Today Laura Dekker, a Dutch girl age 16 years and four month, completed a 27,000 mile single-handed circumnavigation becoming the youngest to accomplish this feat. You won’t, however, see this recorded in any of the record books nor will there be any fanfare media blitz surrounding her accomplishment. That would simply be irresponsible and may give other teenagers permission to follow their dream. We wouldn’t want to do that, would we?
The back story on Laura Dekker is simple. She was born a sailor. While most children were participating in land sports like soccer or baseball Laura was teaching herself how to sail. When others were going off to summer camps she was completing multi-week solo-sailing vacations. Life was going well until she made a solo-crossing from Maurik, Netherland to Lowerstoft, England at the ripe old age of 13. Once she arrived in England, local officials requested that her father come and accompany his daughter on the return trip to the Netherlands. Allegations of child abuse were starting to be whispered.
Later that year when she announced her plans to complete the 27,000 mile circumnavigation authorities stepped in. They created a shared custody between her parents and the government in an attempt to stop this “risky behavior” preventing her from leaving. International conversations began questioning how far governments should go to “protect” our children.
This stomping on ambitious children went one step further when the Guinness Book of Records announced that they would no longer recognize the “youngest” sailor in any category. They did not want teenagers recklessly going out to try to break these records.
Most teenagers today do not know how to change the oil in their car or a flat tire for that matter. They rely on GPS to get to someplace new and many have never seen an actual paper map. They are told when to get up, when to go to school, what to eat and sometimes what to think and/or believe. At age 16 Laura Dekker can tell you how all the systems on her 38-foot sailboat work, how to navigate by the stars, and ration her food and water according to her next port arrival. She even knows how to fill out the proper customs paperwork to enter new countries. Many of today’s teenagers don’t even know that they need a passport to get into Canada.
Have we gone so far to protect our children that we are at risk of losing an entire generation of thinkers, explorers, designers and entrepreneurs? Not everything can be learned from television or the computer. Children need at actually experience life; good or bad. That may, on occasion, put them in harms way. That is not child abuse. That is raising a child full of possibilities.
We should be celebrating Laura Dekker today as the youngest sailor to complete a solo-circumnavigation. Period. Let other teenagers come behind her to try to break the record. That would at least give this generation a fighting chance at greatness.
Congratulations Laura. You are an example that should be followed.
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