{"id":4306,"date":"2018-02-06T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philosophyforchildren.org\/how-should-our-city-be-designed\/"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T22:30:00","slug":"how-should-our-city-be-designed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/how-should-our-city-be-designed\/","title":{"rendered":"How Should Our City Be Designed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A recent article<\/a> described the ways in which many cities are not child-friendly, examining some of the possibilities for designing cities around urban children and their needs and desires. It led me to think about ways to engage children in thinking about their environments and imagining the elements of what would be in their views an ideal city. <\/span>

<\/span>One approach would start with children considering their neighborhoods, which are smaller and more approachable spaces than trying to think about an entire city. Ask the children to draw pictures of their neighborhoods, making the drawings as detailed as possible. Then, for 3rd or 4th grade students and older, ask them to look at their completed drawings and make two lists, one list the things they most like about their neighborhoods and the other the things they like least. <\/span>

<\/span>Have the students share, in groups or as one large group, their drawings and thoughts, and, for the older students, their lists.<\/span>

<\/span>Next, ask the students to draw pictures of what their neighborhoods would look like if they could design them. Again, ask them to make these drawings as detailed as possible. Then have them share these drawings and engage in a discussion about the most important things an ideal neighborhood would include. Some questions you might ask include:<\/span><\/p>\n