Growing up in this part of Cornwall I have lots of happy
memories from my childhood. Many of them were from days when my cousins,
friends and I would head out on various adventures on the sea at the coast or
the woodlands that surround us.
As I look back I am amazed at the freedom we enjoyed in
those days. When we were young teenagers we would often head out on our bikes first
thing in the morning, on a weekend or during schools holidays, and not return
until early evening. That freedom did sometimes result in us getting into a few
scrapes and the odd bruise or graze or hairy situations.
However, the sense of adventure and the lessons were learnt
have stood us in good stead. We learnt to assess risks and make choices for
ourselves. We discovered our own limitations and the ability to challenge
ourselves.
When our own boys were growing up we wanted to make sure
they also got to experience the adventures that living in Cornwall can offer
and tried to give them as much freedom as possible to be independent.
I was therefore very interested to read the recent report
from the Chief Inspector of Schools who made the point that we have become over
cautious and risk adverse when it comes to raising our children today. We now
live in an increasingly litigious society where is seems we are no longer able
to have genuine accidents but always look to blame someone and hold them
responsible.
We have probably all heard the stories of schools banning
conkers or yo-yos because they pose a risk of injury. It seems every activity a
school now undertakes has to be preceded by endless risk assessments and
measures such as children having to wear hi-vis jackets to simply cross the
road.
Now of course we want all reasonable measures possible to be
taken to keep our children safe – whether that is when they are at school or
when in our care as parents. But I cannot help feel that we have gone too far
now.
I am aware that today's world does present new dangers for
children but we are also better able to keep in touch with them and for them to
contact us in the event of any problems with mobile communications.
As the report I mentioned states if we continue to insulate
our children from the realities of life we do them no favours in the end. They
need to experience the challenges of life for themselves, including the odd
bump and graze, in order to develop the independence, confidence and resilience
they need to get on in life. If we continually give them the message that you
cannot do anything that contains even the slightest risk then we raise them
with a fear of the unknown and new experiences.
I hope the government takes notice of this report and puts
in the place the measures our schools and parents need for them to take a
common sense approach that allows our children to enjoy some of life’s
adventures and challenges. I will certainly be encouraging them to do so.
