Tag Archives: exploration

How do we respond to daredevil children?

Today I took a phone call from a television news channel asking me to comment on this Youtube video.

The clip is not for the faint-hearted. It shows 22-year-old James Kingston climbing up a tower crane in Southampton, then hanging by one hand off one of the crane’s bars, with a 250 foot drop beneath him. The reporter wanted me to condemn Kingston’s actions as likely to encourage copycat behaviour and put children at risk. The call made me think: what is going on when children or young people carry out acts of extreme danger, and how should we respond?

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Wild swimming, rope swinging heaven

I hereby invite you to stop whatever it is that you’re doing, and enjoy 2’46” of pure, unadulterated fun. Here is a video of a group of teenage boys making the most of a forest lakeside spot in New South Wales.

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Who says kids don’t play in creeks and build dens any more?

Of course some still do. Take the group of boys from Raleigh, North Carolina captured in this slide show.

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Benign neglect: a vignette

This video clip shows a toddler exploring the garden of the Geffrye Museum in London while her father watches over her. It is very grainy: you have to watch carefully at the start to see the tiny figure of the girl.

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