“Licking a 9-volt battery, learning to whittle, riding a bicycle, climbing trees: we may not see these as necessities like learning to read and write (until you need to make a marshmallow roasting stick or escape a mad dog); however,… — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
We put suffocation warnings on all the - on every piece of plastic film manufactured in the United States or for sale with an item in the United States. We put warnings on coffee cups to tell us that the contents may be hot. And we seem to think that any item sharper than a golf ball is too sharp… — Gever Tulley Copy Share
“Violent crime is at an all-time low in our country, yet numerous studies show that crime is a significant portion of news coverage. By some accounts, violent crime constitutes just 3% of reported criminal activity, yet is responsible for as much as 43% of news coverage. To make matters worse, a survey of news stories about children revealed that 48%… — Gever Tulley Copy Share
The evolution of playground equipment has been to this ever safer, less challenging, less interesting assemblies of equipment. — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
“Lick a 9-Volt Battery” was chosen as the first topic in Fifty Dangerous Things because we thought that most parents would have already done it, and they would feel comfortable guiding their children through the experience. And what simpler way to give an intuitive sense of electricity than experiencing that tingle-in-the-tongue firsthand?” — Gever Tulley Copy Share
When we strive to remove all risk from childhood we also remove the foundations of a rational adulthood, and we eliminate the very experiences… — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
Tinkering is a way of understanding difficult problems, of wrapping our heads around them and quantifying the unknowns. — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
“The best reason to examine the pervasive influence of dangerism is to ensure we aren’t hindering our children’s development by limiting their experiences in the name of keeping them safe. This is becoming an increasingly complex world; we need bold, creative, independent thinkers and explorers who are able to overcome the unknown challenges they will face as they invent the… — Gever Tulley Copy Share
As individuals, and as a society, we can choose to take responsibility for ourselves. In doing so we have to accept that sometimes when things go wrong, it is just an accident. In order to change how we lay blame, we’re going to have to change our over-protective habits; children can only learn to take responsibility when given a chance… — Gever Tulley Copy Share
Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work though difficult problems. — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
The news media is so quick to pick up tragic stories of imperiled children that it seems like there are more terrible events today… — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
“Children who are protected from every possible source of danger never learn to deal with risk. Lenore Skenazy puts it this way, “If kids… — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
Pocketknives are kind of drifting out of our cultural consciousness, which I think is a terrible thing. — Gever Tulley Copy Share Image
