By Tim Gill, play consultant and former director of the Children's Play Council
Ask any grown-up to recall their favourite places to play as a child, and recollections of self-directed explorations and everyday adventures will flood back. We vividly remember when we made the rules and took responsibility for our actions. These early tastes of freedom are among the most formative of experiences. So why are we so intent on eliminating autonomy from children's lives?
The latest manifestation of this tendency comes with the news that an academy in Peterborough has decided to scrap break times and do away with the school playground. Such unregulated spaces and times are, we are told, now redundant when it comes to equipping children for adult life.
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