Even if your memories of grade school have faded, you can probably still picture the playground. Large or small, asphalt or grass, it was your world and you knew every nook and cranny, from the quietest corner to whisper a secret to the straightest stretch to run a race. Where adults saw an empty schoolyard, you looked out on the landmarks of your own private map: the squeakiest swing-set, the most treacherous puddles, the fastest route back to class when the last bell chimed.
Nobody knows a playground like a child. hat’s the idea behind The Trust for Public
h t’ th id b hi d Th T t f P bli Land’s New York City playgrounds program, which taps students to help transform their recess areas into vibrant gathering spaces for the whole neighborhood.
Among the most recent schools to enter the playground program is J.H.S. 189, a junior high in Flushing, Queens. Here, the barred windows of a three-story, ’50s-era building over- look an acre of barren asphalt surrounded by a chain-link fence. On a typical day, much of the schoolyard is used for parking. There’s a section left over that’s big enough for kids to run or toss a football—but teachers say they rarely see kids playing there. Asked how it feels to be in the yard, sixth-grad- er Samir answers only, “Lame.” Samir’s class is one of four taking part in the playground
design curriculum. At seven weeks in, they’ve covered the basics—measuring the schoolyard’s dimensions, recording shade patterns, and observing how water drains off the black- top. They know the space they’re working with. Now it’s time to get creative.
Seated around a table cluttered with colored pencils, markers, and blank paper, Samir and his classmates are busy sketching their latest ideas. For inspiration, Trust for Public Land staff have provided photographs of schoolyard renova- tions that have come before theirs: playgrounds with turf fields and green-roofed gazebos, outdoor classrooms and climbing walls, custom benches and murals. “How about this?” suggests one student, holding up a
How about this? suggests one student, holding up a picture of pif a square flowerbed. “Pollen makes my eyes go ‘bleh’!” counters another. Like a
lot of city kids, she’s a little wary of the natural world. “We shouldn’t have too many flowers because some people might be allergic.” The Trust for Public Land’s environmental education consul-
tant Maddalena Polletta overhears the discussion and assures the group they can find plants that go easy on allergies. Pol- letta and landscape architects from the firm SiteWorks often step in to guide the students’ conversation this way. But it’s mostly about broadening their perspective: in general, she says, kids rarely have to be told to keep the focus on learning. Chatty 11-year-old Rosaura shares her diagram of an outdoor 1
classroom surrounded by greenery. She thinks it’ll be an inspiring setting for all their lessons—not just science. “Social studies also has plants,” she points out, “and it helps math, because you can say, ‘Okay, there are three plants in this row and fourteen in this row, how many plants are there in all? And for English, we can make up stories based on the plants.” Most kids jump at the chance to help guide their own
education, Polletta says, and they understand intuitively that a space they create themselves is one they’ll want to take care of. Samir, who’s carefully drawing a climbing structure made of netting, explains it this way. “I see people throwing garbage on the ground because they
don’t even like the playground. But the new playground is going to be colorful and will have a lot of room. Everyone will love it, so theyllove it, so they’re going to care about it.”re going to care about it.
TPL.ORG · 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68