The Coalition of the Swilling

Gawd.

That is so......stupid. Condescending towards children. And perhaps Orwellian. Probably all three.

You have to worry about the current generation of youngsters, and how they are being raised.

I smell the fragrance of bureaucratic empire building

Or worse (and welcome Fausta)! Or maybe just "Orwellian" with 'play workers' assigned to the rugrats. Do these play workers ~ whom I'm assuming will be trained in a 'play worker' course ~ also report children who DON'T play within the accepted guidelines? Like maybe a kid who uses the puddle as a medium of transport for his pirate ship, instead of the hatchery for frogs and salamanders they TOLD him it was...? Do they then tell him the pirate ship is WRONG? And VIOLENT? Making him a FREAK?

There's only three reasons for adults on the playground.
To:

a) Prevent predatory adults from carrying off the children

b) Attend to booboos (Wipe tears/blood/call 911 as necessary)

c) Get child safely home for lunch/dinner when the gong sounds

Otherwise, adults need to stay TFO of the puddles themselves.

GOD, this is so piteous, pitiful and pretentious, it's SCARY. And could be permanently scarring.

who the heck comes up with this stuff!!?? kids have entertained themselves for thousands of years but now they need facilitators?...give me a break...p.s. i suspect this idea wasn't hatched by a bunch of conservatives.

If I had a kid, and if he saw sand and water and DIDN'T run over and dive in and start playing right away (without some kind of "play facilitator"), I'd be worried.

I mean - you could just as easily use the phrase "like a kid on a sandpile" as you could the phrase "like white on rice."

Don't worry. It's New York City. One of the "helpers" will be shot dead by one of the kids within a week, and they'll reinstall the sandboxes.

Fer Jebus' sake, give a bored enough kid a piece of scotch tape and he'll figure out how to amuse himself. If there are people who have enough time to even come up with the idea of playground facilitators, let alone the resources to actually provide them, I don't want to hear one more [beep]ing word about schools not having enough money. Not ONE.

Our neighbor growing up used to get 3 boxes of BandAids in his sticking every Christmas. He'd be plastered with them in no time and happy as a clam.

ever notice how kids have more fun playing with the boxes that the expensive gifts came in rather than the gifts themselves? or would rather grab pots and pans out of the cupboard and bang on them with wooden spoons rather than play with the electronic drum set?

You know, ric, you are so right. Our 'just married' Revereware has huge dents in it's steel lids. Ebola loved nothing better as a baby/little guy than to sit in the corner of the kitchen beating the HELL out of pots 'n pans with wooden spoons.

Ric,
Yep, especially when they're really young. The Christmas where my nephew was about a year-and-a-half, he had more fun playing with the wrapping paper on his presents than the toys inside.

Also, I have to say I weep for the teachers (and eventually, professors) who will get those kids in class someday.

I can see myself, some 16 years from now, going OFF on one of those mollycoddled can't-do-anything-without-a-facilitator kids:

"It's an M.F.ing BOOK! It is something you OPEN and M.F.ing READ! You USE your EYES and your BRAIN to interpret the INFORMATION in those bad boys! And that is a PENCIL! You WRITE with it!"

Also...I wonder, will they know what toilet paper's for or will they have to have "facilitators" for that?

ricki, I think 'bidet' is French for "facilitator", isn't it?

It's New York City. One of the "helpers" will be shot dead by one of the kids within a week, and they'll reinstall the sandboxes.

Much more likely, one of the helpers will be arrested for fondling some of the kids, because the city will have failed to notice that he's been on the sex offender's list for fifteen years. This "facilitator" gig will be a magnet for pervs and sickos.

Nightfly, you nailed that one cold. (and WHEN it does happen, I hope the pedo gets nailed with a hollow point.)

Working in London, part of our engineering works encroached upon a public park, and a children's play area. so we contacted the local council, and, believe it or not, we were solemnly advised on our future progress, highly-qualified Civil Engineers included, by a spotty-faced council-appointed PLAY OFFICER !

I have another view of this. The use of play workers is not to help the children play but rather to keep these workers occupied BECAUSE THEY CAN'T QUALIFY FOR ANY OTHER JOB IN THE CITY!