Yesterday, I joined a group of adult volunteers from all over Los Angeles for a day of training in how to safely take scouts on overnight camping trips. We were expertly taught the safe ways to use and maintain the equipment for propane lighting, wood fires and charcoal cooking, even chopping wood! The entire concept is to teach the adult leaders so they can in turn teach the girls on how to safely use all this potentially dangerous equipment.
So that got me thinking. Why do we give so much attention to the potential harm of things like hatchets, propane tanks, and fire-making? Because we so rarely work with these materials, we lack confidence in our ability to use them correctly, let alone safely. It’s important to get training and education so we can keep our kids safe.
If you then think about technology, and all the ways it can get us in trouble, even danger, why don’t we have similar education programs for adults so we can in turn teach our kids about using computers, mobile devices and the internet with safety and confidence? Is it, perhaps, because we use these devices every day for many hours at a time, we feel comfortable? Or just that no one is making us get educated first ourselves. I would love to hear your thoughts. Join me on Twitter, @marianmerritt.