Introduction
Rules, rules, rules … trap the spirit of the individual in invisible cages made by managers who sit in board rooms. The classroom rules that are made and signed into educational code fly away to sit on the shoulders of children like false angels who wave their fingers, “No.”
Of course, there are good reasons for rules such codes of conduct and behavioural guidelines. However, an obsession with safety has either limited, prevented, or made enormous work for students and teachers who wish to leave the school’s property or eat a peanut butter sandwich at lunch. In order to prevent “problems of progress,” the bad consequences produced by otherwise good social changes (Haidt 2018, 13), a risk-benefit assessment strategy could replace rules that fall under the definition of overprotection: “to treat with extreme or excessive care or kindness” (Merriam-Webster 2020). Young learners who are given the opportunity to assess risks and make decisions are better equipped to make good decisions in the future.
Risk-benefit Assessment
Risk-benefit assessment (RBA) “reins in the tendency to remove all risk from programs and activities. Risk plays an important function in healthy childhood development” (The Risk-Benefit Assessment for Outdoor Play: A Canadian Toolkit, 2020). When introduced to appropriate levels of risk, students feel challenged, learn, test their limits, and set boundaries for themselves and others (Toolkit). In the future, I think overprotection should be replaced by RBA and a spirit of curiosity, reasonable risk, and the promotion of adventure.
Nuts
In China, there is no such thing as a peanut allergy, at least not in the social consciousness. Peanuts are eaten in Chinese soup, as a snack, and in a sauce for noodles. When cooking, Chinese use peanut oil for everything. We also use a lot of sesame seed oil, and in the opinion of most Chinese, a traditional, holistic diet would think it crazy to remove the most economically available and healthy food option. Peanut oil in China is like milk in Canada is respect to how often children put it into their bodies.
I was shocked that my children’s school banned peanuts. “What’s the harm?” people seem to say. “Better safe than sorry.” However, I think the ban on peanuts was short-sighted. According to Jonathon Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (2018), “peanut allergies were surging … because parents and teachers had started protecting children from exposure to peanuts in the 1990s.” Physicians had been advising parents to avoid allergenic foods, but by withholding young people’s immune systems to small doses, they contributed to the rise in peanut allergies (Haidt and Lukianoff). In other words, in an effort to protect children from peanuts, the adults helped cause an increase in peanut allergies. Overprotection led to an unintended consequence that harms more than it helps.
Peanuts should be allowed in BC schools. Risk-benefit assessment strategy would recommend that students be made aware that someone could be allergic to peanuts, so peanuts or food that has been in contact with peanuts should not be shared. If someone with a peanut allergy came into contact with a peanut, the other students and teacher should know what to do. Rather than pretend that a problem does not exist, students should be encouraged to learn how to be both respectful and useful while enjoying—if possible—the pleasures of a peanut butter and jam sandwich, or noodles in peanut sauce (which is a dish I prefer). By deregulating overprotective rules, the school will encourage stronger individual development, and provide parents with more lunch options. Peanuts—in addition to being healthy—are affordable. In the future, I envision peanuts for lunch at BC schools.
Going Outside Unattended or Leaving School Property
My friend says that when she was in school, disruptive students were sometimes asked to go outside and pick-up litter. One student, she says, was told to “go stick his head in a snowbank,” which he did before re-entering the room much calmer … and colder. Today, a young learner cannot leave the school unless he or she is attended by an adult. Rather than emphasizing constant supervision, students should be taught risk-benefit assessment, and be given the choice to make the best decision. Young learners should be encouraged to be antifragile, and even brave when given the chance to make independent decisions. Going outside to pick up litter is a reasonable request, especially considering the fact that school yards are already safer than they have ever been. Young learners should be encouraged to venture outside unattended, and the school should support them by teaching RBA.
In addition, going for walks around the neighborhood with adult supervision should not require signed consent forms or waivers. Red tape to getting outside and into the neighborhood adds to an existing problem. The Canadian Toolkit (2020) says, “Both indigenous and non-indigenous children were increasingly disconnected from the land,” and rules requiring waivers to go across the street prohibit neighborhood exploration. The Toolkit says, the natural environment “does not control or contain children in the way a playroom or gymnasium does. When children are outdoors, they are exposed to a degree of uncertainty and challenge—in other words, to a degree of risk.” Deregulating overprotective rules around child safety will benefit young learners. At the beginning of the year, a risk-benefit assessment strategy should be described to students and parents. The school community should reduce red tape so that teachers can get outside and explore the school grounds and surrounding neighborhood without having to gather a file full of paperwork.
Conclusion
Deregulating overprotection will improve the educational experiences of young learners. In the case of legalizing peanuts and eliminating red tape for litter pick-up or neighborhood walks, deregulation of overprotection will empower students to see themselves as active members of the educational community. Risk-benefit assessment strategies are a tool that can be used to help young learners become antifragile, curious, and adventurous.
References
Haidt, Jonathan and Greg Lukianoff. 2018. The Coddling of the American Mind. Penguin Press. Print.
“overprotection.” 2018. Merriam-Webster.com
Risk-Benefit Assessment for Outdoor Play: A Canadian Toolkit. 2020. Outdoor Play Canada. https://www.outdoorplaycanada.ca/portfolio_page/risk-benefit-assessment-for-outdoor-play-a-canadian-toolkit/
