Wanted in the UK: Play Rangers

As I mentioned in Tuesday's blog, I'm in Chicago this week at the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. So, this will also be a brief post.

Click here to read an article from the United Kingdom on the job description for "play rangers": adults trained in supporting children's outdoor play. It's a really cool idea -- one also adopted by the International Play Association, which refers to them as "play workers." It helps answer the question "How are we going to get children to play outside when their parents are afraid to send them outside?"

Although the statistics show that children are no less safe than my generation was as kids, the fear factor is a huge presence in today's society. We can't just ask parents to ignore their fears, which means we can't go back to the "good old days." We need solutions appropriate for today's culture. "Play rangers" is one such solution!