Children’s Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood

2. Entering the Child's World

ENTERING THE CHILD'S WORLD 15 2 This page intentionally left blank THE DENS OF DEVON My work with children in Devon was organized into two phases. From September through November, I visited Denbury Primary School twice a week. During the day I met with three or four children at a time for periods of approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. They drew maps and I interviewed each one during this time. Each child worked alone at a table. Children were selected randomly, but I made an effort not to have siblings and neighbors working simultaneously. This separation was important to ensure that individual children arrived at their map images independently. When the same special placeslater showed up on maps ofchildren from the same neighborhood, I could be assured it wasn't because they had copied from each other. 17 Entering the Child's World From November through December, I conducted field trips and explorationswith childrenduring the schoolday. I selectedarepresentativesampleoftwenty-eight children, an equal number of boys and girls, drawn from all age levels, for these walks.I chose children on the basis oftheir interest in the project and for the purposes of exploring common areas of interest that cropped up on different children'smaps.Theschoolwas helpful inarranging these field trips, and parents were notified prior to their occurrence. THE MAP-AND-INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE My instructions wereopen-ended and fairly simple, modified only slightly for younger children: I am writing a bookfor teachers about children's neighborhoods and children's maps. I'd like you to help me with my project. Today I'd likeyou to draw a map of your neighborhood. By neighborhood, I mean the area around your house where you spend most of your time and where you play. The only thing you have to include on your map isyour own house. Beyond that, it's up to you to show me the places that are special or important to you. It's fine to show other houses, but be sure to include your special places. Your map can include everywhere you areallowed to travel by yourself or withfriends, but if you want to show a 18 The Map-and-lnterview Technique smallerarea,that'sfine. Work onyour own map, and please don't talk with others while you are working. I always first asked for a map because I was interested in the developmental emergence of the map concept independent from my interest in children's special places. When younger children appeared puzzled by the notion of a map, I said, "A map islike apicture of where thingsare or how things are arranged. If youfeel that it's too hard to draw a map, draw a picture of your house and all the special places around your house where you like to play by yourself or with friends." If children asked, "Youmean you want a helicopter view or a bird's view?" my response was, "There are many different ways to draw a map. Any way you choose will be fine. Just try tofigure out away toshow meyourfavorite places." Very few childrenhad troublewith these instructions; they went to work quite readily. I provided children with 15" by 22" paper, pencils, erasers, and an assortment of crayons. They were not allowed to use rulers. (As I have discovered before, children start to request rulers at around the age of nine.) If children spontaneously began to talk about special places, I allowed them to talk for a short time only. When children werefinished (youngerchildren tended to finish sooner than older children),I asked them individually to tell me about the places on their maps. At the end 19 Entering the Child's World of the interview, I asked each child to select his or her favorite place in the neighborhood. In some of the interviews , children would discuss places that they had not included on the maps. I asked fifteen of these children to create extensionsoftheirmaps,adding on another sheetof paper in the appropriate direction. This often led me to some of the children's most interesting places. SHARED AND PRIVATE PLACES Dens and houses occurredon children's maps or came up in interviews with 60percent ofthe children. These places seem to become significant beginning around age six or seven and reachtheir height ofimportance around age ten or eleven. The children's descriptions and my observations led me to conceiveoftwo major categoriesfor dens— those that were primarily...