What is the Risk of No Risk?

In her book, Really Seeing Children, Deb Curtis writes about a child care program she was part of for years, describing the differences of opinion staff had about allowing children to take risks.

"A number of us were continually fearful that children would get hurt; others were concerned that if children didn’t learn to follow rules, they would have a hard time following the rules when they got to public school. Some were worried about parent concerns and legal actions. Still others loved to join in and even help children create the adventurous ideas and risky activities that children regularly pursued.

"For a long time we didn’t openly discuss our differences and there was an undercurrent of tension among us...Things started to change when a new director was hired...She wanted us to think through our ideas and define some shared agreements...Her favorite saying was: 'What risks do we take if we don’t help children to negotiate risks?'...She led staff meetings where we:

• discussed our life experiences and how they impact our reactions to these challenging situations with children
• talked about the children’s and families’ points of view and what they deserve from us
• reviewed the most current information from licensing and best practices for risk and safety in child care programs."

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