A few months ago I went for a walk to my old primary school which I left in 2002. Back then (which is not a particularly long time ago) we had a playground/fort that had existed since the 80s many bars and jungle-gym’s around the school plus area’s of bush with tall old tree’s which we used to climb up.
I remember when I was 7 years old playing a game with some other kids where we jumped off a roof onto the wood chips, the game was to see who could jump off the highest point. I jumped off at a height of about 4 meters which seemed very high at the time but landed badly and sprained my wrist and ankle. The other kids told me to stop being such a wimp and get up which I did. I didn’t tell any of the teachers and carried on as normal for the rest of the day, until I got home (via walking) when it really started to hurt.
Another kid once jumped off the monkey bars and landed on the wooden playground so hard that he went right through the wood and broke his tibia bone. That kind of thing happened somewhat regularly and the attitude of the teachers at the time was of acceptance that this is what kids do.
On my return visit however it was clear that safety is the number one priority now. The old playground/fort was gone, so was many of the monkey bars that once existed and all area’s around the school had gates and fences. Finally the old bush areas are now completely out of bounds with high fences all around them. It was almost unbelievable to me the change of attitude regarding kids safety all in the space of 12 years. Kids nowadays will grow up completely safe but with no concept on how to deal with uncomfortable or dangerous moments in their life.
I remember when I was 7 years old playing a game with some other kids where we jumped off a roof onto the wood chips, the game was to see who could jump off the highest point. I jumped off at a height of about 4 meters which seemed very high at the time but landed badly and sprained my wrist and ankle. The other kids told me to stop being such a wimp and get up which I did. I didn’t tell any of the teachers and carried on as normal for the rest of the day, until I got home (via walking) when it really started to hurt.
Another kid once jumped off the monkey bars and landed on the wooden playground so hard that he went right through the wood and broke his tibia bone. That kind of thing happened somewhat regularly and the attitude of the teachers at the time was of acceptance that this is what kids do.
On my return visit however it was clear that safety is the number one priority now. The old playground/fort was gone, so was many of the monkey bars that once existed and all area’s around the school had gates and fences. Finally the old bush areas are now completely out of bounds with high fences all around them. It was almost unbelievable to me the change of attitude regarding kids safety all in the space of 12 years. Kids nowadays will grow up completely safe but with no concept on how to deal with uncomfortable or dangerous moments in their life.
Girls should be an ornament to the eye, not an ache in the ear.