Monkey bars were invented 100 years ago and can now be found in thousands of playgrounds from sea to shining sea… and parents are getting edgy, and there is a growing movement to take away the monkey bars. Someone might fall off.
Has it truly come to this? They’ll take away our monkey bars? All in the interests of “safety,” of course. You can never have too much safety.
But! Anthropologists at Dartmouth University say monkey bars are good for you (https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/09/risky-play-exercises-ancestral-need-push-limits). As are very many forms of play–in most of which there is always the possibility of injury. Oh, my. Did that really need to be said? Really?
I think too much safety is… unsafe! We have muscles and bones that have to be tested, exercised, if they’re going to stay healthy. Monkey bars, swings, see-saws–they all fill that necessary function.
By living in such a way as to avoid all risk of injury, we court injury!
I fear for the future of common sense.