Dear Editor,
[RE: Secret BMX park built by teens shuttered by Langley Township, July 17, Langley Advance Times]
I’m writing to advocate for the young bike riders mentioned in secret BMX park built by teens shuttered by Langley Township.
We are in a time when U.S. teens spend an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media for entertainment, not including time spent using screens for school and homework, and 30 per cent of Canadians 12 to 19 years old are overweight or obese.
Why couldn’t the Township have turned a blind eye?
What the youth have created is terrific.
OTHER OUTDOOR RECREATION: Tennis courts, bike parks set to re-open in Langley City
They have demonstrated ingenuity, initiative, and passion.
Don’t punish them for these attributes.
If we want citizens who love the outdoors, take responsibility for their health and fitness, and are unique individuals with creative pursuits, then let them be.
If you want citizens who are couch potatoes with no original ideas, then take this away from them and send them back indoors to their video game consoles.
Forest schools around the world have determined that the damage to the woods when letting the children play in it is minor, compared to the gain in childhood development and the positive effect of producing adults who treasure nature.
RELATED: Skating, swimming return to Langley Township rec centres
The Township’s general manager of community development noted that this area is endangering the teens, but educators at outdoor schools would propound that the biggest risk our children face is not being exposed to risk.
– “Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).” ― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
Julie Lornie, South Langley
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