Portrait in Pink

 Asher, Idaho, Dennis DeHart, Fall 2011

Play, Naturally: A Review of Children's Natural Play

http://www.playengland.org.uk/resources/play,-naturally-a-review-of-children's-natural-play.aspx

You can download the entire review from the link above. "The review, Play, naturally: A review of children's natural play, looks at the benefits of play on children's health and well-being, and outlines what we should be doing to compensate for the loss of natural play space in recent years."

From Strange Maps: 571 - The Great Indoors, or Childhood's End?

571 - The Great Indoors, or Childhood's End?

Frank Jacobs on June 26, 2012, 7:47 PM

Not too many decades ago, being a child in the western world meant having a license to roam: you spent a large chunk of your free time outside, exploring your surroundings, chasing adventure. This is the Huckleberry Finn mould of carefree childhood - even if you weren’t floating down the Mississippi on a raft, you could easily imagine that you were. 

That mould has definitely been broken. A British study called One False Move, investigating the mobility of children, found that the average eight-year-old saw its ‘home habitat’ shrink to one-ninth of its size within a single generation. In 1970, 80% of British kids 7 or 8 years of age were allowed to go to school unsupervised; by 1990, this figure had dropped below 10%.

The result of this gradual shrinkage of children’s habitat, is the effective end of the outdoor childhood. This evolution, by and large underreported, is put in stark perspective by this map. Zooming in on parts of Sheffield, in the north of England, it pictures the differences in size of the stomping grounds of four generations of the Thomas family - each snapped at eight years of age:

• In 1919, George, the great-grandfather of the family, was allowed to walk six mile by himself to go fishing at Rother Valley.
• In 1950, Jack, the grandfather, was allowed to walk one mile by himself to go play in the woods nearby. Like his father, he walked to school.
• In 1979, Vicky, the mother, could walk by herself to the swimming pool, half a mile away.
• In 2007, Ed, the son, was only able to walk to the end of the street on his own - a mere 300 yards. He was driven to school, and even to a place where he could ride his bike safely.

The map accompanied an article in the Daily Mail, which quoted a report warning that the reduced exposure to the outdoors could harm the mental well-being of children.

Ironically, parental fears for their offspring's well-being have been an important factor in reducing their children’s unsupervised access to the great outdoors: fears of traffic, of predators, of being seen to have their children roam unsupervised. 

But the growing list of fears, whether old or new, real or imagined, wasn’t the only factor driving the trend. George Thomas’s childhood home was overcrowded and held little attractions, while his great-grandson has a room of his own, stocked with games and toys, with access to the entertainment provided by tv and the internet.  

Perhaps also to blame are the fragmentation of communities, and the concomitant increase in car-dependency. Could it be that the scrambled-egg city of today is a contributing factor to the fact that today’s is perhaps the first generation of children raised in zoo-like confinement?

http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/571-the-great-indoors-or-childhoods-end?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bigthink%2Fblogs%2Fstrange-maps+%28Strange+Maps%29

The Idle Parent

Work and play are all one to him, his games are his work; he knows no difference. -Jean-Jaques Rousseau, 1762

Currently reading The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson. The book is very much in line with what I am attempting to express through the photographic series At Play.

THE MANIFESTO OF THE IDLE PARENT

We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work
We pledge to leave our children alone
We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born
We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals
We drink alcohol without guilt
We reject the inner Puritan
We don’t waste money on family days out and holidays
An idle parent is a thrifty parent
An idle parent is a creative parent
We lie in bed for as long as possible
We try not to interfere
We play in the fields and forests
We push them into the garden and shut the door so we can clean the house
We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small
Time is more important than money
Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness
Down with school
We fill the house with music and merriment
We reject health and safety guidelines
We embrace responsibility
There are many paths
More play, less work

http://idler.co.uk/category/idleparent/

Pinhole Camera Studies for At Play

Pinhole Camera Study, (Running in the Selway River) From the series At Play, Archival Pigment Print, © Dennis DeHart, 2011

Pinhole Camera Study, (Salmon Eggs from the Selway River) From the series At Play, Archival Pigment Print, © Dennis DeHart, 2011

Circle in the Mud

Circle in the Mud, Archival Pigment Print, 24"x30", ©Dennis DeHart, 2011

Kiyomi

Kiyomi, 6x7 Color Negative, © Dennis DeHart, 2011