Caring Spaces

"Our job as we design children's environments is to create a nest for children as they navigate the demands of growing up, and to make them believe that they can fly in the world, which they will inherit," wrote the late, great Jim Greenman in his book, Caring Spaces, Learning Places (now newly revised by Mike Lindstrom). Greenman cautions against the well-meaning but misguided urge to overprotect children:

"The drive to protect our children is profound and can easily elevate to bubble-wrapping their lives. Reality is difficult and messy, loud and profane. There are people with warts and frowns, and decidedly mixed virtues. But childhood is a time when we help children begin to live in the world and love the world.

"We can't do that fenced off from it in a world of two-dimensional glowing screens, plastic balls, and slides; scrubbing and polishing every raw experience in the name of health and safety; or protecting innocence so much that it scrapes away the natural luster of childhood. Some of the wonders and joys of childhood that fuel the best in our adult selves are unavoidably forged in bumps, bruises, and tears."

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