Above is a link to an interesting article regarding playground safety. Recently, I took a picture of a dilapidated playground I came across while biking  and joking captioned it "it is good to still see unsafe playgrounds around." (see picture at the end of the post) While I was mostly joking and don't believe we need needlessly unsafe playgrounds, I think that we have shifted too much in the direction of safety being a number one if not the only priority on playgrounds. The article quotes some psychologists who point out that things like very high slides which are not found in new playgrounds could be essential in helping children develop both feelings of mastery and conquering phobias. The article articulates this in greater detail so check it out.