The history of playgrounds is truly amazing. Apart from the legacy of social-psychology found in playground history, let’s just look at the history of gravity for a minute…it might surprise you. Gravity. It’s one of the most important lessons out of the classical PE era and was a high priority in classical playground designs. Most…… More
Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / http://www.dianamarahenry.com “Skills are an integrating force. Skills of all types are important,but those involving the hand are the essential ones.”“Philosophy of Recreation and Leisure” JB Nash (1953) Diana Mara Henry is an American veteran photojournalist that began her career in the 1960s. I ran across her work while researching…… More
Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / http://www.dianamarahenry.com Diana Mara Henry is an American veteran photojournalist that began her career in the 1960s. I ran across her work while researching vintage playgrounds and reached out to her so I could get the deeper story behind a certain series of photographs she took in NYC of the…… More
Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / http://www.dianamarahenry.com Diana Mara Henry is an American veteran photojournalist that began her career in the 1960s. I ran across her work while researching vintage playgrounds and reached out to her so I could get the deeper story behind a certain series of photographs she took in NYC of the…… More
Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / http://www.dianamarahenry.com Diana Mara Henry is an American veteran photojournalist that began her career in the 1960s. I ran across her work while researching vintage playgrounds and reached out to her so I could get the deeper story behind a certain series of photographs she took in NYC of the…… More
“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.” -John Milton, “Paradise Lost” Playgrounds. A child’s paradise. Looking back across many decades, playgrounds have a prominent history in classical physical education and in outdoor recreation. While the history and social psychology of public playgrounds for children are quite complex and sophisticated, playgrounds have, and can be, quite…… More
President’s Day Playground Post. Children play–even children of presidents. Let’s take a deeper historical look at the actual playground “equipment” installed by and supported by two United States Presidents. Interestingly, both playgrounds modeled classical equipment that involved gravity. In the FDR photo above, we see his grandchildren playing on the slide which is a decent…… More
Durability can be defined in brief as “the ability to withstand wear, pressure, and damage.” Vintage playgrounds were durable…for decades. So were the kids who used them. Real steel. Quality weather-worthy equipment that provided endless fun and some real fitness too. A few bumps, bruises, and scrapes definitely built up some tougher kids than we…… More
Fasten your seat belts then rip them off before launching for this energizing show with Stephen Jepson from Never Leave the Playground! We hope you enjoy this inspiration show about healthy and ACTIVE aging, experimenting with learning new movements that are brain challenging, improving balance, maintaining mobility and functional independence and so much more!!! Listen…… More
Imagine…a playground with real vertical plus kids that could handle it. This playground is actually SAFER than playgrounds today. Why? NO, it’s not the equipment. Think again. It’s the kids using the equipment–they moved better in these days. They had “real” physical education and real teachers–not someone who just threw the ball out. They were…… More