Sanitized

I don't know how many of us have been saying this for many years. I know I have, so others, surely,  must have been: Children need to experience wilder places where regular contact with nature brings many benefits to the developing mind and where they may learn that untrammeled nature offers endless fascination. They also need to be free to enjoy such places largely undirected and be allowed to be free to use their own imaginations.

I've just seen a commercial for CenterParks. I've never been to one of these so someone may tell me what I saw was misleading. Also the spelling itself tells us that it's an American business and that may explain something. I can imagine some people thinking this is just what I've been wishing for. It isn't.

Anyone living within a few miles of Blacka can see the kind of natural spaces where children can be inspired without the artificial invocation of monsters and robots (for god's sake).  Here it's neither over-fantasised nor sanitized.

And here they may be lucky enough to see wildness reminiscent of far gone days with the appearance of our largest wild animals.

Sadly all those organisations - including the wildlife charities - who are striving to show they are attracting children, are utterly hooked on top-down managing both the environment and the experience of the visitor. Why do adults insist on imposing their own often impoversished visions on the young?

Yes, it is here, just,  though even here the sanitization is never far away with fencing, grazing and chain sawing hard to avoid.