Like many parents, I tend to be a bit overprotective of my child. I can hear my tween's voice now in my ear, "Mom, you didn't let me walk the five blocks home from school until the end of 3rd grade!"
Watch the news. Read a newspaper. The stories are enough to make me want to wrap my daughter in bubble wrap and raise her in isolation. As parents, we want to keep our children safe, and it seems intuitive that we should protect them. We pad the walls. We hover like helicopters, never letting them be alone to explore the world. And, then we have the audacity to pat ourselves on the back, because we are "good parents."
Ironically, if we overprotect and over-insulate our children, they miss out on awesome learning opportunities. If denied life experiences, children won't know how to respond when they are confronted with "dangerous" things.
For example, a knife can be dangerous thing. However, I cannot continue to cut my daughter's meat for her when she's 35 years old. There is a time to let go, and allow her to wield this tool on her own. If I teach her how to properly use a knife, and let her experience its power, most likely, future accidents will be minimal. (I typed that while glancing at a recent cut on my own finger.)
Gever Tulley, founder of Tinkering School, gave a speech for TED two years ago which was entitled "5 Dangerous Things you Should let your Children do." (See video below.) Among the list of five things that Mr. Tulley suggested that children do:
- play with fire
- drive a car
- own a pocketknife
Parents, I can feel the cringes now. But, let's think about it. We used to be free-range children. We rode our bicycles without helmets. We played in the neighborhood/woods all day long, only returning home for dinner refueling. We whittled with pocketknives, and yes, most of us probably played with fire. We probably survived these experiences unscathed or with minor scrapes.
The 5 Dangerous Things lecture was the precursor to his new book which has just been published, and it is called "50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)." See slideshow for #46 - Superglue your fingers together - in this hands-on activity book which has space for your own field notes.
Mr. Tulley's book promotes learning, and believe it or not, safety. Quote from his website: "There are many "dangerous" things that are interesting, eye-opening, enlightening or just plain fun! And while there are aspects of danger in virtually everything we do, the trick is to learn how mastery actually minimizes danger." Subscribe to the email listing, and a secret promotional code will allow you to save $6.00 off of the book's cover price.
As parents, we need to give our children opportunities to tinker, explore and experiment. We must endeavor to raise the next generation of great thinkers. My copy of the book is already on the way...how about yours?
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