As part of the Scaling Up: Building Play Networks at the Regional Level presentation by the CAPN at the US Play Coalition Conference we invited the participants to look ten years into the future and share a vision for a more playful world. Here are some of those visions.
Free play with loose parts in every school every day. Adventure playgrounds in every city with mud, wood/tools and RISK. Big kids need play too! – Kristin Shepherd [Recess Revolution]
That all children and families will have access to safe, beautiful, natural spaces for play. That our play networks are strong across disciplines, sectors, and geography. -Deborah Wisneski [University of Nebraska Omaha]
Baby steps…more recess for kiddos in schools. Play on natural landscapes rather than metal equipment, in all places, urban especially. Children will have freedom to roam and play safely in their neighborhoods, free range living. – Heather VonBank [Midwest Play Conference]
Develop an outdoor nature camp with overnight camping program. Having a partnership with local colleges and using college students as internship opportunities. Giving college students a place to help young children play. – Joel McCormick [Chowan University]
We need to make outdoor play spaces accessible to everyone, from rural communities to urban areas. And we need to let kids play. We can’t be scared of outdoor play. We need to embrace and encourage it. – Brian VanDengan [Readington Recreation NJ]
Ten years from now I hope we have a society with open gardens in all urban neighborhoods. Play areas connecting and cornerstoning our communities with gardens and trees to climb. I remember playing in dirt and water – unlearning restricted play. Outdoor classroom. -Onshalique Winters [NoLiCDC / Pluto LLC]
Play in schools to be the norm, not the exception. Play to be accessible to not just the elite. Play to be about children and not about curriculum, “education” and rigor. – Helen Nonn [Woven Wonder]
For me it all starts with early childhood education. And there is an old saying in ECE, “The smaller the child, the bigger the canvas.” There is not a bigger canvas than being outdoors. Raze all playgrounds and replace them with dirt mounds and boards. – Jim McCullough [Adventure Walkers, LLC]
I would like to help create opportunities that encourage adults to step back and let their kids lead. That getting muddy and open-ended play is a normal thing. These opportunities will include teachers, parents and of course kids. If we all learn to play outside in an open-ended way we’ll all benefit – especially the kids of the future. – Caitlin Luttjohann [Kansas Children’s Discovery Center]
My vision for outdoor play in my community is to get more children of all ages acess to outdoor play on a year-round basis. -Kristen Peterson [Butterfly Hill Nature Preschool]
In ten years our children will be able to value play through experimental learning experiences, being creative and positively engaged. -Brionna Ashley [Dream Chasers]
All children have access to peaceful experiences in nature, creating empathy and connection to the natural world. -Kate Unger [Houston Zoo]
People of all ages are found outside, climbing trees, making mud pies, building things, chasing each other around, laughing and smiling, and doing whatever makes them feel most joyful. In other words: grown-ups are playing too. -Kerri Schiller [University of Illinois]
Playing Out is available for all children and young people. Children are out in the streets again and they are seen throughout the community. Kids are found in parks, outside at schools, shopping centers, and in public spaces. They are outside again hanging out, maybe coming in as the sunsets, maybe not. In fact, whole communities (all of us) are outside listening to music, chatting, playing, spending time together and apart. But…have the choice and opportunity to just “be” outside. A world of children and adults playing out! -Linda Kinney [North Carolina Zoo]
Mudpits, high heights, building and making and swept up into a narrative, a grocery store clerk, right here on this stump in the woods, or swept up in pursuit of a question – who dances this herky jerk way better? What’s it feel like to climb laying flat on your back? – this for all of us. Kids, adults, all of us. -Dalton Gray [Adventure Society / Institute of Play /ESC Games]
There is open wooded area where a child is running toward a stream. When he reaches the stream he finds a friend. Together the begin to dig in the mud with the spoons they brought with them. Quickly the mud becomes quite valuable and the story becomes mine, and the children found imaginary outcomes. -Patsy Stine [Pure Play Every Day, Inc.]
My view for outdoor play in the future is that children will need it even more desperately than they do now. – Anonymous
Communities, rural, urban, large and small will have safe access to play. School yards, recreation centers, community colleges, child cares, museums – all include areas for free play. Ideally, adults are present and supportive. – Anonymous
Outdoor play will be explorative, it will have fewer boundaries and be accessible to everyone. – Anonymous
This is now if we just do it…no need to worry if it would change in 10 years. Outdoor play is the first choice considered, they chosen for “what to do.” Outdoor play is for unstructured exploration and the “GOAL” is not the goal. To touch, smell, hear, taste, see…starts what is next…to test, to observe, to discover, to connect, to invent, to friend, to be. – Anonymous