A Study Of The Playground Movement In The USA At The Turn Of The 20^th Century

At the turn of the 20^th Century the Progressive Movement was raised to solve many social problems as a result of industrialization,urbanization and migration in the United State.Urban space was one of big issues of urban reformers in the movement.Urban reformers found that almost no cities in this country had provided special space for children to play,which might have been the crucial reason to the decline in moral and physical of quality of children who lived in cities.All above were the context of the American Playground Movement.The American Playground Movement could be roughly divided into two stages.The first stage was from the 1880s to 1906.During this period,playground reformers who were living in large cities in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States,such as Boston,New York,Chicago and Philadelphia,were pioneers and they promoted different playground constructions.There was seldom cooperation between these cities.The second stage was from 1906 to 1920s,when the movement was being nationalized.In April 1906,the American Playground Association was founded in Washington,D.C.,which was a transition of the movement from regional to national.Moreover,conducting surveys on playgrounds that had already been built and proposing suggestions about how to construct a playground were two main tasks of the Association.Besides that,they also made promotions to constructing school playgrounds,training playground directors and drafting playground legislation.As for the reasons that the movement transformed from region to nation,there were three of them.Firstly,the playground reformers took the scientific research results as the basis of the playground construction,which was quite reliable,scientific and easy to be supported.Secondly,the playground reformers created a set of scientific and feasible multi-faceted playground theoretical system,trying to foster children as ideal citizens and catering to the values of the Progressive Era of the United States.Thirdly,the playground that the reformers built in the city was a living space that adapted to the industrialization and urbanization at that time,while stratified the needs of recreation of adults and the nature of play of children.These three reasons respectively reflected the"scientific value","citizen value"and"life value"of playground reformers,which were three aspects of urban reformers’thoughts in the Progressive Era of the United States.The movement had profound influences on American history.First of all,the Playground Movement found a way for the United States to consciously explore the field of recreation and play.Secondly,the Playground Movement leaded the development of American cities to spiritual life.It was an important part of urban cultural reform in the Progressive Era of the United States.Finally,the Playground Movement deepened the institutionalization of urban children and further separated urban children’s living space from other urban spaces.