The Necessity of Risk Taking

09/07/2022

Well-behaved children and adults, in many communities, don’t think for themselves.
Betty Jones, Early Childhood Professional

"What’s a risk? It’s when you don’t know what will happen when you take action. Risks can be little or big, calculated or stupid. In an era when more people live longer and healthier and more comfortably than ever before, our society seems to have become addicted to ‘risk-free’ as a goal…In an era of bubble-wrapped babies and nature-deprivation, we need to remember that growth is risky — and it needs to be," wrote early childhood professional Betty Jones in 2012. Her words hold true today. She continues, "Yet all new learning involves risk. The challenge is to think — to pay attention, to calculate, to invent new ideas, to discuss (and often argue) our ideas with our friends and our mentors, to act, to reflect on what happened — and to try again. We learn by doing — and by thinking about the past and the future."

In addition to over a dozen articles written for Exchange Press, Betty Jones’ body of work is available through Pacific Oaks College’s Betty Jones Archive, available online.

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