Documentary and Discussion Ask
‘Where Do the Children
Play?’
Children’s Museum Presents
Film Screenings About Outdoor Play
Providence Children’s
Museum is presenting two free
public screenings of “Where Do the Children Play?” The
provocative
documentary film examines an issue of growing concern among
pediatricians, mental health experts, educators and environmentalists:
more and more children are growing up today with few opportunities for
unstructured play, especially outdoors. An audience discussion
about
the ideas explored in the film will follow each screening. The
film
will be shown:
Tuesday, March 16
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Temple
Beth-El
70 Orchard Avenue, Providence, RI 02906
Panelists: Providence Children’s Museum director Janice
O’Donnell; Jewish Community Day School assistant head of school Renee
Rudnick; Tufts University child development professor Dr. W.
George Scarlett; and Grow Smart Rhode Island director Scott Wolf
Panelists: Providence Children’s Museum director Janice
O’Donnell;
Meadowbrook Waldorf School faculty chair Su Rubinoff; RI
Families in Nature founder and director Jeanine Silversmith;
and URI Child Development Center director Sue Warford
“Where Do the Children Play?” grew out of Elizabeth Goodenough’s work
on “secret spaces of childhood” at the University of Michigan.
The
film was written and directed by Christopher Cook and produced by
Michigan Television. “Children need free time every day to
discover
their own abilities, desires, and limitations,” said Goodenough, who
also edited the film’s companion volume, A Place for Play.
“Open-ended
exploration
and play in woods, fields, vacant lots, or
other semi-wild spaces enhances curiosity and confidence throughout
life.”
A marked decline in children’s spontaneous, unstructured and creative
play is a key factor in their increasing stress levels and mental
health problems, according to a 2007 clinical report from the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Causes of the demise of include
parental
fears of “stranger danger” and the explosion of electronic
entertainment in the lives of today’s children. These and other
issues
are explored in the film.
The lead author of the AAP report, Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg of the
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, appears in the documentary, along
with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, British
“playworker” Penny Wilson, and other experts in child development,
psychology and urban planning.
Most striking, however, are the scenes of children themselves engaged
in the rapt state of self-directed play and then describing the
importance of time and space for free play in their increasingly hectic
lives.
For more information, contact Megan Fischer at fischer@childrenmuseum.or
or visit the film’s website: http://www.wfum.org/childrenplay/.
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