"We ended the carefree culture of 30 or 40 years ago when schoolchildren enjoyed adventure outings"

[cobalt1999]

According to Sir Ranulph Fiennes, "Another way of putting it - as with many avenues of life - is that it's only through taking a bit of a risk that you reap rewards."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165766/Youngsters-need-risky-adventures-says-Sir-Ranulph-Fiennes.html

Children are being wrapped up in cotton wool because teachers are scared of the 'blame-claim' culture, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has warned.

He said youngsters should be encouraged to take part in the adventures enjoyed by children in the 1960s and 70s and argued that 'negative connotations' had become attached to the word 'risk'.

The adventurer, who has led expeditions to the North and South Poles, said that learning about risk was as important as learning core subjects such as maths and English. 'Throughout my life, taking measured risks has proved of great interest to me,' he said. 'There have been times when taking some form of risk was the only way to overcome an obstacle and giving up would have been the only alternative.

His comments came as a survey of 400 teachers by school tour organiser the Education Travel Group found that four in ten teachers are put off from arranging visits because they are concerned about litigation.

Sir Ranulph, 65, has had his fair share of scrapes. In 2000, he attempted to walk solo to the North Pole, but the expedition failed when his sleds fell through ice and he suffered severe frostbite to his fingers. Sir Ranulph, who was addressing an Independent Association of Prep Schools conference, said it was important to distinguish between recklessness and risk, as children would benefit from understanding and managing risk from an early age.




I happen to agree with him to a point, we have become a society that is obsessed with providing safe and non-risky activities for children & ourselves. I remember the shock of seeing a class of H.S. kids hiking a risky glacier in New Zealand. That was their class field trip. I had to laugh at the idea that would EVER happen in a U.S. class.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. I agree

Everybody should say at least once in their lives, "This could be dangerous. Here. Hold my flip flops."

[cobalt1999]

4. Living in Florida...

I am SO stealing that line!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. I said it while in CT, but it was the summer and we had just stopped our boat at a small island

I decided to climb the granite face on one side of it, instead of walking up the other side like a normal person.

[DS1]

2. Ranulph Fiennes is one badass dude

and I agree completely. I'll never forget watching a mother teach her son how to use the bank's ATM on his first day of college.

:wtf:

[cobalt1999]

3. Badass is a good description.

From his book...

[TCJ70]

7. Oh. My. God.

That's crazy.

[LittleOne]

5. Totally Agree

I am so glad I did not grow up with Wii and cell phones. Gone with the dog for hours... they never knew where I was and boy I was taking risks.

[Echo In Light]

8. As a kid I went camping nearly every weekend spring/summer/fall

You found friends, had a blast fishing, hiking, swimming...some supervised, but a lot of times not. It was different just in the neighborhoods, too. Hate to admit it, but w/our daughter now - who is about the age when I pretty much could come and go on my own so long as I wasn't in trouble - she'll never experience that level of independence in that way...to a degree, sure, but not how it was for my sister and I when we were growing up.

[cobalt1999]

9. It's not just the kids anymore either.

Tell people you ride a motorcycle and the reaction from adults is "Isn't that too risky?". Like risk is to be avoided at all costs in their lives.

[Echo In Light]

11. Do something you're afraid of daily

And when we're honest w/ourselves - we, as ordinary people - I suspect we realize that doing so doesn't require as obvious of a misstep as initially thought.

[Spike89]

15. No kidding!

I'm a 50-year-old man and I've been riding motorcycles since I was 12. I'm pretty sure I get more "are you crazy?" rants now than I did as a kid dodging log trucks on Weyerhauser logging roads (that was dangerous and I'm still amazed my parents let me do it). I'm anything but a daredevil now, but geez, some people think we should live our lives in bubblewrap.

[RT Atlanta]

10. Turnoff the GD teevees & playstation/Wiis

Get the kids back outside, on their bikes, skateboards, etc., let them skin their knees, get their fingernails dirty and know what it fees like to be outside.

I take my children hiking every weekend and we play outside as much as possible.

[cobalt1999]

12. I agree.

When the weather is good, I try to find someone outside my daughters will enjoy. Sailing, skiing, swimming, wakeboarding, hiking, mountain biking, camping, etc. Something that they'll remember more than a childhood of video games & TV shows.

[Dulcinea]

16. Agreed.

I take my kids outside as much as possible, too. They love tromping through the woods, the playground, throwing rocks in the creek, etc. I just wish they could explore the woods alone like I did.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. I agree 100%. I also think it's our demand that everything a kid might touch be sanitized that's

causing so many more kids to have allergies and other illnesses. Parents today are twice as over-protective than they were 30 years ago.

[NeedleCast]

14. School is just preparing them to be good American Adults

Get married, make babies, go to work, come home, watch Deadliest Catch on TeeVee...

[LeftishBrit]

17. Just to note: the Daily Mail is the British equivalent of Rush Limbaugh's talk-show

There is a grain of truth here, but only a grain; the rest of it is classic Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be, and everything now that's different from the Fifties - if not the days of Good Queen Victoria - is a Bad Thing.

[cobalt1999]

18. I don't know Sir Ranulph Fiennes's politics and I don't really care.

He's right on this particular topic.