I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up.
“Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.”* Tanya Byron<http://thebrowser.com/interviews/tanya-byron-on-child-psychology-and-mental-health>in the Browser. * *No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society* argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott < [email protected]> wrote: > In message <20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p> > John Pickard <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Good morning Martina, > > > > I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with > the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. > > > > We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will > top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the > world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned > the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric > stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as > for scissors ...! > > > > But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort > of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids > to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, > Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big > difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from > my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But > analemmatic dials ...? > > > > I despair of the direction all this is headed. > > > > Cheers, John > > > > > > Following-on from previous correspondence, I was recently sent > the attached newspaper article. George Marshall (in Australia) > was 'too shy' to send it direct to the "Sundial Mailing List", > and so this had been sent to me privately for my consideration. > > However, if anybody wants to respond to George (who is located > in the Brisbane area) - his E-mail is: [email protected] > > > At least there is now a 'ray of hope' that the world might just > be reverting to a more reasonable attitude - rather than being > ruled by the "Health & Safety" brigade, or Lawyers/Accountants. > > > As other people have said, the main problem seems to be one of > possible 'litigation', and/or 'compensation' - if a child were > to be injured by anything (no matter how harmless it appears). > > I am certainly no legal expert - but apparently this is caused > by a mix of "Due Diligence", plus "Contributory Negligence". > > > Certainly here in the UK, we must conduct a 'Risk Assessment' > of anything new for a school - and especially if the children > might be physically interacting with this, in whatever ways. > > Unfortunately, the current thinking seems to be that (if any > child were to be hurt), then SOMEBODY must be "to blame" - but > it cannot be the child, since obviously somebody else has not > fully conducted that preliminary 'Risk Assessment' properly ! > > In other words - somebody, somewhere, will be held as (partly) > guilty of whatever happened, due to 'Contributory Negligence', > but it will be for the Lawyers to fight over and profit from. > > > Apart from schools, I even heard about a sundial designer (in > Croatia), who was not permitted to put a metal 'analemmatic' > layout into a public area - because the metal might get too > hot in the sun, burn people's feet, so give rise to claims for > compensation plus also potentially harming the tourist trade ! > > As a person on this 'List' said - "the world has gone crazy". > > > Sincerely, > > Martina Addiscott. > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > > -- Cheers Donald 0423 102 090 This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Un-authorizeduse of this email is subject to penalty of law. So there!
--------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
