A while ago, I came across a piece of play equipment that I personally named “The Semicircle of Ruin.” Like a railway, it consists of a single steel wire, bent upward at each end to form a semicircle. A flat trolley is placed on the curved track. The child stands on the cart and, holding a fixed bar, rolls back and forth, up and down in a semicircle. I saw the child lose his balance and land hard on the iron fence, possibly even breaking his leg or arm. Just stepping on it requires balance and can be dangerous.
However, for the past year and a half, I have taken my 5-year-old daughter to a playground in Prague, near the Vltava River in the Czech Republic, and I have never seen a child injured by this device. And her daughter is using it while I nervously watch. Playgrounds also have other fear-inducing devices, at least for parents. There are discs with space for two or her three children to sit, set at different angles and rotated around the center. There is a rotating set of curved vertical tubes fixed to the climbing cage.
Playgrounds receive less infrastructure attention than roads, subways, bridges, power lines, and even bike lanes. But they are an important amenity of cities. Every city in America has them. The number nationwide is estimated to be over 10,000, but I think this is a low estimate. In a crowded city, a humble little playground is very important, even if there isn’t a lot of open space. We took our child to the hospital in Brooklyn several times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. Playgrounds are not used much in the suburbs. Children can play in the backyard. However, they remain an important part of the public sphere.
A playground equipment called “The Semicircle of Ruin” in Prague. It probably wouldn’t pass a safety liability test in the US, but it’s popular in Europe and doesn’t cause any injuries. (Alex Marshall)
Playground designs in both cities and suburbs have become more imaginative in recent years, as our list of America’s 50 Best Playgrounds shows. But while American playgrounds are often good, they don’t have the same edge as Prague’s. I was interested in this, so I tracked down American Julia Lousakis, who has worked in this field for 20 years, including more than 10 years at a German play equipment company.
In Germany and many parts of Europe, playgrounds are more adventurous and challenging, Lousakis said. “It’s part of the American myth that we’re brave and cowboys. But that’s not how we raise our kids here. In Europe, we’re more tolerant of things that can happen in life. On the playground. What could happen is not that threatening.”
As expected, responsibility is one reason America’s playgrounds are less adventurous. Our legal system makes it easier for individuals and groups to sue for personal injuries. In Europe, it is more difficult to sue for personal injuries and everyone is believed to have access to a doctor. A broken arm or deep cut on the playground can be financially devastating for families in the U.S., where medical care is not guaranteed, and even those with insurance can end up paying high deductibles and fees. There is a possibility that These and other factors shape playground design and parenting in general.
“Europe has a different approach to child development,” Rousakis says. “In Germany, there is an emphasis on personal responsibility, increased trust, and reduced fear of injury and kidnapping. Children are therefore encouraged to play more freely and climb where they like. Things are safe, but less is prescribed.”
In Europe, authorities also have to certify public playgrounds as safe. And in Prague, most playgrounds are now made of rubber or another relatively soft material, rather than the hard concrete I knew as a child. These standards allow for more unrealistic risks.
The author’s daughter takes an extensive ropes course for younger children at a playground in the Czech Republic. (Alex Marshall)
Children are drawn to heights, speed, and flowing water, perhaps because of the element of danger. Prague’s playgrounds reflect these trends more directly. Some of the playgrounds here actually have zip lines, a device where kids hang from a rope and slide down a cable above the plaza.
This theme of playground design fits into the larger debate going on right now about whether parenting is becoming too overprotective and children’s lives too restrictive. A group called Free-Range Kids is actively making this case. For American cities and states sympathetic to this point of view, the key may be to gently push the boundaries of what is acceptable, rather than defer to lawyers and administrators’ initial answers about what is acceptable on playgrounds. .
All in all, the more adventurous European playgrounds entertain me rather than scare me. On sunny weekends, she takes her daughter to a playground on a small island in the Vltava River. It has a full ropes course for younger kids. I couldn’t imagine seeing that in America. There is certainly a possibility of injury, but there is also a possibility of joy.
