Release: Acknowledge Child Could Die
Hopefully that one got your attention just a little bit. It got mine when I heard it the other morning on NPR as I was heading into work. Basically this a little tiny bit of the paperwork that a parent has to sign for a summer camp. The paraphrasing of the release from my memory it said something like, “You acknowledge that your child could be seriously injured or even be killed at this camp.” So goes one the pieces of paper that parents have to sign for the Tinker School: Engineering Camp.
Heard about this on NPR (of course) the other morning on the way to the office. I was intrigued a bit and turned it up. Turns out the basic idea is that kids should have fun and get to be kids. However, at the same time they should get to experience the real world in a kids eye to trying new things. All of the activities are generally of the nature that the kids get to decide the projects – generally with very few requirements. One of those is that most projects should end with something that is then used. And by the way, it should not be a model that shows how it used, but should really be used.
Some of the projects that were talked about briefly was the building of roller coasters and construction of boats. The idea is that when the boat is finished the kids, along with the camp folks take the boat down the harbor or lake and give it a try. Makes the kids think a little bit more about things that they are doing, if instead of building a mock-up out of cardboard they get to actually use wood and construct something. I am sure it makes them think even harder when the boat sinks and they have to swim to shore.
It goes one step further. Not only do the kids at the camp come up the projects, they also do the construction. During the brief segment the campers were using power tools that included both drills, circular saws, and a table saw I believe. I am sure this is some basic instruction, but they were basically turned loose with the equipment, or at least that the way the interview made it sound.
I found this great and really caused me to reflect some on my own childhood. Certainly there was a lot of imagination in my childhood, but there were a lot of hands on things as well. And I don’t know at what age I was allowed to use power tools by myself, but I can almost bet you that I was using some of them without permission before that time. Heck, I recall the barn, which is still there today was my person laboratory for anything from building a bike from junk parts I found in the dump, complete with big fat tire in the back and little tiny tire in the front – just like a chopper, to construction of a trailer to pull behind the mower (with out a deck and a string that bypassed the governor on the throttle control to take hay to the calves. By the way, the bike worked just fine and looked awesome when painted black and silver. The trailer, well, that needed some additional engineering work over the next three or four tries. And the mower – well little brother keep it redlined for to long when low on oil later that summer but it was a heck of a lot of fun on wet grass in the early morning.
Anyway, the reasoning behind the camp, according to the owner is that kids need to experience the world from a kids point of view. However, they do not need to be so sheltered that they end up not being able to function in the real world with real responsibilities and real tools. I have seen just this by the way. I recall some younger 20 something kids helping getting ready for show, we were cutting some blanks for equipment. I handed them a circular saw and I got this confused look, like what were the suppose to do with it? It then occurred to me that they had never used such and were a little more than nervous about it.l
It at times like this that I am reminded of a country song by the name of ‘A Different World” by Bucky Covington.
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
Had three TV channels you got up to change
No video games and no satellite
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside
I could add to that we played in the dirt, even ate some, hit each other with tobacco stalks and even worse the sticks it was hung on to be cured, chased cows around, built forts and on and on… My point is that I think a lot of parents are doing a dis-service to their children by keeping them so sheltered, by not letting them discover the world with that fascination that only a child can have.
One exception I will take with NPR though. At the beginning of the report they made a big point about this camp being so different then your typical soccer camp or horse camp. Now, I can’t say about soccer camp, but I will point out that each and every time you get on a horse – especially the less you know and the less comfortable you are about horses there is a chance, no matter how safe that horse and how much it has been used in camps and how much it babysits, there is a chance you could fall off. A fall from a horse can be a good long distance, add that a bit of speed and it gets worse, and maybe you were learning to jump or just dumb like me and doing stupid stuff and the horse rolled over on you. The same release I think could be applicable to a horse camp, “…your child could be seriously injured or even be killed…” sounds just right for a bad horse crash. However unlikely, it could occur.
I had to sign a very similar release for Boy Scout camp and a recent Caving trip, and they actually did say that the child could be seriously injured or even be killed. I think part of it is just them saying "well... you knew before you let your child attend that this could happen." in a kind of cya. You are correct, so many people now a days don't know how to use something as simple as a drill let alone a band saw, or heaven forbid a router...oooh.. LOL. The 20 somethings are from there era of the overprotective parent and the everyone plays for the team crowd. They don't understand life's disappointments and really don't get why if they have a degree they can't just make 100,000 a year. Sorry for all the comment's you've just hit on some things I too think.
Chuckles - I am never going to complain about getting comments. Especially if it is something that I have said that is driving you to make the comment. :)
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