Keeping children safe is one of adults' responsibilities. However, what does keeping children safe mean and from what?
It is important that everything is taken action in moderation.
Keeping children safe is crucial. However, if parents are worried that their children try new things, it might interfere them to have new experience and memory.
Straight roads don't make skilful drivers
Across most of history, when children were free to play, their first instinct was to escape to the nearest wild spot, whether it was a large tree or brushy area in the yard, or a nearby river or woods. Two hundred years ago, the majority of children spent their days on the outskirts of fields, farms or untamed environment. By the late 20th century, the environment of many children had turned urban. Children's lives nowadays are significantly different. Today's children have little possibilities for outside free play and regular interaction with nature. Parents are concerned about their children's safety as a result of a "culture of fear."(Marketta, 2004). According to a 2004 survey, 82 percent of mothers with children aged 3 to 12 claimed crime and safety concerns as one of the major reasons they do not allow their children to play outside. The outdoor-playing culture of childhood has vanished, and children's daily lives have moved to indoors. As a result, children's direct and spontaneous encounter with nature is a disappearing childhood experience. A recent survey discovered that 70% of parents in the United States played outside every day when they were children, compared to just 31% of their children, and that when the mothers played outside, 56% stayed outside for three or more hours, compared to only 22% of their children. The loss of children's outdoor play and interaction with the natural world not only has a detrimental influence on the overall development of the children and their acquisition of information, but it also sets the scene for a continued loss of the natural environment. Future generations that respect nature have little choice but to continue exploitation and destruction of environment. Children's constant interaction with and play in the natural world fosters an affinity for and love of nature, as well as a good environmental ethic, according to research(Schultz, et al., 2002).
[Reference]
Marketta, K., 2004. the extent of children's independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria for child-friendly environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(2), pp. 179-198.
Schultz, P., Shriver, C., Tabanico, J. J. & MKhazian, A., 2002. Implicit connections with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(1), pp. 31-42.
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