subject: Dangerous Playgrounds Are Good For Kids [print this page] Society has become more increasingly litigious and one side effect is the way we treat our children. You often hear the phrase 'when I was a lad...' referring to the good old days when you walked off a broken leg. Such good old days bare a stark contrast to the way in which we value our kid's safety, acting as if they were made of fragile porcelain, with danger lurking at every corner waiting to shatter them.
Gever Tulley, who wrote the book with Julie Spiegler, said: "Of course, we must protect children from danger but when that protection becomes over-protection, we fail as a society, because children don't learn how to judge risk for themselves."Let children practise climbing trees, and they will learn to do it safely. If you never let them climb a tree, they will eventually do it anyway, possibly in the most unsafe manner. Or they may never do it at all, which might be the greater tragedy."
The book, Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), is set to be a hit in Britain after becoming a popular book with parents in America. It was initially rejected by at least 16 publishers in the US due to fears of lawsuits from parents whose children injured themselves following the book's advice.
Society and schools have become increasingly risk-averse, according to Gummer. "Parents go nuts if their children get hurt at school," she said. "Litigation is every head teacher's worst nightmare." Play England has launched a manifesto for children's play, to try to get the government to enshrine the importance of play during school time. Catherine Prisk, assistant director, said experts were beginning to realise how important it was for children to engage in boisterous, unstructured play.
"A generation of teachers have been trained to prevent all forms of play fighting in the playground," said Prisk, who was a primary teacher for seven years and deputy head of a children's play centre. "But rough and tumble play is vital for all children, particularly for boys, who learn social skills through free, physical play that they simply cannot learn in other ways.
by: Tom Doerr
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