Here comes the end of classes and the start of vacation for Quebec children and students. For many parents, it will be the race to accompany their offspring to sports training, games and tournaments. For others, it will be round trips to take the little ones back to day camp. In short, a summer that rarely rhymes with rest, even for young people who see their days too often planned to the quarter turn.
For months, the children must be rigorous, arrive on time for school, do their lessons and their homework well and learn to become good citizens. Then, when the end of classes finally arrives, what should normally be a time to recharge your batteries, have fun and take a little time, becomes a simple continuation of the school year.
There is little room for improvisation and risk. Our society, in general, does not like to take the chance that an accident happens and a child gets hurt. Everything is planned with the objective of zero risk. This is absolutely incompatible with the acquisition of autonomy in young people.
Breaking your neck from time to time is very formative. Anyway, I’m not too ashamed to say that when my son comes home crying with injuries all over, I think he just learned how to avoid accidents next time. Although he has the unfortunate habit of liking it, kicking the ass. Let’s say that I am not the example of caution when I practice a sport or physical activity either. What I teach my son is calculated risk.
Dude, go ahead, jump and climb, but assess the risk of falling and hurting yourself. Prepare well for your eventual fall to reduce the potential injury.
You have noticed how play areas in parks are laid out with the same idea of minimizing the dangers for children. We are obsessed with controlling the game of our young people. See in well-fenced spaces for children, these prefabricated plastic modules that act as a framework for the safe amusement of children. It’s reassuring, isn’t it?
What a moment of contemplation and calm for the parents sitting around, cell phone in hand and head down staring at the screen! During this time, without worry, their little offspring play freely in the well-structured enclosure. This prevents them from fully developing all their childhood imagination. To hell with the valuation of motor development: move that way, slide that way and climb that way. Fortunately, the more adventurous sometimes circumvent the rules by jumping where the module had not planned.
How many parents and public decision-makers are ready to value this approach to children’s play? You know, let them play freely at the risk of injury. Give them the chance to create their own course in the modules or facilities, and thus acquire the motor skills necessary for their physical and mental development.
In recent years, we have seen the emergence of this new trend that promotes free play among young people. Inspired by Scandinavian and German cities, the idea is to create a play area that is as unorganized as possible and without direct supervision.
I remember when I started my first term as borough mayor, when we were offered the renovation of play areas for 2-5 year olds and 6-12 year olds, it was always based on commercial catalogs of prefabricated modules . It’s like the Sears catalog of old, but for cities. To arrange the play space, we choose options and at the end, we have the cost.
Then, one day, a new elected official, Stephanie Watt, began to tell us about the principle of free play. Thanks to her, we have shaken things up and changed the way children’s games are planned in the parks of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. Honestly, I liked it, because it came to join what I valued with my boy.
What this has also allowed is to give more freedom and leeway to our landscape architects, urban planners and recreation specialists. Our professionals were able to demonstrate their creativity and invent fragmented spaces, integrating better with nature and the environment of the park.
This is also the role of a local government. Acting directly and concretely on the habits of people who use public spaces. A city can induce changes in behavior and culture by simple gestures, such as the way in which children’s games are set up.
Summer has arrived and it’s finally school vacation for thousands of young people. We should give ourselves a real break control. Let your child take risks, even if it means getting their arm in a cast. You’ll see, one day he’ll probably thank you for letting him screw up!
CEO of the Institute for Urban Resilience and Innovation, professor and associate researcher, François William Croteau was mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.