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(children playing)
(children playing)
Child: Hey! Found another spink bomb. Let me throw it over at the other stuff…
Female Speaker: remember the good old days when you actually got in trouble for staying
outside all day? Now leading experts in child health and development say today’s children
are spending way too much time INDOORS, and the results are weighty at best.
Male Speaker: play is something that we have often relegated to a secondary role, where
work is more important. We are starting to see the impact of that notion. One of the
most obvious is the obesity epidemic we are seeing, because kids have such a sedentary
lifestyle.
Female Speaker: Professor Brett Wright is chairman of Clemson University’s Parks,
Recreation, and Tourism Management Department. He says only about 25% of school children
in our nation get any kind of physical activity at all. Wright calls the statistic “shameful”.
Wright: Almost 40% of school children now are showing signs of cardiac risk! We just
never heard of that when I was a child.
Female Speaker: Wright and his colleagues say high technology is partly to blame. A
recent Pew study shows a typical American teen sends and receives 50 or more text messages
a day. That’s 1500 a month. Young people also use their phones to take pictures, play
music, games, exchange videos, and access social networking sites.
Wright: We’ve taken recess out of the classroom, out of our school systems as we have gone
back to basics, and try to promote more math and science, which are very important. But
so is the human developmental angle of play. We are seeing more and more of the problems
associated with that, beyond obesity. Cognitive development is not as good as it is when people
play.
(children yelling)
Boy: We are the king!
Female Speaker: Brandon Nixon and play-pals Luke and Lauren Bluel may know little about
human development right now, but they know a lot about having fun outdoors.
Luke: We play race. I like to play side and seek, and play superheroes to the rescue.
Brandon: And ghost
Luke: Yeah
Female Speaker: Wright and Clemson colleague Fran Mainella support the concept of “No
Child Left Inside”. They are also active partners in the US Coalition for Play, which
promotes the value of play for both children and adults throughout life.
Wright: There’s no better way than to get out with your children, to develop hobbies
and pastimes, and things that are interesting to both adults and children, in the out of
doors, in our parks. This is our natural heritage, and it is the best things that we’ve got
as a nation, in our parks. So get out and use them!
Female Speaker: Boy Scouts Tripp and Alex Norton enjoy riding their bikes at home. But
it is their Scout camping trips and field trips with their parents that build some of
their fondest memories.
Alex: Well, I like to explore outside.
Tripp: Exploring the woods, and finding little creatures, and big creatures, like the other
day I was going to sell popcorn for the Boy Scouts, and I was walking through the woods
to get up to Chimney Ridge, and I just about stepped on like a 3 foot long snake! {laughter!}
Female Speaker: Wright says families can search the Internet for local, state, and national
parks, to learn more about outdoor activities and other ways to visit nature.
Brandon:… Fall from me! Spink bomb tree!
Female Speaker: After all, you never know what you might find or create when exploring
the great outdoors.