Playing in the Right Playground

Playing in the Right Playground 

I have always believed that children's play should be experienced in a clean, child-friendly environment. And I strongly assert that every child should experience play for the benefits for adulthood in these harm-free environments. Unfortunately in the essay "Industrial Ruins", they have another opinion on where children should spend their time playing. The central theme is the abandoned ruins should be used as a playful environment, for adults, teenagers, and children. Due to "the absence of surveillance" (64), it is encouraged that visitors experiment with "playful and expressive performances" (67) with the terrain.  

Now you might be wondering what exactly is in an Industrial Ruin. Well, "it contains the rough, splintery texture of rotting wood, crunchy shards of glass, the mulch of mouldering paper, moss and saplings, decomposing clothes, corroding steel and the oily residues of industry" (67). Reading what is in an industrial ruin didn’t shock me. But what truly shocked me when reading the essay was that "the denial of access to wild-scapes has a detrimental impact on children's long term development" (74). The authors want to make it known to the reader that it is "important to recognize that relative freedom from direct retribution is essential to the playfulness afforded in the industrial ruin, since this foreground the affective, embodied and sensual qualities of play" (76). I completely disagree with the argument made in "Industrial Ruins". No child, or any human should play in this dangerous, and unsanitary environment. How does rotting wood and smashing glass windows offer the "sensual qualities of play" (76)? It is unsanitary for a child to play with rotting wood and dangerous to play with broken glass!

It is essential that all children play growing up, but most importantly in safe environments, due to the healthy benefits of play for later in life. There needs to be more of a distinction of safe places where children should play and where they shouldn't. Obviously children are taught not to play in areas, like industrial ruins, but the authors are clearly suggesting that this be the new playground for kids. The essay also argues in the conclusion that,  

"… in losing themselves in disordered spaces, children actually find their selves – become "true children” – without the ordered surveillance of adulthood with its restrictions and imposition of overarching codes of how children should be" (74). So by playing in boarded-off areas, it will encourage children to experiment with harmful materials in order to become "true children" (74).  

I believe that children don't understand the ideas of boundaries and it is obvious that the boundaries of Industrial Ruins are off limits! I think that it is okay for children to be unsupervised when playing certain activities such as making mud pies or pretending to play "Shopping" with play food. But it is a different story when kids are unsupervised when playing with "shards of metal" (69) or "dead animals" (69). It is DEFINITELY not okay.

I have noticed when children are left unsupervised without adults problems arise. In a way, industrial ruins can be thought of as a deserted island. Similar to industrial ruins, deserted islands lack adult supervision and allows oneself to be free to do whatever they would like with the materials around them.  One example is in the novel "Lord of the Flies" written by William Golding. It is the story of a group of preadolescent boys stranded on an island without adult supervision. After living on the islands for a few days, most of the boys turn into savages after fulfilling their craving of killing animals. The boys end up turning against their original leader named Jack, burning down the forest, and killing their two friends, Simon and Piggy. The absence of adult supervision scars the children and makes them realize the presence of a "beast" that was within themselves. These fictional children faced a traumatic experience. They were left to survive without adults to guide them. Who knows what might happen if children were left alone in industrial ruins. How will children find "their selves" and  "become true children" (74) without adults to guide them on their journey through life?

There are different types of play in the ruins; it is not for everyone, especially children. I believe that what most parents want for their children is to play in safe areas without worrying about being exposed to harmful materials.

"Industrial ruins offer empty corridors to run along; stairs to ascend; windows to climb through; trap doors to be avoided … rumble to clamber over … extensive abandoned and cleared shop floors that enable the enactment of expressive and unfamiliar physical performances" (67).

Well, that definitely doesn’t sound kid friendly. You don’t have to play in industrial ruins to feel the true feeling of play. I believe that as a society, we have to continue the practice of having our children play in clean and safe environments.

 

Works Cited

Edensor, Tim. Evans, Bethan. Holloway, Julian. Millington, Steven and Binnie, Jon. Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance. Urban Wildscapes. Ed. Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan. New York: Routledge, 2011. 65-79.

Golding, William. (1962) Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann.