Re: A perfect day to blow up the nanny state

"MM" <kylix_is@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d2o6h492d3cnhshjrcojiv44iuk7bbohgo@xxxxxxxxxx
For instance, you may feel that if a teacher leads a school trip into the
mountains of Scotland, he should choose whatever path he thinks best,
based
on his common sense, and if he should lose a few children along the way
(falling into rivers, or down cliffs) it should be regarded as part of
life's rich tapestry and he should not blame himself and neither he nor
the
school should face any prosecution or civil suit.

What teacher ever did that in the past?

Sadly it has happened on several occassions that I can recall in the past.

Two teachers taking kids out in the eastern cairngorms took the wrong track
in mist and got lost. hypothermia claimed 2 of the kids.
In Snowdonia a group of teachers/scout leaders (?) took too large a part up
Snowdon and lost control of the party, one kid walked off the edge of a
cliff and they did not notice as noone was in control or head-counting (when
I take kids away I am head count almost to the point of obsessiveness.)

The biggest problem with these cases is that, generally, the party leaders
broke the rules/laws. The reaction seems to be to increase the laws, rules
and paperwork to be seen to be doing something.
My main gripe with the ever increasing laws and regulations is that it
overloads the law abiding party leaders to the point where we have so many
forms, rules, reg and guidelines that we are increasingly likely to miss
one. Meanwhile the people who ignored the simplers laws continue to ignore
the complex ones.

Just a couple of years ago 2 teachers shadowing a party of kids on a DofE
expedition in the Cairngorms called out the mountain rescue for a full scale
search as the kids got lost. Amusingly it turned out that the kids were not
lost at all and were safely camped at the correct location, the teachers
were in the wrong place. The resulting change in the guidelines have the
teachers shadowing the party even closer to ensure that control is kept over
the party despite the fact that the party was never lost! The real loss in
this case is that the kids are so closely watched that they no longer have
any feeling of independence and risk. I know of one school who had the
teachers walking with the kids reducing an exercise in independence,
self-reliance, self-confidence and self-respect to a couple of days
following a teacher.

We no longer allow kids to make mistakes and learn from them. Getting lost
in the Cairgorms was one of the most important experiences of my life, it
shook me into realising just how important navigation and hill skills were.
After that I became more serious and responsible when walking; navigating
and route following became a point of pride with me, still is. I take pride
in being able to navigate to within about 20 metres by map and compass
alone. As it happened my venture scout leader was shadowing us and let us
get safely lost for this very reason. Having a teacher in sight at all times
removes the feeling of abject panic (I discovered that it is still possible
to crap youself with fear while simultaneously having your bowels clench
tight enough to make diamonds) when you realise that you do not know where
you are because you know he is right there.

Andy


.

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