SCIENCE
Helping children conquer their fear
- Published: 20/07/2011 at 09:15 AM
- Newspaper section: Mylife
When see-saws and tall slides and other perils were disappearing from New York's playgrounds, Henry Stern drew a line in the sandbox. As the city's parks commissioner in the 1990s, he issued an edict concerning the 3-metre-high jungle gym near his childhood home in northern Manhattan.
Children play at Belmont Lake State Park in Babylon, New York. A new study suggests that efforts to regulate playground equipment may stunt emotional development.
``I grew up on the monkey bars in Fort Tryon Park, and I never forgot how good it felt to get to the top of them,'' Stern said. ``I didn't want to see that playground bowdlerised. I said that as long as I was parks commissioner, those monkey bars were going to stay.''
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About the author
- Writer: John Tierney
