ABSTRACT
Schools and playgrounds are virtually synonymous with childhood in contemporary America, but their importance to children’s folklore is of relatively recent origin. Only after the middle of the nineteenth century did the majority of children attend school, and those that did rarely went for more than a few years. Planned parks and playgrounds are even more recent. Nevertheless, the years of childhood are brief, and many generations of children have passed through schools and playgrounds in the past century. The interaction between children and the physical environment of schools and playgrounds is the focus of this chapter. The fact that less is known about the actual behavior of children in these settings than about the settings themselves is a major limitation, but the growing literature on play, children’s folklore, the history of childhood, and the cultural meanings of space makes clear that the scene of a child’s play helps to shape the content.
