What are the parks like in your community? What do you and your family and friends do there? What is your favorite park? Why?

If you have ever been to Central Park in New York City, the Biltmore Estate grounds in North Carolina, Niagra Falls State Park in New York or Cherokee Park in Louisville, Kentucky, you have been to a park created by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed over 100 public parks in his lifetime. Are there any Olmstead parks in your area?

In “Olmsted’s Enduring Gift” Ruth Fremson, a photographer, and Audra D.S. Burch, a writer, collaborated on a visual essay about Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks. Some of the images are illustrated with descriptions like these:

The freedom of hymns sung in the rain
and lonely night strolls in Central Park;
the break dancer spinning in the afternoon light
and the couple who said, “I do,” along the Emerald Necklace in Boston
the man clutching an American flag outside a vigil on the U.S. Capitol grounds;
and the hillside headstones standing sentry at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Calif.,
all belong to the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted —
landscape architect, social reformer and believer in public parks as a democratic ideal.

The essay quotes Olmsted: “Where there were parks, they gave the highest assurance of safety, as well as a grateful sense of peculiarly fresh and pure air.” It continues:

His parks helped sustain Americans’ mental and physical health and social connections during the darkest days of the pandemic. As Covid-19 lockdowns unlaced nearly every familiar aspect of life, parks were reaffirmed as respite, an escape from quarantine.

For Olmsted, much of the story of public spaces began in 1850, when he visited England’s Birkenhead Park. He was charmed by its approach — free for all people — which influenced his own thinking about what it means to have a park without social or economic barriers.

Along with a collaborator, Calvert Vaux, Olmsted designed Central Park in the late 1850s. The oasis on the island of Manhattan was meant as a calming antidote to the dizzying rush of city life.

Central Park was the first of many.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

• What memories do you have of spending time in parks when you were younger? Tell a story about one such memory.

• What do parks mean to you as a teenager? Do you hang out with friends at parks? Play basketball? Or meet up with family for a barbecue or picnic?

• Describe your favorite park in your community or elsewhere. What makes this park special?

• Why do you think it is important that communities have access to parks?

• Do you think your community has adequate access to parks and green space? Why or why not? How do you think your life be different if there were more parks in your area? Fewer?

• According to this article, “Olmsted understood the promise of the park as a social force that would become an amenity in city life over the decades. In his view, parks were imbued with an exquisite kind of healing power. They were beautiful, born of nature, reimagined by man. He idealized them as literal common grounds forging communities, unstratified by race or class or faith.” Do the parks you visit play this role? Do they offer “healing power”? Are they places where barriers of race, class and faith are broken down? Why or why not?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.