Adter de adds of trying to minimize all risks to children, British educators have decided that some risk is a good thing.
“Four years ago, for instance, teachers at the Richmond Avenue Primary and Nursery School looked critically around their campus and set about, as one of them put it, “bringing in risk.”
“Out went the plastic playhouses and in came the dicey stuff: stacks of two-by-fours, crates and loose bricks. The schoolyard got a mud pit, a tire swing, log stumps and workbenches with hammers and saws.”
It seems that there can be too much of a good thing.
But then there are lawyers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“but then there are lawyers”
five words that could describe the end of civilization as we know it especially when someone like the NRA hires “them” to roll back common sense laws regarding firearms.
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The NRA is suing Florida for raising the age when one can buy a gun from 18 to 21.
What greedy fools. Don’t they see the blood on their hands? They have no shame.
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The NRA’s alleged psychopathic leaders don’t know what shame means.
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The NRA can be likened to a bunch of spoiled pre-teens who have had no parenting, can eat as much candy, soda, and pizza as they want, can stay up as late as they want and not brush their teeth, and expect everyone to clean up their rooms, all while saying that they don’t have to do their homework and can watch as much TV as they want.
Terrible.
Congress has been the indulging parent to these rotten kids.
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Our laws up here could be better, too. In NY & NJ you can’t legally buy a handgun until you’re 21. In NJ you can buy a ‘long gun’ at 18, but there is a long list of banned assault-style weapons, including the AR-15. In NY you can buy a long gun at 16, & the so-called assault-weapons ban does not include a recent ‘modified’ AR15 (changes cosmetic only).
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Giffords Law Center provides links to every state’s gun laws.
“Because our federal gun laws are so weak, states can play a critical role by adopting laws to protect communities from gun violence. While some states have enacted a number of strong laws, others have far too few laws on the books. Learn about the gun laws in every state, or see how your state compares to others across the country.”
http://lawcenter.giffords.org/search-gun-law-by-state/
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Here is my today’s letter to Todd Young [R-IN]
…..
3/10/2018 Corrupt Senator Young, a hero is in the hospital because of your support for assault weapons. He took 5 bullets to save his classmates in Florida
How many more mass killings are necessary before we ban military type assault weapons and criminalize their possession? I hold you responsible for the injury of this brave child of 15 who was shot 5 times and is still in the hospital.
If the point is it’s a great thrill to go to a shooting range and fire an AR-15, make a special permit for the shooting range owners to provide the AR-15, which the visitor uses and leaves at the shooting range.
Here is Anthony Borges’s story: When a 19 year old gunman raged through a high school in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018 a 15-year-old soccer player named Anthony Borges showed extreme courage.
Anthony, who is of Venezuelan descent, apparently was the last of a group of students rushing into a classroom to seek refuge. He shut the door behind him and frantically tried to lock it, but in an instant the gunman appeared on the other side. Instead of running for cover, Anthony blocked the door to keep the shooter out. He held his ground even as the attacker opened fire.
Asked why he would do that, he replied, “What’s so hard to understand about what I did?”
Shot five times in the legs and torso, Anthony phoned his father to say that he had been wounded. He was rushed to a hospital and survived.
Anthony Borges may not yet be able to walk, but tens of thousands of us will be Marching for him, led by his classmates from Parkland, on March 24 in Washington DC and in places all over the country. Hoosiers are going to show that they do not support corrupt politicians like Senator Todd Young who was bought out by the NRA. [$2,896,732] We want meaningful strict gun legislation.
Senator Todd Young, are you going to pay for this young man’s medical bills? You are personally responsible for all the deaths and injury caused by an assault weapon. What about giving Anthony Borges a scholarship? A moral person in your position would accept what he needs to do.
Corrupt Senator Todd Young’s stance: I believe the “Assault Weapons Ban” of 1994 was bad legislation that needed to be repealed.”
Source: 2010 House campaign website, toddyoungforcongress.com/ , Nov 2, 2010.
Let’s honor Anthony Borges, not just as a counterpoint to corrupt, bought out politicians who leave children in harm’s way, but as a beacon of courage and selflessness for all of us to follow.
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The answer to corrupt senators like Todd Young is to vote them out … repeatedly.
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Lloyd: “The answer to corrupt senators like Todd Young is to vote them out … repeatedly.”
In the Pew Research Center’s latest polling only 42% of Hoosiers identified as Republican. Yet, 82% of our state’s Senate is now controlled by Republicans, as are 70 of the 100 seats in our state’s House of Representatives.
Indiana’s leaders refuse to fix this glaring problem. [It keeps them in power.] Earlier this year Indiana’s Attorney General, Curtis T. Hill, signed a brief sent to the US Supreme Court, which argued in favor of gerrymandering.
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When the majority of voters keep corrupt reps in power, the corruption just gets worse, and worse, and worse without end. And most of those voters that keep these crooks in office are easy to fool and/or are “willingly” ignorant.
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One idiocy after another, and all of these need funding I am sure. Just leave the damn kids alone.
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Seriously, we already have enough risks built into the system, e.g., a crazed person entering a school armed with an AR-15. Not to mention more mundane risks such as having a classroom stuffed with 30 to 40 kids, an accident waiting to happen. I’m all for keeping schools as safe and as user friendly as possible. Maybe the UK doesn’t have the problem of parents suing the school district at the drop of a hat.
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After hearing some of the hair raising stories from my ELLs that often came from war torn countries, I was more interested in making my class a safe haven, a shelter from the storm, and a place where wonder and curiosity took center stage. These young people needed a relief from all the stress and chaos in their lives.
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A shelter that can be easily pierced with a bullet, not to mention blown away with a nuke. At the same time the Civil Defense system all but seized to exist. Even when it did exist, the duck and cover nonsense made no sense. Why fooling yourself and the kids that you can provide any meaningful protection?
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I would die for them. That’s about as meaningful as it gets.
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Billy Gates’ Gruff is just trying to get your goat.
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In Berkeley, CA there is a playground similar to this. https://www.cityofberkeley.info/adventureplayground/
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In the olden days, mid-century last, these were called “adventure playgrounds.”
That was before the risk managers, insurance companies, and lawyers killed them off.
Today a popular and fairly low risk hands-on, outdoorsy project is less play than learning and organized by.gardening. We have one roof-top garden at a local school, accessible, and with parents and grandparents who are super-enthusiastic, helping the kids to stage a harvest festival, figure out how and when to divvy up the flowers, herbs, veggies and so on. This was jump-started by a citizen who took pride in being able to sell intangibles–good ideas that did not depend on the profit motive… rare and wonderful person.
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When I was a young mother, I was one of the leaders of a parent group that brought the first adventure playground to Central Park in NYC. It was funded by the Estée Lauder Foundation and designed by a novice architect named Richard Dattner who went on to become an internationally recognized architect.
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Nice little (but not insignificant) of history!
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I was quite lucky iatound 1953 to attend a township school of 100 students where for an entire week we had such a “playground.” The owners of a fenced neighboring property separated from the school property by a shallow ravine remodeled their kitchen, leaving all the demolished boards in the ravine. The fifth through eighth graders had a great time building tiny houses and forming friend-families.
The rumor was the seventh and eighth graders became too friendly and the “playground” material was removed. The owners of the property put up a
fence. The kids went back to their ball games, slides, swings, teeter-totters, merry-go-rounds, jungle gyms, playing school, and forming ad box clubs. I’d bet we all remember building those houses best.
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ad hoc clubs
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When I was a child, there was a host of housing developments sprouting up in the area where we lived and I spent a lot of my out of school free time playing in those developments after the workers went home for the day. Even stepped on a nail once that went all the way through one foot.
And that didn’t stop me from going back to play there again. :o) Don’t remember what happened to the nail after I pulled it out.
I collected a lot of small pieces of wood, the leftover scraps during construction that found its way home with me. Maybe that is why I’ve been a woodworker (hobby and stress relief from teaching when I was teaching) for decades. I like making things with wood.
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Lloyd,
I had that kind of childhood too. I have a scar on my head from a glass window crashing down on me, a scar on my nose that I got in an accident, and many more scars too numerous to mention. I also fell out of a moving car (no seat belts then) and the door wasn’t locked. As I think back, I wonder how I survived my childhood.
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Same for me. Sometimes I feel sorry for my son’s empty, boring childhood where a tablet is the only friend, but then again, better than in Afghanistan or Syria, being bombed by drones.
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Being bombed by U.S. drones that cost more than $4 million each that usually carry Hellfire missiles at $115,000 each — all leading to profits for those who own the most shares in the U.S. military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about the day before he signed legislation that created that bloodthirsty monster.
Global Research reports on “The Soaring Profits of the Military-Industrial COmplex, The Soaring Costs of Military Casualties”
“The power and influence of the military-industrial complex in promoting serial wars has resulted in extraordinary rates of profit. According to a recent study by Morgan Stanley (cited in Barron’s, 6/9/14, p. 19), shares in the major US arms manufacturers have risen 27,699% over the past fifty years versus 6,777% for the broader market. In the past three years alone, Raytheon has returned 124%, Northrup Grumman 114% and Lockheed Martin 149% to their investors.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-soaring-profits-of-the-military-industrial-complex-the-soaring-costs-of-military-casualties/5388393
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Lloyd: I think I’ll be sick. I just finished making two posters for the March for our Lives on March 24. What else can we do? Write letters and make phone calls and donate $3 million to the senator of your choice.
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During focused meditation twenty minutes “every” morning, I repeat and remind myself that there are things happening in the world, for instance, Donald Trump because he is clearly one of those “things” or the Koch brothers and ALEC et al., that I can’t do anything about and/or stop so it’s okay not to get angry or frustrated about them. All I can do is speak out and vote against these forces of total evil.
To be clear. I don’t think of Trump, the Kochs or ALEC and its members as humans. They are things that came from the cold icy depths of Dante’s hell.
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Risk is a fact of life. If we allow children to navigate it at an early age, they become adept at handling life. In fact, if left to their own devices (without constant restrictions and cries of “Be Careful!!”), kids are natural risk assessors. After all, we are hard-wired for survival.
If, on the other hand, we shelter kids from all risk they grow up to become fearful dysfunctional adults. The only message they’ve ever been given is “you are not capable of handling this”. Everyone should read Teacher Tom’s blog daily.
Furthermore, the choices is not between “safe” vs. “unsafe”. There is no such thing as safe because “safe” itself has a cost. The choice is simply balancing what level of risk is acceptable. How do we trust kids to navigate their environments while protecting them to the extent possible?
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How about teaching and experiencing risk and being educated about it with adult guidance?
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“Bring on the scissors, bricks and mud pits.”
Don’t forget trees for climbing.
“But then there are lawyers.”
Four of nine Atlanta school board members are lawyers.
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When I was a child, I would go to the field and ride the tractor with my father while he mowed hay, plowed or pulled the disk harrow. Our tiny Ford 8n lurched across rough terrain so violently that I knew this was a bit dangerous even at a young age.
Years later I was driving the tractor to the field and my father was driving. For some reason, I broke into the chorus of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and he joined in, singing a perfect tenor.
Some things are more important than avoidance of risk.
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Me too, Roy. There is a picture of me somewhere at 6, riding the tractor with my Dad. I’d forgotten how bumpy & exciting that was. Also various rides clutching the waist of my Dad’s waist on his Harley – & yrs later, my little bro’s waist (still scary at 22!) And crazy dune buggy rides. And insane toboggan rides that started on the hill behind our house & went over a little pond somewhere below.
My Mom ended up w/a herniated disc stemming from a youthful ’30’s slide accident, & I am having to replace front teeth that eventually cracked vertically from a 6-y.o. head-first dare ride down a nbr’s slide. Perhaps that doesn’t happen on plastic slides. But a younger friend’s daughter took a femur-shattering fall into the tower of ‘natural-wood’-style playground contraption that was ubiquitous in the ’80’s – they were all eventually dismantled. (Never heard of any injury like that from the ‘dangerous’ 20th-C swings that have disappeared).
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I have mixed feelings about this trend.
First of all, it makes me sad. A story like this says that many kids must be spending all their daylight hours in school (plus school-like after-care), so we must undertake to teach them risk in outdoor play, as they apparently get none at home. I expect they are a mix of ‘priveleged’ overscheduled kids and urban poor latchkey kids w/multi-job parents who are under strict instructions to stay in apt w/locked door until an adult is home.
It also makes me skeptical: surely there are many other kids – the rural poor – who get lots of unsupervised play in risky environments & hardly need such measures.
Mostly I find the trend as described here confounding. Is the corrective for rubber mats & plastic play eqpt really rocks sticks & bricks? It all sounds to me like academics taking their studies too seriously, convinced that schools bear the entire brunt of socialization & must shape every child as tho from clay. Surely there is a middle ground. Just dial it back a little.
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