There is no doubt that when Children are in care, keeping them safe and secure should be a primary focus. However, we must all critically reflect on what our overall purpose is as childcare workers and how does the experience of pain and adversity fit in to our model or growth and development. Furthermore, how do we interpret the ideas of ‘safe and secure’?
What does it mean for a child to remain safe as they grow and develop through childhood...? What is ‘safe’ for a 6-year-old child now, will drastically change in a year as the child develops biologically/socially/physiologically, not to mention the rapid responsibilities and requirements that are placed on their own rapidly evolving capabilities.
For a child to be and remain safe it is critical that they have the ability to ‘risk detect’ accurately. A reasonable, but accurate understanding of the limits of our own capabilities and how they relate to the level of risk at hand are fundamental elements of accurate risk detection. If we strip away the consequence of pain and adversity in our care, how is it that we are affording children the ability to hone and sharpen their ability to risk detect? And how is it we are affording Children the opportunity to not only know the limits of their Own capabilities, but to extend upon them. Are the consequences of pain (physical, social and emotional) natural consequences that can hold a deeper meaning within the process of growth and development? And what is the risk of not allowing opportunities for these consequences to naturally develop.
To touch on the original thought, it is important for a child to be able to experience an ‘appropriate’ amount of pain and adversity so that they can build confidence through their ability to overcome it. What is appropriate for each child? Only the individual child can tell you that. So, let’s let them tell us through their manipulation of an environment and the complexity of their play. Let’s let them learn deeply through experiencing all the elements that life has to throw at us, not just the ones we as adults feel comfortable with facilitating. Pain and adversity are woven into our existence as human beings.... sheltering our children from this fact completely is developing unreal and unattainable expectations that will lead to a lack of true understanding and a lack of self-confidence.
Isaih Tueta
