An excellent exegesis of the legalese surrounding this issue. I've always been doubtful that the hysteria around this kind of liability was justified. One hears all kinds of tales of people being sued for millions over hazards in the street, the playground, the backyard etc. I can't believe most of them are true.
Nevertheless, after having survived my own often dangerous childhood I've been horrified by the incremental debasement of childhood and all adventure, discovery, and yes dangerous situations to be negotiated, that that phase of life once meant. Our children now grow up without developing those skills and are thus arguably more prone to harm than they might have been had they learned from their bruises and broken bones to take care. Only the other day on the radio it was said that children's upper-body strength is measurably diminished compared to what it was generations ago, when kids swung around and hung upside down in trees, like monkeys.
It's good to see that jurisprudence, withal its jargon, isn't devoid of sense. We need a campaign to restore childrens' rights to them: freedom of thought (facilitated by secular/ethical education, rather than voodoo and expurgated fairy tales), limited independence, spontaneity, and protection from commercial/corporate paedophilia.

I agree, Squeers.

I liked this bit:

"A better analogy is with a factory....."

Absolument!

Alvin Toffler in "Future Shock" maintained that industrial society's "stroke of genius" was to model schools on the factory system - and I agree.

And another thing!

'State Schools Sports Unit '

I bet they need a special sports unit to 'facilitate' children's play. This is all part of the making a buck out of exercise.

Has anyone ever heard of Gymbaroo

http://www.gymbaroo.com.au/

and swimming lessons for 6 month old babies. A professional must be employed to teach parents how to hold a baby above the water, and to teach a child to roll onto it's stomach.

What kind of f&cked up world are we in when you need a professional facilitator for this crap.

The middle classes have too much money.

Hey, Houellie,

As you know, we homeschool, and we go to the "aquatic centre" once a week so my son can swim in the Olympic pool. He does his own thing, swims a few laps of freestyle and breast-stroke (which is strange because he's never had a formal lesson : ) When he's done, he goes to the toddlers pool and luxuriates in the bubble jets for a while - because he can...and I've watched the parents with the babies, and their facilitator. I've noted that there's nothing especially expert the parents are being taught. It's as if they have a psychological need to be in a group with peer-parents for the exercise to have any value. The fact that they are purchasing instruction, I think, also gives kudos to the lesson even though what they are being instructed in is the bleedin' obvious.

'It's as if they have a psychological need to be in a group with peer-parents for the exercise to have any value'

LMAO!

I nearly died trying not to laugh while one of my partners friends earnestly told me all about Gymbaroo and how essential it was. Her child was 6 months old. Then again 3 years later her kids never go outside, so I suppose she thinks you must pay someone to facilitate kids learning to run around and play.

I suppose she's just under-qualified:-)

The swimming cracks me up.

Instruction 1. keep very young child's mouth above water.
Instruction 2. When you think the child looks like they can handle it, introduce the concept to them that there can be no breathing under water.
Instruction 3. Don't try 2 for too long at a time.

We get strange looks when people ask our very confident in the water 4 year old where we taught her to dog paddle and we answer that we just let her hold onto us so she wouldn't drown rather than putting floaties on her all the time. We never spent 1 second teaching her this, but she wanted to be mobile and more independent of us in the pool.

BTW: "aquatic centre" gave me a smile too. What ever happened to the pools.

'GymbaROO Classes have been professionally designed and structured to cater for babies from as young as 6 weeks'. A fool and his money...

Eventually some lawyer will countersue the parents for creating such deficient DNA as a child stupid enough to do something, well 'stupid', leading to injury. And that, after allowing for adequate 'rights to play', 'rights to safety', supervision and age-appropriate knowledge and self-awareness.

Regarding GymbaROO, if they're younger than six weeks – basically prenatal in other words – the correct term for the aquatic centre is a womb.

I'm under the impression that supervision is basically inherent, though dog paddling is severely limited.

A search found no statistics suggesting flagpole injuries at this age.

I taught myself to swim, or rather I took the plunge after watching the style of the guys at the pool when I was five or six. I queued up behind them at the diving board as though I was one of them and followed in turn. I still remember that first dive and how exhilerating it felt, and then throwing my arms over respectively and pulling myself to the side with feigned nonchalance. When I was older I was a near champion at swimming carnivals--though was always pipped by this God-like other who always seemed to be there--despite my unorthodox style. Never had a lesson in my life; I just studied the form (it's the way to accomplish anything) and I've always been doggedly determined.

Back during those innocent times I recall a really nice man who used to pick my sister and I up and play with us in the cathedral grounds (my father was the bishop's chauffeur). Then it turned out he was playing with my sister indecently and he was marched off by the constabulary. I was completely naive and it was a valuable lesson.

I love your point Houllie about the middle classes having too much money. So true! This is why we have so much patronage of private schools. They don't provide a better education (or shouldn't); it's just more swaddling for the little darlings and kudos to the parents, who see it as a sign of elevated status--poor deluded bastards!

An important implicit point in the article is that children should be protected from their parents' first and foremost--but until that happens a decent playground is their only escape and the least we should provide.

Actually come to think of it The Rodent tied flag poles to school funding didn't he?

So we must blame Little Johnny's patriotism.

Houellie,

I have to tell you this one.
Last week at the pool my son had done his laps and was looking forward to a soak and meditate in the toddlers area with the bubble jets. First of all he usually stops at an intermediate sized pool for a bit of a walk, etc - he normally slots himself in between all the other paid classes and the school swimming classes.

However, we noticed that all these areas had been closed - no bubbles and no entry. We sat fascinated as several staff seemed to have swung into a high state of alert. One was holding a large plastic container of some sort of chemical and pouring it liberally into the pool and a couple of others were wading through the toddler's pool with nets. My son looked at me quizzically wondering why all the action.
I said that I supposed those people with the nets weren't trying to catch fish - and it dawned on him that a small bowel donation from one of the younger patrons had apparently been menacing the patrons.

The only thing missing from the whole episode was a siren - reminded me of the beach when a shark is spotted.

I noticed this story recently - a ban on pre-primary and kindergarten children playing on grass before school hours. The school in question is citing children's safety, as in not enough staff at that time of day to supervise...which, in my opinion, is a load of old cobblers. Parents of kindergarten and pre-school children always stay with their child until they are under the supervision of their teachers or teacher assistants (at least they did when my son attended these two years). So what's the big deal with kids playing on the grass while their parents are chatting and watching.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-17/mp-attacks-pre-class-play-ban/4265440