Wednesday, March 22, 2006
taking risks
Continuing on about swings - well, about what they're about - please read Dadvocate's terrific post from yesterday. It is a point worth considering that influential people - the adventurers, the discoverers (physical and intellectual), the explorers, even the business entrepreneurs - are risk takers. A friend of mine on the train this morning, who works with 'middle aged' children, pointed out also that kids are programmed to push the envelope. That's what they're about. That's how they learn that they're separate from their parents and that there are fabulous things to try and do - and also, of course, that there are limitations. We cannot actually successfully fly or spin swings 360 degrees around or land a dead man's drop from a jungle gym (you know who you are!) without causing serious damage to ourselves. On the other hand, maybe we won't learn that we can do fabulous and exciting and wonderful things unless we try to do risky things when we're kids. George Washington and Marie Curie were not timid children. If we try to make the world completely safe, I suspect kids will try even crazier things, because it's their mission to push and push, to see where the physical and emotional edges are. Not to mention that we can't make the world completely safe. And, apparently, not to mention that we probably shouldn't make the world completely safe. I think that it's in testing and challenging ourselves that we learn we can triumph. Take precautions - anchor the swingsets well, as dadvocate says, and wear helmets and knee pads - but don't outlaw the stuff altogether. Sometimes we'll get hurt and sometimes we'll fail, but that's the only way we can come close.
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