My friend Rob, who made life over the last couple of days quite enjoyable at Marble Mountain!

Last November, our partner organizations KidActive and The Child and Nature Alliance put on a conference in Ottawa called Healthy Children Healthy Spaces.  One of the keynote speakers was Tim Gill.  He is one of the leading thinkers in the UK on children and has published a book called No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society.  He started with two questions to begin his presentation and asked people to stand if the answer was “yes”.

Was your favourite place growing up outside?
1. Did that place go unsupervised by any parent or adult?
2. I just wrote 2 paragraphs talking about perceived risk versus actual risk, but then erased them!  In the spirit of keeping things simple, maybe just a couple of questions:

1.What is your answer for both of these questions?
2. If you are an adult reading this, what is the response from kids in your life to these questions?
3. If you are a student reading this, we’d love to hear your answer to these questions… maybe even an explanation!
4. Are these important questions to ask?

I’m still stuck on this idea that every generation has to decide for themselves what is important and what isn’t.  Are those two questions important ones for this current generation of youth?  If they are, what are some good ways to engage youth in not only discussing these questions, but living them as well?

Western Newfoundland is amazing!