The Geography Collective: Get Lost, Kids!

For all our sakes we need more children falling off branches, getting lost in forests and getting stuck inside trees. The message is simple; it is more risky to not go into the woods. It is dangerous for not only the health of the individual but the world.

Recently the media has been wrapped up in a blanket of stories about cotton-wool kids. On 3rd April, Beverley Hughes – the Minister for Young People, Children and Families – announced that £190 million of grants would be available through 'myplace' which "aims to deliver world class youth facilities driven by the active participation of young people". On the same day, Children's Minister Ed Balls announced that £225 was to be spent on 3,500 playgrounds including 30 adventure playgrounds.

At first sight this all sounds like good news, but to what extent is this also a continuation of the cotton-wool trend? The name 'myplace' reconfirms the culture of self interest, 'I' and the 'I' generation, while any geographer or cartographer will recognise that the word 'place' is one defined by the presence of boundaries that will naturally exclude. While many young people will benefit from youth centres, as many will not want to go because the other half are there. It is part of the solution, but the physical, social and emotional boundaries of these places will entrench some divisions in communities and do little to promote the idea of shared space and porous territories.

Later, on 10th April, Channel 4 screened 'Cotton Wool Kids', a documentary that explored the trend of parents being increasingly overprotective of their children partially due to fear for their children's safety "6% of parents believe there has been a dramatic increase in child murders but statistically there has been no such increase". This trend was reconfirmed on 19th April in the Daily Mail reporting on the Hospital Episodes Series of statistics showing that children are now more than twice as likely to be injured falling out of bed than a tree.

The arguments for letting children freely play in the woods and other spaces are clear, it is good for their health, judging risks and learning. It seems to me that the dangers are seen like humanitarian crisis. The rare but big events get all the press attention and largely undue fear while the real killers go unnoticed and often poorly addressed. Parents seem to listen more to stories of kidnap than obesity. But outdoor play and adventures do something else as well, they put young people in touch with nature and it is this last point that is crucial to the health of our world. As a generation is increasingly kept indoors consuming resources that are dependent on the natural world, a world of which they have increasingly little contact, to what degree will such a generation have the skills to be the stewards of it? Surely we want kids to get lost so that they can find themselves.

Politicians would do well to encourage young people to meet with members of their community to start mapping how people see their different places. While mapping would help people to identify alternative places for adventure and play, the conversations that would take place during the mapping process could help to identify and share stories, positive and negative issues, expose inequalities, highlight environmental stress, find what is shared and what is exclusive and open up channels for mediation and reconciliation. While studying a map can help to show a story, collaboratively mapping creates new and shared stories.

About this Guerrilla Geography blog
Guerrilla Geography is all about encouraging people to see their world(s) in new ways. Occasionally by force, but usually through fun (not that the two are mutually exclusive) Guerrilla Geographers create events in which participants (re)think about their place(s) in our world. Each week this blog is updated by one of many Guerrilla Geographers who come from a range of backgrounds. What we have in common is the drive to create geographies.

The GGiP (Give Geography its Place) campaign is formed of a group called the 'Geography Collective' who produce media, events, books and ideas to get people exploring and seeing the world differently... www.ggip.co.uk

Author: Daniel Raven-Ellison
Date: 16 July 2008
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