(Quebec) Bernard Drainville believes that we must learn to “better manage risk” in schools, and demands the return of snow mounds and the good old “king of the mountain”.
“Well yes, there is a risk that a child could possibly get a little injury. It happened to me, at one point I fell on the ice and I didn’t die. At some point we have to accept that there is an element of risk,” said the Minister of Education on Saturday on the sidelines of a conference of the Coalition Avenir Québec.
Mr. Drainville was reacting to a report from The Presswhich reports that primary schools are increasing the number of prohibitions in the playground, such as carrying a student on their back, pushing an empty swing, playing king of the mountain, chasing insects or taking momentum to slide down a sled for example.
These practices contradict a shocking report from the Canadian Pediatric Society, which recommends encouraging risky play in children to improve their physical health and to teach them to better manage their anxiety.
“We are in a society where risk-taking is zero tolerance, a society of overprotection,” explained Daniel Paquette, professor at the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, in this article.
Risk space
Mr. Drainville supports this analysis.
We must allow our children to live in a certain space of risk that must be managed well. But if we allow them to play on a mound of snow, they may hit their heads. Well yes, it’s not the end of the world, you have to live with that.
Bernard Drainville, Minister of Education
This summer, he asked his deputy minister to write a memo for school services. “Snow mounds offer a great opportunity to diversify and enrich motor activities during the winter, particularly for boys. The Quebec Ministry of Education invites you to put forward this initiative in your schoolyards,” we can read in this letter sent to the School Service Centers.
It recommends making this request to snow plows, while defining “maximum heights of mounds and slopes”, and marking “travel corridors”.
“We have to do it safely […] but I’ve been telling myself for a while now that we need to bring back the snow mounds, especially because we loved playing king of the mountain,” said Mr. Drainville. He himself practiced this activity where children struggle to stay, alone, at the top of a mound of snow. “I wasn’t always the king, but sometimes I still succeeded. I wasn’t fat, but by working hard… it prepared me well to be Minister of Education,” he said in a joke.
Mounds everywhere
Mr. Drainville believes that School Service Centers must therefore “find a certain balance” in risk management, to “allow children to expend their energy”. “And I think in particular of the boys, I don’t hesitate to say it,” he said.
In addition to the memo, Mr. Drainville says that his ministry is “working on an even more formal framework for the future.”
“It was an encouragement, but I wish it was much more than an incentive. Where possible, I would like there to be mounds of snow everywhere in every schoolyard. […] Safely, but everywhere,” he said.