Recently the highest administrators of my school put out a statement that led with, “Our highest priority is the safety of our students.” This riled me up. I wanted to shout. I waited a few days for my emotional cognition to trickle over to my intellect. Clearly this broadcast statement is not true. If safety were the HIGHEST priority, then there would be very lively debates about risk-benefit analysis. At first all of these discussions would result in the verdict that no child can do anything because everything involves risk. Then someone would point out that keeping children in cages also involves risk. Then, after energetic debate, we might agree that raising children is an extremely complex business. We need some elders that are sounding the safety alarms, and we need some elders that are leading the youth out into dangerous regions. In other words, we would come back to what every parent in a healthy society has known for thousands of years.
Safety can NEVER be our highest priority.
Students in Trees
“Dr. Clarage,
Either myself or others have seen students climbing extremely high into the trees when they are outside during your class. One student in particular has done it multiple times (I intervened last week on him and another adult did Friday) and it does not appear that he is doing it for any academic reason. Even if he was, the height he is climbing poses a substantial safety concern. Please keep an eye out for this behavior and intervene if you see it. Thank you”
I know that all the guys in the audience ( see Dave Barry’s definition of “guy”) are saying, “yes, climb the tree.” I also have zero grudge against the administrator who sent me the email, because he does not want his ass sued. Today, in a fire drill, I gave that admin a high-5 for reasons I am still trying to understand.
Students value my classes precisely because I do not guarantee their safety. I make them pour boiling water into little cups. I ask them to light candles with matches. I do not tell them whether a bank of 6 AA batteries will hurt them. Yes, of course I have thought very carefully about each of these situations, and from my experience on this planet I have decided that there will be no serious harm. But might a student jump off a chair while lighting a match while pouring boiling water into a little cup… and get seriously hurt? Yes. That might happen.
What are we striving for?
Danger & Safety only make sense after you tell me what you are striving for. If you are making dinner, and are wondering whether to test exploding a new firecracker to light the stove, I would say no, not worth it.
If you wish to get a potential lover’s attention, and ask if you should risk singing outside her window, yes, risk it.
Martin Luther King Jr was first striving for the equality of all persons. In light of that he made many decisions about the safety of his students. Of course, these days his decisions would be considered insane, and he would be brought up to some high commission and crucified for endangering his students.
When anyone says that the highest priority is safety, I hear that they are not striving for anything. Safety without wish is cheap, and the whole business leaves me frustrated and angry.
What are the Adults Doing?
As you might recall, when you were young, the various whacky behaviors of the adults were obvious, baffling, tiresome. When an adult preaches that safety is the highest priority, and at the same time that adult is not striving for anything glorious, this is very depressing to a young soul. “I came all this long distance to be on this planet, and the adults are not striving for anything?” or “They are striving for retirement bonuses and fancy cars?…” This has an enormous effect on a young person.
Read a little history, and you will find adults doing the most reckless things to save their country from fascism, totalitarianism, communism. And if the young student comes to school, and the adults say that the most important thing is to be safe?!?!?!
Forget it. Just stop.
Perfect Michael.
My father built us a set of rope walkways between conifer trees at our house, provided my older brother with an out building for chemistry experiments and bought us a moped when I was 12. We had a range of guns, drove dozers, tractors, excavators harvested wild mushrooms and berries. We were regularly playing with home made Sodium Chlorate and icing sugar bombs as detonators for far larger gallon big petrol explosions. The welding plant, family anvil and angle grinder were always there providing means of attaching and chopping up things.
But one of my favourite things was climbing trees. It gave me my first business at 5, selling Horse Chestnuts for the British childs game of conkers.
This autumn, at the age of 50, I have been collecting pears, apples, walnuts, hazelnuts and chestnuts with my children as I do every year by often climbing high in trees and resonantly shaking their branches. Most people in the parks look on in bewilderment, but after we have left, they take the opportunity to pick up the few fruit we have missed because our baskets or pockets are full.
It is fun, it is healthy, it is great exercise, teaches dexterity, you quickly learn not to trust your weight with a walnut branch or over reach for a particularly tasty looking fruit. Moreover, one is able to connect with another living thing and share its bounty with no processing or chemicals involved.
Learning should not just be about how to regurgitate what we think we know in the intellectual realm, physical skill and real-world experimentation with keen observation teaches a child how their body and the world works without the supposition of opinion.
I have believed this from when I first became a mother, but didn’t know how to express it. This is perfect!