Risk or challenge?

Tim Gill writes that 30 years ago children encountered risk in their daily lives much more than today's generation. Most adults over 30 have the same memories of unsupervised play but this has changed and couldn't have been more apparent than when raising a child in Singapore, in an incredibly safe society. The feeling of safety permeates and makes you more risk adverse, widening the 'risk perception gap' (David Ropiek). Forest School with Greenbanks Childminding, Bristol, was a shock to the system - stand back and let your beloved child scale rocks and trees. It took a bit of getting used to but has thankfully also permeated into our approach to risk - or perhaps more usefully - challenge. As parents, and educators, we are quick to perceive risk and avoid it, but surely we must see the wisdom of the idea that there is more risk in not taking risks than taking them. By assessing a situation as a challenge (positive) rather than a risk (negative) we can learn to challenge children, and ourselves, more. This idea was one of the major motivators in us going on this year of discovery in the first place.