When I first saw the headline 'Councils embrace risky play' I thought it was an article about some dodgy drama or an over reaction to a production about racism or homophobia! But no, I got it wrong again, stuck in the 'Gay Sweatshop Theatre Production loses Arts Centre it's funding' headline of yesteryear.
The article was about adventurous play and how the government thinks we have wrapped children in cotton wool in the drive to reduce risk. I worked on a 'venny' playground many years ago. Children made structures out of old wooden palates, built forts and structures (which were later taken down by spoilsports due to being used as illicit dens used by older kids for sex and smoking) and learned about working together, risk, using nails and hammers and creating their own spaces.
Then came the worryworts and the playground was razed to the ground. In the place of the wild and wacky towers we instead had manufactured bar frames, swings, tyre circuits and an extremely feeble 'ariel runway'. The kids hated it and trashed the place. Gone was the sense of ownership, the play facility that THEY had designed and made themselves, destroyed in the drive to end any form of 'compensation culture.'
How great then that we are seeing a resurgence of risk and play - so badly needed in an era where safeguarding has us pinning everything down to the point that kids can barely breathe. Keeping children safe is one thing, but we mustn't suffocate our kids sense of imagination and adventure - we can still do it in vennys whilst still allowing them to build castles in the sky.