Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/taking-risk-for-the-benefits/5023857/
At the age of 50, I found the courage to design and open a school on a large rented parcel of land with two classrooms. From the time the lease was signed and for the last seven years, I’ve been examining what constitutes school readiness through an entirely new lens.
As an educator/director, I was teetering on the edge of my own risk-taking by designing a space that overtly beckons children to climb, construct, and tinker in ways that I admit sometimes terrified me. But not for the reasons one might think.
The children at play are just fine. In fact, they are ALIVE with all kinds of fine. It’s often messy and at times challenging to know how to support a liberated learner. Free play invites wet, sandy, and muddy clothes, as well as a fair share of splinters, stubbed toes, scrapes and bruises. And yes, once my licensing agency had to investigate a minor injury at the hands of an emerging “contractor vs. hammer.” Though those events demand patience, nurturance, and mindful reflection, they aren’t necessarily what I consider terrifying.
The terror that I am speaking of comes from a misguided association of risk-taking in our culture of child ...