Lengthy, but Interesting…
December 19, 2007, 3:49 pm
Filed under:
14-18,
5-9,
barriers,
cultural,
gender,
movement,
overcoming,
play,
research 
“COMPLETE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT”: VIDEO GAMES AS GENDERED PLAY SPACES
by Henry Jenkins
[Download PostScript version for printing] A Tale of Two Childhoods
Sometimes, I feel nostalgic for the spaces of my boyhood, growing up in suburban Atlanta in the 1960s. My big grassy front yard sloped sharply downward into a ditch where we could float boats on a rainy day. Beyond, there was a pine forest where my brother and I could toss pine cones like grenades or snap sticks together like swords. In the backyard, there was a patch of grass where we could wrestle or play kickball and a treehouse, which sometimes bore a pirate flag and at other times, the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. Out beyond our own yard, there was a bamboo forest where we could play Tarzan, and vacant lots, construction sites, sloping streets, and a neighboring farm (the last vestige of a rural area turned suburban).
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The Tickle Monster Needs To Lie Down Now
Why don’t parents like to play with their kids?
By Emily Bazelon
Posted Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, at 1:39 PM ET
In his new book,
Children at Play: An American History, Brown University historian Howard Chudacoff gives us the following late-19
th-century snapshot of a mother-daughter outing to a city park: “The older person, quietly seated beside the footpath, is half absorbed in reverie. … The other, left to her own devices, wanders contented within the limited scope, incessantly prattling to herself; now climbing an adjoining rock, now flitting like a bird from one side of the pathway to the other.”It’s an entirely approving portrayal written by an educator of the period named William Wells Newell, which Chudacoff offers as a rare recognition of the importance of children’s free play. But to me, and I’d wager to a lot of parents, it’s all too sinkingly familiar. Yes, the kid seems happy enough. But what about that daydreaming mother—shouldn’t she be turning over pine cones and acorns with her daughter, or at least talking to her once in a while? Is that mom really giving her daughter the latitude to discover nature, explore the world, think her own thoughts—or is she just lazy?
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Teen Girls report…
December 17, 2007, 3:13 pm
Filed under:
14-18,
barriers,
body image,
cultural,
gender,
lifestyle,
motivation,
movement,
overcoming,
personal Teen Girls Report Barriers To Physical Activity
05 Apr 2006
Teenage girls perceive lack of time as the number one barrier to physical activity, according to a new study published in the March issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise�, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The three-year survey assessing black and white adolescent girls reveals sedentary habits are mostly linked to internal barriers (interest, motivation), which were unrelated to external factors (jobs, recreation).
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