Cultivating wimps – time to stop wrapping kids in cotton wool? (September 08)
Little Emperors
Cotton Wool Culture
Bland Children
Let’s Live a Little
Little Emperors
A June 29 2008 article in the Sunday Times (UK) caught my eye and fitted very well into the current thread we have been running about a public backlash in the UK over the last year or so against the “elf and safety” jobsworths.
Welsh mother Ruth Appleton was taken
aback, recently, when her daughter (5) arrived home
from nursery clutching a certificate for “sitting
nicely on the carpet”.
“It made me wonder what she was doing the rest
of the time,” said Appleton, “I thought
it was a bit over the top rewarding her for something
so routine. But it’s part of a whole culture of
stickers and smiley faces. Apparently, the theory (and
it IS a theory), is that nothing should be allowed to
damage a child’s sense of self-worth: also in
June this year, the Football Association (FA) decided
to ban teams including children under eight from publishing
their results, for fear of putting the kids under too
much pressure if they lost a match.
It is becoming a worldwide trend. A recent production
of Snow White at a primary school in Japan featured
25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch, as parents
objected to one child being picked out for the title
role. In Sweden a boy was prevented from handing out
invitations to his birthday party at school because
he was “discriminating” against the two
classmates he did not invite.
But is all this warm fuzziness and deconstruction doing
more harm than good? Surely, our prime role as parents
and teachers is to provide firm guidelines and clear
indications about what constitutes success?
A poll in Netmums’ virtual coffee house produced
distinctly mixed feelings about the phenomenon. “The
cushioning effect of awarding stickers and praise for
inconsequential trivia masks what children really need
and are looking for – guidance, consistency, self-reliance
and love,” said one mother, Liz.
Another, Jeanette, was concerned that her daughter’s
teachers would not correct spelling mistakes, “because
she was spelling the words how you said them”,
nor correct her writing when she drew letters back to
front.
“The reality is, she does need
to be corrected,” said Jeanette. “Children
have to learn. I’m not saying it has to be negative,
but there has to be a balance. When our kids go into
the workplace, they are in for a shock.”
That would appear to be true. Earlier this year the
Association of Graduate Recruiters said the generation
born since 1982 – the so-called generation Y –
were “unrealistic, self-centred, fickle and greedy”.
Boris Johnson, the London mayor, highlighted the problem
of indiscipline in schools as a factor in street violence.
“Too many kids in London are growing up without
boundaries, without discipline and without the family
structures they need,” he said. “We should
bring back discipline and the idea of punishment.”
In Merseyside an academic is bucking the trend of navel-gazing
in schools. Peter Clough, head of psychology at the
University of Hull, is working with children at All
Saints Catholic high school in Knowsley, attempting
to teach them to be “mentally tough”.
According to Clough, mentally tough pupils do better
in exams and are less likely to see themselves as victims
of bullying. If they fail at something, they try again.
“I’m encouraging kids not to run away from
stress but face up to it,” said Clough. “If
you’ve got a maths exam, just do it.”
We have to decide what we want our children to be –
tough go-getters or touchy-feely carers. Or is it even
about them?
Cotton Wool Culture
Some people might remember Simon Woodroffe,
a British entrepreneur who appeared in the BBC’s
Dragon’s Den series. He has added his voice to
calls for children not to be held back by a "cotton
wool culture" which discourages innovation and
measured risk-taking.
"Successful entrepreneurs come in every shape and
size but something they all have in common is a 'go
for it' attitude - a desire to try something new, to
push the boundaries, to take a risk. Helping children
to experience risks in a managed way is not only key
to their general development but also to bringing on
the next generation of entrepreneurs, to the benefit
of the economy and society as a whole."
Mr Woodroffe was speaking as HTI announced the latest
14 schools to receive Go4it awards, which recognise
educational institutions which cultivate a risk-positive
culture.
Lord (Digby) Jones, also warned last year that an obsessive "safety first" approach to life left youngsters unprepared for the "big bad world". In his capacity then as president of HTI (Heads, Teachers and Industry), he said schools should foster healthy rivalry in exams, sports and other competitive activities.
Bland Children
Jonathan Hughes-D’Aeth, head
of Milton Abbey School in Dorset, said this year that
teachers needed to encourage risk, rather than worry
unduly about health and safety.
He told the Independent Schools Council conference in
central London: “Coping with failure is inherent
to success. As long as no one has died, lost a limb
or suffered serious psychological damage then normally
the only thing to be hurt is their pride.
“Without uncertainty and a fear of failure we
will merely produce a bland and anodyne set of children.
“Health and safety legislation is designed to
protect life, not stifle and control it. We’re
in danger of using it to replace thought and personal
responsibility. We need, as adults, to minimise damage
that can occur rather than take away the risk altogether.”
Let’s Live a Little
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents offered visitors the chance to scale an eight-metre climbing wall at Europe's biggest annual health and safety exhibition at Birmingham in May this year.
The purpose of the Myths & Realities stand was to challenge perceptions about what really poses a risk to health and safety and help people understand the difference between sensibly assessing and managing risks and indiscriminately banning activities.
Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA Chief Executive, said: "The ethos behind the climbing wall is that life is for living and that, unless risks are intolerable, good health and safety is about enabling risks to be managed safely, rather than banning activities altogether. This is an important message to share at an event that will be attended by thousands of people who work at the health and safety coalface both in this country and abroad”.
At SafetyPro, we are deliberately
following and promoting this continuing thread from
the UK, because we believe very firmly in debunking
silly myths and beliefs in health and safety. We promote
wholeheartedly a shift from an ever narrowing and blinkered
“process based” health and safety management
approach, to one based on clear and unequivocal leadership,
sensible risk taking and the enabling of individuals.
It is less rules we need, not more.
While one critical part of our business is providing
products and services aimed at the process of managing
health and safety, we always tell our clients there
is no magic wand. If managers don’t lead, don’t
expect anything to change.
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