Cotton-wool kids

Imagine if parents and helpers were likely to be prosecuted if something went wrong on a school field trip. No-one would take the children. They would be safely tucked up in a room somewhere on their super-safe media devices. One cannot protect children from every risk that confronts them during their active young years. Bernie Gilmour, Hamilton

Thank you, Andrea Vance, for your incisive comment regarding safety and accountability on school trips (May 14).

I disagree with Andrew Luddington’s criticism of your article (Letters, May 21). It is not ‘‘cotton wool’’ to take supervision seriously, to ensure a safe adult-to-student ratio, to give a dire weather warning the respect it deserves, and cancel or postpone an outdoor education trip. It is common sense and a good lesson in itself to the children concerned.

And when things do go wrong, we can only learn from these failures by being brave and honest and acknowledging them.

In my experience – and I was a teacher – there have been cases where the school above all seeks to escape blame, with even a principal leading his staff in denial. What sort of education is that, I ask you?

Mary Hume, Auckland