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EDITORIAL: WHERE HAVE THOSE DAYS GONE?

By Anthonia Edgren (RPTA '12), Editor, The Report

Remember the days when children played in their neighborhood parks and streets, chasing each other with sticks, playing in the mud and rolling around on their front yard lawns? Where have those days gone? Now as many of us drive down any residential street, the screams and laughter of children playing outside in the fresh air are absent. Where have they gone? It saddens me to think that the children who used to play outside now sit inside glued to the latest Spongebob episode or new video game. They sit in front of the computer for hours chatting with friends via Facebook and IM, instead of being outside and having actual conversations with friends. This is the activity or lack thereof that much of the American youth partakes in, and we wonder why childhood obesity has skyrocketed across the U.S.

How has this happened? Perhaps it's because parents are afraid that their children will be in danger outside? Or maybe that they may get hit by a Prius that silently rolls down the street? Maybe it is because parents became too busy to watch their children outside? Or felt that the TV made a better babysitter? Or, just maybe it’s because schools began to cut P.E. programs that encouraged children to go outside and play?

The lack of playing children saddens me, as playing in the neighborhood streets and parks are some of my fondest memories. How do we get kids to go outside and play in the mud and get grass stains on their clothes again? How do we get children to ride their bikes and rollerblade and play tag? How do we get the kids of today detached from technology and back outdoors in the fresh air? By going out there with them. Be an example; that's one obligation we all have as RPTA majors and recreation advocates. Play outside with kids, make mud pies, jump rope, play tag and show them that no one is too old to live an active life and have fun.

Adults (yes, I mean you too my fellow college students), my final message to you: we are not too old to play tag, go on the swings, or play hide and go seek. Find the kid in you and pass it on. Teach the children of today the beauty of being outdoors.

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