Risk Taking – Part of Growing Up, Part of the Learning Process

A paper released at the thirty-eighth Hawaii International Conference on System Science in 2005 challenges some of the conventional thoughts about the level of risk acceptable in our society today. The paper, Understanding the Effect of Risk Aversion on Risk, suggests that “the attempt to eliminate all thinkable risks in our society may be setting us up for even larger risks.”

As but one example, the authors write, “When children burn their finger on a hot item they learn the consequences of touching fire. This small risk has taught the child to avoid larger risks. In trying to avoid these small risks as well as larger risks, one runs the dual danger of not learning from the small events and of having difficulty in differentiating between large and small risks.”

Kids Need to Explore
Against that back drop we turn to a recent presentation featured at Ted.com. Gever Tulley, the founder of the Tinkering School, gives a talk about six dangerous things we should let our kids do.
Tulley provides a compelling case that we are overprotecting our kids. “Allowing kids the freedom to explore,” states Tulley, “will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.”

It must be noted that Tulley informs his listeners that he doesn’t have children. The software engineer by trade states that he instead borrows his friend’s children so all of his advice must be taken with a grain of salt.

But when he reveals a slide featuring a current warning on a bag of marshmallows, a warning that includes “eat one at a time” and “children should always be seated and supervised while eating” you begin to realize the man is raising a critical point. He later notes that at his week-long camp called the Tinkering School he puts power tools in the hands of second graders.

Tulley tells everyone that he is interested in helping kids learn how to build and make things and calls the school some of his best work. He also notes that children may come home from his camp bruised or scraped and maybe even bloody.

In his talk, the certified paragliding instructor provides the following list of dangerous things we should let children do. At no time does he suggest any such actions without proper supervision or appropriate instruction. Still his list will likely make today’s parents cringe.

The List of Recommendations
His list, let children:

1. Play with fire
2. Own a pocket knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Deconstruct appliances
5. Break the DMCA
6. Drive a car

The fire example appears to go hand in hand with the prior paper we noted – Tulley notes that kids will learn things here they will not learn with Dora the Explorer toys. The speaker insists that while any item sharper than a golf ball is generally considered unsafe by society today for a child under the age of ten, it is possible to let children have a pocket knife and to teach them how to use it properly.

In his throw a spear, Tulley makes links to learning and the development of the brain. In deconstructing appliances, Tulley talks about the wonder of learning and how tearing apart broken machines gets at the heart of how things actually work. The lessons for both a parent and a child could well be significant. Of course, his suggestion here is easily the easiest to accept.

In break the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Tulley seeks to identify the laws beyond those that are safety oriented that seek to limit how we interact with the things that we own. He suggests having children purchase a song, rip a CD then drop the song onto an MP 3 player, ultimately breaking the copyright law. His teaching? It is important for children to realize that laws can be broken sometimes even without negative intentions.

And as for driving a car, well the advice is self-explanatory. He even explains how to make that process legal.

Ultimately Tulley’s message is a simple one, that as our safety zone for children becomes ever smaller, “we cut off our children from valuable opportunities to learn how to interact with the world around them.” And, as we noted in prior posts, this safety zone is driving kids inside, onto the internet and to video games.

Yet in the recent Byron review we profiled, there is clear indication that children will take risks, it is their nature to do so. The most interesting aspect of Tulley’s talk is to encourage that risk-taking while actively parenting at the same time.

Tulley offers a varied viewpoint from that of today’s risk-averse culture where we hear of schools going so far as to ban games of tag for fear of injury. Though some of his specific suggestions may be too much for parents, his general point should be given careful consideration by parents and educators alike.

His talk on Ted.com: