Several tribal schools get help to re-create playgrounds, which are distinctly important to rural communities

(Photo by Joshua Coleman, Unsplash)

Hey, kids! What's more fun than recess? A recess with equipment in the shade! Schoolyard play will now be more engaging at several tribal schools: "The partnership, known as the Tribal Community Schoolyards Pilot Program, will work with nine tribal schools to enhance nature-based spaces to support environmental justice and outdoor learning," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. Tony Dearman, director of the Bureau of Indian Education, told Eaton, “This initiative provides opportunities for nature-based learning that promotes health, community, and the celebration of cultural identity.”

Danielle Denk, the Trust for Public Land's Community Schoolyards Initiative director, notes the importance of rural schoolyards: "The schoolyards in rural places become that civic destination, a place to come together and celebrate, and really have the kinds of facilities that advance healthy play, and group recreation,” she told Eaton. “We see all kinds of celebrations happen in rural communities in our school yards, where we wouldn’t see those happening, necessarily, in an urban schoolyard, because there’s a lot more facilities to support the needs."

Christie Abeyta, superintendent at Santa Fe Indian School, which will participate in the pilot, told Eaton that the school's students got involved, “I think having our students drive some of the conversation and being able to provide input is going to be helpful." Abeyta noted that school officials and students had been partnering the University of New Mexico to create design options.

“We do see these being really wonderful green oases for learning and for playing and for the community to come together,” Denk told Eaton. “And so, there’s not going to be a one-size fits all approach at all. And with the cultural specificity, anytime you work outdoors in the public realm, there’s a real opportunity to make it unique to make it speak to the kind of the essence of that community.”