Risky Business
At Providence Children’s Museum, we witness wonderful moments of learning through play all around us, every day: from discovering how to use a popsicle stick as a clay cutting tool to learning that Pilgrim children didn’t use forks, and that engineering a giant fountain with two friends is much easier than constructing alone. But some of the most inspiring learning moments, often the most intense and real, involve taking a risk. When children (and grown-ups) take risks or, as Tim Gill said, “actively seek out uncertainty,” they explore their own limits and learn about the world. Risk is the ingredient that keeps us engaged and it helps make play more meaningful.
