Play is the Essence of Life

They promote risky play as an important component of any successful play environment. With risky play comes an increase in the probability of harm should a child fail to execute some physical action they are not yet capable of handling. This occurs when the child with limited life experiences cannot yet appreciate the potential consequences of their actions. Playground managers have the responsibility to manage their facilities in compliance with best practices for managing these places so when a child does fail on the playground, they do not sustain a severe injury. 

Are playground facility managers up to the Challenge?

There is no responsibility greater than maintaining the basic safety, function, and aesthetics of a child’s play environment. These outdoor learning laboratories provide children with a place to develop their own risk management skills necessary throughout their life as they grow physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially on their personal journey to reach their potential as adults. It must be remembered that there are certain injury severities and injury mechanisms that are outside the child’s ability to assess such as impact with a surface or object in the playground.

Every human being’s lifetime goal should be to become the best person they can be. There is no place more important to assist in this end than their school or neighborhood park playground. 

Think back to your childhood memories to rediscover some of the many lessons learned on your favorite playground. Can you recall those inspiring moments you experienced as a child while playing on our favorite playground? Probably not but I can assure you there were many successes but just as many failures. 

Those of us who have been given the challenge and responsibility to be the stewards of these places must take these responsibilities seriously. We must execute this task to the best of our ability but to be successful we must commit to continually expanding our knowledge, skill, and experience related to managing this play environment. 

There are many excuses and misplaced priorities that we encounter along our journey that can keep us from attaining this goal. Regardless of the obstacles we encounter along the way, we must be vigilant in our mission of managing the safest public places for our children. Only through applying the best management practices for the inspection, maintenance, and repair of these places can the child’s experience be completely rewarding. Remember that living through a minor to moderate injury is also one of life’s learning experiences. 

For some of us, this is the beginning of our journey. For others, we must continue this journey. Many may find this task insurmountable but do not give up. By working together with others this goal can be attained. Remember that old saying, knowledge replaces fear. Not knowing the basics of the work tasks, you may encounter along the way will be the biggest obstacle to your success. Any inspector requires this base knowledge along with some form of training to be able to know what to look for during any facility or equipment inspection. This basic knowledge should provide some suggested corrective actions that could be applied to mitigate the problem.

Once the corrective action has been completed your work is not yet done. You must make sure to document your findings in writing, preferably with photos. Also document any and all corrective actions no matter how small. This will complete the inspection and maintenance cycle until the next time.

The Park District Risk Management Agency (PDRMA) in Illinois developed a Playground Maintenance Technician Certificate Program currently managed by the Eppley Institute of Indiana University. This program has trademarked this simple approach with, “The Playground Maintenance Diamond of Care™” (©Maintaining Childs Play, PDRMA). This approach can be used to inspect any facility or piece of outdoor equipment made of concrete, wood, metal, plastic, including most common fasteners, connectors, and connecting fasteners.

There are many famous Confucius quotes which underscore the importance of education and knowledge necessary to undertake any task. Confucius was a Chinese teacher and philosopher whose principles can still be applied to our collective task at hand. 

Confucius quotes on Wisdom, Education and Success,

• “The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.”
• “Acquire new knowledge whilst thinking over the old, and you may become a teacher of others.
• “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds Peace (of mind).”
• “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
• “A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.”
• “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop?
• “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals; adjust the action steps.”
• “Knowledge is recognizing what you know and what you don’t.”
• “Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow rice and you will save his life.
• And finally, we must think long term…
  “If your plan for one year plant rice. 
  If your plan is for ten years plant trees.
  If your plan is for one hundred years,
  educate children.”

Another not so famous educator and philosopher who worked for many decades on all things play related especially issues related to managing the playground environment is Penn State Professor Emeritus and Cofounder of the NRPA CPSI Course, Monty Christiansen. Monty took a one-year Sabbatical to research playground maintenance around 2000. Up to then not much had been written on the topic. There was international consensus through the ISO TC83 WG8 that play area inspection and maintenance is lacking around the world. Monty’s Sabbatical resulted in authoring a manuscript titled, Maintaining Childs Play, A Comprehensive Guide for Maintaining Safe Playgrounds ©PDRMA. In this manuscript Monty says, “Maintenance, like fine art, is 90% knowing how, 8% preparation, and 2% execution.”

All journeys start with a first step and continue with the next. Your journey may not necessarily be an easy one. You will encounter many obstacles and other distractions along the way in your quest to provide the best parks and play spaces possible. Do not let these obstacles distract you from your mission. Keep your eyes on the prize. Understands there is a child out there who is counting on you. This could become that leader everyone is going to count on in their future. 

You are the steward of today’s play environments that provide children the opportunity to become who they will be tomorrow. This in big part is due to those lessons learned on the playground during spontaneous, self-directed, unencumbered, PLAY. 

If PLAY is truly the Essence of Life, play space managers must become educated and knowledgeable on all aspects of play environment design, management, and operations. They must continue to enhance their learned skills and experiences and share them with others.