What about the message your sending.....

Recently The New York Times covered a controversy that was stirred up from a particular jungle gym in a local New York City Housing Authority playground. This jungle was set up to look like a jail. It is painted orange with crow bars and the word jail painted across the top. This playground is located in a historically black neighborhood in Brooklyn. Residents of the neighborhood were outraged because of the message it sent to the children of the community. Local newspapers wrote articles about the jungle gym and the housing authority caught notice. Eventually employees of the New York City Housing Authority went out to the playground and painted over the jungle gym in hopes to fix the mistake they made.


This jungle gym sends off a serious message that jail is fun and not something to take seriously. Though kids may not think much of it, it definitely sends them a message that jail must not be that bad if it is in a playground. When designing a playground, I would think that the designer would think of things a child would be drawn to and eventually like to play with. A jail is not something a child should play with like it is fun.

The recent readings I’ve done about violence in the media immediately came to my mind when reading the original article on this story. Violence in the media is very much displayed and also has proved to have great effects on children. Kids may play games that involve “good guys” and “bad guys,” just like they see on television or in movies. They may play these games in the playground and send the bad guys to the jungle gym labeled “Jail.” To kids this may be all in fun, but studies have shown that the violence they see in the media or the violence they may practice in the playground follows them as they grow up and get older. This can cause them to act out or have serious behavior problems in the future. This playground just like the violence seen in the media sends messages to kids making them think that violence and jail is a regular part of life. Though the violence is widely displayed we must not accept it as the norm, just like the residents of the neighborhood didn’t. They made it known that their children will not be subject to jail and had it removed from their neighborhood. What are some of your thoughts?

Thanx for your time,

Paige