Children at Play. Or Not.

I gotta put a plug in for a special that Mrs F saved from PBS that I watched last week, "Where Do Children Play?"

Fascinating stuff.

Filmed here in Michigan: in Detroit, rural Michigan and literally right down the street here in Ann Arbor, this special looks at how kids are playing—or not playing—and their relationship with nature, the outdoors and each other...

The environment/situation that comes across worst, and the one that presented with only the evidence in this show that I would chose last for my kids? The urban grit of Southwest Detroit? The isolation of Beaver Island? Nope. The supposed "ideal" of Ann Arbor—the tree-lined streets of our very own Old West Side, where the highly-regarded neighborhood elementary school is mere blocks away for every student, yet almost NONE of them walk to school. The town where every damn kid gets carted around in minivans from scheduled activity to scheduled activity, and no one goes to the playground.

We gotta get the hell out of here...