I've seen that research on risk-taking, and believe it. This is an important point with your kids: you have to stress to them that a helmet is only a small (but important!) part of bike safety. The vast bulk of it comes from anticipating what cars will do, and not doing stupid things.
(Of course, the fact that I have no children allows me to avoid being completely hypocritical with respect to that last bit of advice -- between the ages of 9 and 13, I was a complete idiot and did many stupid things on bikes. Many. It's a wonder I'm not already dead.) I just try to ride safely. The fact that my cranium is somewhat more protected than the rest of me doesn't allow me to forget that the rest of me is completely unprotected. When on the bike I'm constantly surrounded by things that can hurt me grievously, and I try very hard to keep that in mind. This comes from having crashes in which I was wearing a helmet but was nonetheless hurt pretty badly. m ------ "There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." -- Margaret Wheatley -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 11:41 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Stained Glass Brain On 8 Nov 2007 at 17:36, beth benoit wrote: > Here's a perspective from my husband - a now retired orthopedic > surgeon about helmet-wearing: <snip> > 1. If you have a serious accident and you're not wearing a helmet (as > you probably won't, if you live in New Hampshire), you'll probably die. > 2. If you have a serious accident in Massachusetts (or any other > state that requires a helmet), you'll probably live, but break your > neck and be a quadriplegic. <snip>> > So there you go. You pays ya money, ya makes ya choice. Thank you, Beth. OK, point taken. Wow, this discussion has so quickly turned to the grim. I think perhaps I'll just walk from now on. Or play tennis (but look at what happened to James Blake). Yet I can't resist suggesting a look at the arguments, various and sundry, advanced at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7293/1063 (British Medical Journal, letters, 2001) Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ---
