NPR Ed – Eric Westervelt
“Filmmaker and radio producer Erin Davis’ new short documentary shares its name with an adventure playground in North Wales called The Land. As Davis puts it, the film explores the “nature of play, risk and hazard” — issues I explored last summer in a story on the decline and fall of wild play. At The Land, children start fires, swing from trees and play with saws, hammers and nails. Davis’ film offers the chance to examine why it’s important for kids to wave their wild-play flags high. Davis spoke with me about the Welsh playground. As she puts it, The Land is “a play space rooted in the belief that kids are empowered when they learn to manage risks on their own. Trained staff keep a watchful yet unobtrusive eye on the fun, and they step in only when they must…My feeling is that kids now are the same as they ever were, and have been throughout time. Kids are drawn to the same kinds of things: They climb things, they hide in things, they create dens and places to hide in, create hierarchies and worlds of their own…So it’s surprising to us — but really it shouldn’t be — that kids thrive in these environments when they can do really whatever they want. They have the play drive. It’s up to us to kind of provide the kinds of opportunities for them to really follow through on it.””(more)