses its cush when it’s cold, but so what? Is the entire city covered in this stuff, or should they be allowed to learn how to navigate frozen slippery areas?

I appreciate all the responses but does anyone have any medical literature saying why it’s not only OK but better for the kids if they go out? I need to make a case here to present to the Office of School Health– not just reminisce about how great it was when I was a kid! We all know that colds are caused by viruses not from cold air temperatures but that does not seem to be enough to convince the schools to let the kids outside when it’s below 32 degrees!