If it were up to the Minister of Education, there would be “snow mounds everywhere”. And on each of them, kings and queens of the mountain finally in tune with their true nature at all playtimes.
We must credit Bernard Drainville for his readiness to grab a good horse when he sees one. This weekend, The Press had the good idea to examine the codes of conduct and regulations of more than 450 Quebec primary schools. Its reporters went through a long list of prohibitions — throwing snowballs, carrying a friend on horseback, pulling that same friend in a sled, jumping while swinging, spinning around, doing acrobatics, hunting insects or picking a flower to put in your pocket.
Not forgetting the obligation to spend recess on all fours as soon as the schoolyards are deemed too icy. Often denounced, this cautious practice must have given great pleasure to snow pants sellers. Knees can be mended, but not forever with our unpredictable winters. The principle also applies to free play, basically. By restricting the risky game in our schoolyards, its already flickering flame risks going out for good.
The problem is that by regimenting out-of-class moments as it does, the school contravenes the spirit of a recent outing in favor of “free play” from the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS). In a document of principles as detailed as it is fascinating, it pleads for a fair return of the pendulum. “Risky play,” she explains, is a response to several problems affecting children today. Stress, anxiety, unhappiness, being overweight, a sedentary lifestyle? He checks them all.
Concretely, risky play covers all “exciting and stimulating forms of free play whose outcome is uncertain and which involve a possibility of physical injury,” explains the SCP. But be careful: risk, here, does not mean danger. The first is deployed at the child’s level: it recognizes the risk, evaluates it and reacts accordingly. The second places the child in an untenable situation where the risk of injury exceeds his or her ability to perceive and manage it.
It is the danger that must be contained, not the risk. Pure products of an era that likes to predict everything, especially the worst, our young and old children have lost the habit of risky play, to the point that it now compromises their development. “We are creating children who, at 10, 12, 14 years old, have lost motor skills that children of 7, 8 years old had 30 years ago,” worries psychoeducator and author Solène Bourque in the file of The Press.
It is true that opportunities to engage in outdoor free play — and risky play in particular — have melted away like snow in the sun. This is partly because safety measures now aim to prevent all injuries rather than just those that are serious and fatal. It’s not just the schools’ fault. Society as a whole is less tolerant of risk. This is true of school principals, their insurers, but also parents, Public Health and even the Ministry of Education.
That Minister Drainville is forcing a rebalancing is good news. His colleague at Health will no doubt be grateful to him, he who is juggling a youth that is difficult to get moving. In its 2024 report card, ParticipACTION gave Canadian children a grade of “D+” for overall physical activity and “D-” for active play. Worse, our children get an F for the physical activity-sedentary behavior-sleep triad. An F!
Casually, this directive risks earning Bernard Drainville more concrete successes than his future plan to reestablish a “culture of citizenship” at school, the ins and outs of which we still do not know. The return of risky play opens up great potential on this front too. In children, so-called turbulent and disorganized play works wonders for behavioral problems. It also helps improve resilience and conflict resolution skills.
And that’s not all, it is also well documented that children who engage in free play will more naturally acquire the social and executive skills essential to their school maturity. However, who says school maturity means academic success. This is a great application of the snowball effect.
Let’s just hope that Minister Drainville will hold the reins of this new hobbyhorse. We would not want to relive the security back and forths which intensified to the point of depriving entire classes of a unique human and educational experience during the solar eclipse last spring.
Basically, it’s a bit of the same forces that are opposing each other here. What science tells us is clear: the security camp is exaggerating. Poorly dosed and poorly channeled, zero risk and overprotection are bad for our children.