Better to enjoy some risky play than to mollycoddle

Peter Hellyer favours common sense over political correctness and hopes that prevails with the new safety rules at Abu Dhabi schools.

Children should be encouraged to learn through robust play. Silvia Razgova / The National

My friends know that I’m not an advocate of political correctness. I don’t like it in language: for me, a spokesman is a spokesman or, possibly, a spokeswoman, but not, please, a spokesperson.

I don’t like it when political correctness is deployed to suggest that the use of certain terms or types of behaviour, which may offend a few, is automatically to be deprecated and, preferably, banned altogether.

If I hold a door open for a woman, I see no reason why that should mean that I’m dubbed a male chauvinist. On many occasions, I hold doors open for men or children, too.

Nor do I like political correctness when it involves an invasive “nanny-state” telling me what I may or may not do in my private life.

When control freaks in positions of authority attempt to impose all-encompassing rules about what risks I may or may not allow children in my charge to run, that can be offensive.

As a sentient human being, taught to evaluate risk, I think I’ve got a reasonable idea of what is acceptable risk and what is not. If, moreover, one tries to raise children in a world where as much risk as possible has been removed, then how can those children later assess the risks they will inevitably face? Mollycoddling does them no favours. It fails to prepare them for life in the raw.

I was, therefore, delighted to read recently that Britain’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children has decided that children’s play activities have become too safe, too sanitised.

“Risky play”, a report from the group says, “gives children a feeling of thrill and excitement … It is imperative that freely chosen outdoor play, including a healthy component of risk, is encouraged in childhood.”

Noting that children “overwhelmingly prefer play experiences that are developmentally exciting and challenging”, the report adds that this allows children to develop a sense of risk, to learn when fear can indicate unsafe behaviour and to hone their physical skills. Local authorities, it says, are suppressing challenging activities for children through a culture of risk assessments.

This doesn’t just affect kids, of course. Not long ago, someone in Britain drowned in shallow water just because the police on the scene were forbidden by their rules to run a tiny risk and go in to save them. In the event, it turned out that the water was so shallow they could have simply waded in.

To a large extent, surely, risk assessment is simply a matter of a dose of common sense, accompanied by a bit of experience. Once a child has played with matches, burning their fingers slightly, they’re unlikely to do it again. And you don’t learn to ride a bicycle without falling off at least once.

That doesn’t mean that children should be left near open windows or allowed to poke their fingers through the lion’s cage at the zoo, of course – that’s where common sense comes in. It’s fair to note, also, that some people seem to lack basic common sense, so broad guidelines and rules are needed. They mustn’t, though, be allowed to go too far.

I was, therefore, somewhat concerned to read that Abu Dhabi schools must now complete full risk assessments of any activity planned outside school before the Abu Dhabi Education Council grants approval for them. I hope that schools are being allowed to use common sense and that those whose task it is to assess the assessments have some experience of the activities, so that they can properly judge them. Or will they often simply take the easy option of saying “no” just to be safe?

That would be a great pity – not least for the children who lose out on stimulating activity and play.

Peter Hellyer is a consultant specialising in the UAE’s history and culture