I’ve recently noticed that the kids from our Primary School are taken out for walks in the woodlands etc and also having a go at gardening/growing stuff on commune land… much more often than in previous years.
Today, I’ve found this link which might explain why. Probably you and I already know that “playing in the dirt/earth” is fun (I know we kids were given free rein just advised not to eat worms)
now it’s officially recognised as being beneficially healthy for kids (not eating worms ).
Have no fear, just change the language to English…
When my two were in French primary school in the early 90’s and even at college, they had a dedicated garden where all the classes would learn to plant and grow stuff that was then used in the canteen for their meals. They also went out an awful lot and several visits per year to local farms and cider makers who used to given them apple juice after they learned about the craft. They also did the beach learning about it, skiing every winter and sailing and swimming lessons in summer weekly too. I was always hunted to accompany them and never had five mins to myself but it was good and they all learned so much.
From what I’ve discovered … in recent years, many of the offsite activities had been curtailed due to new rules/regulations re safety etc.
No more visits to try one’s hand at milking the goats.
No more visits to watch the lambs suckling.
No more rambles in the fields/woodlands.
and as for the children being allowed to use garden tools (shock horror)
Thankfully, common sense has prevailed.
Whereas our school had been regularly threatened with closure due to not quite reaching the “magic number of pupils” demanded by various governments… (I joined one protest outside the Prefecture when we were just 2 short - and that was quite an experience)
Nowadays we have been allocated extra staff (hurrah) and the curriculum can (once again) include the fabulous “extras” as well as the academic stuff. Hurrah.
EDIT: About 15+ years ago, each child adopted a tree/sapling and helped to plant it, to form an orchard of mixed fruit, for future munching… and they could watch their own tree grow…
I was the official photographer and took a photo of each child with his/her tree.. for the school archives and for each parent.
The orchard still exists and the fruit is free for all.
Yes everything changed after the headmaster and. his wife retired (they are my son’s best friend’s parents so we socialised a great deal). The incoming directrice shut down everything in the way of outside visits, the gardening continued but only flower boxes and skiing and sailing weekly down the road at the EVF was stopped due to rising costs, lack of parent participation and just general lack of interest. The parents that took over our places for the Amicable Laïque after our years of doing it, were not that interested in giving up their time etc. Shame how things are blamed on H&S now
It’s not always a bad thing to consider H&S
There have been some awful happenings (not just in education) due to someone/some-people deciding to ignore/turn a blind eye and/or cutting corners/costs.
That’s brilliant, it is easy to not realise how rapidly trees grow if left to their own devices.
I have a beautiful Ash tree which is 30 feet high and with a girth I can just about hug fully. It provides excellent cover in hot weather, both my living room and bedroom no longer receive direct sunlight and are wonderfully cool most of the summer. But, it cannot be more than 25 years old because where it stands, close against our terrasse and halfway along it, was a building site for most of 2000 as the local firm constructed our large extension. It self seeded and grew unaided for all of that time.
It puts in perspective the ages of the giant trees I have, difficult to size but I reckon to the order of 30 metres or so and the most beloved are straight as a rod chasing the light. I think of them as being centuries in age but not so sure now.
So true, one person in our team watched me using the company pillar drill, they slapped a prohibition notice on the machine afterwards, they had never seen a pillar drill before and I kid you not, their reason was, it makes holes in things so could do that to an operator .
Risk assessments… wonderful things… we might all stay in bed as it’s too dangerous to do otherwise
Like so many things in our lives, one needs the complete package.
Risk assessment first then guidelines on how to get out of bed safely (ie reduce the risk)
In m y last job, our H&S Director and staff did sterling work trying to keep workers safe and the business rolling along successfully… while battling budgets and pressure from all quarters to cut costs by any means… aaargh.
My sister was called from work to go and put a plaster on the youngest boy’s knee as school staff were not allowed to. Won’t tell you the words used at the time but they all began with an F and W
Fixed that for you. You’re reinforcing my point, I feel, that elfin safety is often pilloried because it’s misused as an excuse not to do things, often accompanied by “you won’t be insured if you do that”, when a simple risk assessment would demonstrate that something is safe to do.
We were wandering around the lake in the park of a village where we were contemplating buying our current house. Each tree had a small label attached with a name on it. As I was examining a label a young lad came up and announced proudly that it was his tree.
Not sure how he could own a tree I asked him to explain.
He said that whenever a baby is born in the village, a tree is planted and the name of the baby added to it.
We decided then that we had found the right location for us
Denmark is famous for its Forest Kindergartens (Udeskole), where children spend their days outdoors regardless of the weather, a recent and highly specific “mud experiment” took place in Finland that captured global attention. In this study, researchers rewilded the play areas of urban daycares. Instead of gravel and asphalt, they imported forest floor materials, such as rich, organic mud, moss, and soil.
Children were encouraged to play in this dirt, plant flowers in it, and get “glutinous” with it every day for a month. It is recorded that in just 28 days, the children who played in the mud showed a significantly more diverse microbiome on their skin and in their guts. Specifically, they had an increase in regulatory T cells that help the immune system distinguish between a real threat and a harmless substance.
Children eating small amounts of earth touches on a well supported medical concept known as the Hygiene Hypothesis. The immune system is like a muscle; it needs weight to lift so it can get stronger. If a child’s environment is too sterile, their immune system becomes lazy or uneducated. Without the mud to practice on, it may begin to attack harmless things like pollen, peanuts, or even the body’s own cells. Soil contains a specific, friendly bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae. Scientific research has found that exposure helps prevent asthma, eczema, and inflammatory bowel disease. When inhaled or ingested in trace amounts, this bacterium has been shown to stimulate the production of serotonin in the brain, acting as a natural antidepressant.
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