The International Montessori Council

Watch Yourself:  Why Safer isn’t Always Better, by Matt Hern (New Star Books, Vancouver, 2007), reviewed by Sharon Caldwell

Watch Yourself:  Why Safer isn’t Always Better, by Matt Hern (New Star Books, Vancouver, 2007), reviewed by Sharon Caldwell

This is a book I would have written if I’d have had either the time or the talent. Coming from a society where the majority of the population are contending with issues such as a sweeping HIV/AIDS epidemic and with issues of access to safe, drinkable water, the American (and now Australian and British) obsession with matters of safety came as something as a shock to me.

When I first visited the United States this was brought to my attention by a security guard at the Natural History Museum in New York. Having walked around the whole day in mid-summer my feet were throbbing and covered in blisters. The cold floor looked so inviting and eventually I took off my shoes. After some time I was approached by a guard who told me that I must put my shoes on, that this was a rule of the museum. I stated that my feet were sore and that I didn't see any signs saying that shoes were compulsory. She told me to put my shoes on. I asked if she could explain why—if there was a good reason I would be only too happy to comply, but that I still wished to view more exhibits and my feet were really, really sore. She told me to put my shoes on. Eventually, after threatening to call her supervisor, and unbuckling her gun (honestly)—this for a middle-aged bare-footed woman with two properly shod children—she explained that I had to wear shoes because if I was barefoot, and accidentally injured myself on their spotless, perfect floor, I could sue the museum. I was astounded. I have always regarded my feet as my own responsibility, and having walked barefoot as much as possible for most of my life and have never considered suing anyone for the damage I may have done to my feet.

When I discovered that Matt Hern, among my favourites as a writer and speaker, had left his usual turf of alternative education to broach the topic of the ever-growing trend toward obsessive safety in all aspects of life, I was intrigued.  Matt Hern’s Watch Yourself - Why Safer Isn't Always Better did not disappoint.

With its thought provoking photographs (Now why did he choose that one?) and the collection of pertinent quotations liberally scattered throughout, and interesting and plentiful side notes, this book is exactly the kind I enjoy. 

The essential thesis of this book is amply summed up on the back cover:  Is the safe choice always the right choice?

“From warnings on coffee cups to colour-coded terrorist gauges to ubiquitous security cameras, our culture is obsessed with safety. The result is not just a neurotically restrictive society, but one which actively undermines individual and community self-reliance. We are creating a world of officious administration, management by statistics, absurd regulations, rampaging lawsuits and hygienically cleansed public spaces. We are trying to render the human and natural worlds predictable and calculated. In so doing, we are destroying common life, trampling common sense and raising an uncommonly cosseted generation.”

Matt Hern’s book is essential reading for school administrators, parents and teachers for a number of reasons. Firstly, as the author points out in the first chapter, this is not another tome on the issue of fear per se, but looks rather at the idea or “nature of safety, how popular conceptions of safety have emerged and why safer isn't always better”.

“In a staff meeting at the public democratic school where I once worked, the subject of tree climbing came up. One staff member was wondering what our policy about kids climbing the big trees out back should be, how far up we should allow them to go. It was a heated discussion, with some arguing that kids should be allowed to climb however high they wanted, and other claiming it was too dangerous and we should ban climbing altogether. There were suggestions that we designate a maximum height or that maybe climbing would be all right with a certain level of supervision. I thought the conversation was totally interesting and revealed much about how we perceive kids, but it ended in an altogether too familiar way.”

What are the real effects of assessing everything in the light of the potential danger and cost? One is that new safety directives for children's playgrounds resulted, not in safer but attractive areas, but no playgrounds at all in many areas, where child-care providers and municipalities were unprepared to take the risk of liability which ensued from not meeting the often unreasonable and almost always expensive requirements.

This discourse is important when designing Montessori environments and is one which is not new. What considerations have to be taken into account when deciding on, for example, a totally level, rubberized surface for an artificial but totally safe and “approved” play area instead of an uneven, grass and dirt covered, natural, living, uneven and wonderfully unpredictable garden? The truly frightening thought of having to remove the smallest pieces of our sensorial materials and provide only unbreakable materials in classrooms for under sixes is already being faced in some schools. The real implements which have characterized Montessori classrooms for a century are disappearing. Calls for added supervision at all times is resulting in adult-to-child ratios which undermine the development of autonomy in the children. While these specifics are not addressed directly by Hern, the information and careful argument on which this book is based could prove invaluable. Matt Hern’s work is a clarion call for a return to common sense, expressed with a balance of humour, style, rigorous research and refreshing sincerity. His final chapter is uplifting, leaving the reader with the reminder that a different world is possible – a world where safety becomes a matter of informed choices made within the context of community.  He concludes:

"Sometimes, maybe most of the time, safer just isn’t better. There are other ways to think about our lives than reducing them to calculated existences with the occasional gamble. It is necessary to think of life as possibility. It is a requirement of imagining and reimagining the world."

It is also a subject worthy of serious discussion in Montessori schools.