“If every surface around a climbing structure is soft and spongy, it gives children a false message that they can fall and they may climb higher than they actually should. They don’t learn how to assess risk,” she says about the ever-stricter safety regulations for playgrounds. “As a culture, we don’t trust our children at all—we basically live their lives for them. Up until age seven or eight they’re so bubble-wrapped and helicoptered that they don’t get to practice any of their physical skills, and now there’s huge fallout. Public kindergarten teachers are reporting that kids don’t even have
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