By Khawla Rahman
Growing up when a fellow child got hurt by an object, one of two things tended to happen often. Either the parent would tell them to get back at whatever it was that hurt their little one, or they would advise him or her that he or she is strong and much tougher than the pain. The parent would then go on to purchase multiple corner guards or place extra carpet over any inch of hard wood in sight.

This begs the question, do we as a society shelter our children too much? Meghan Talarowski, an American landscape designer who has compared British and American playgrounds https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/world/europe/britain-playgrounds-risk.html thinks so. She says that the appearance of a marketplace for high safety play equipment has lead to a gradual sterilization of child play. Characteristics like rubber floors on drop zones or “boulders” made of fiberglass create a “play jail.”

Her observations support this stance as well. They show that British playgrounds, which are known to intentionally place controlled risks like spiky bushes or big trees for climbing, had 55 percent more visitors overall and teenagers were 16 to 18 percent more active. Features like grass, sand, and high swings were what held the most attention. This is in stark contrast to American playgrounds where these ingredients are used minimally.
Britain isn’t the only country who believes in bringing in more risks to build resilience in children. Germany and Switzerland have more than 1,000 forest kindergartens where students, as the name may suggest, learn in the forest using sticks, sharp knives, and fire.

Nature engrossed learning is not nonexistent here but is definitely confined to the borders of extracurricular activities or summer camps. As Talarowski’s article suggests, does sense stimulation need to be incorporated more into the American lifestyle? Is it possible that we could be preventing children from being resilient by cocooning them?

The numbers give a firm “yes”.

Khawla Rahman is a Communication Studies student at Wayne State University. She is completing a public relations internship at Authority Health this spring.