Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up. “Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.”* Tanya Byronhttp://thebrowser.com/interviews/tanya-byron-on-child-psychology-and-mental-healthin the Browser. * *No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society* argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: In message 20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I despair of the direction all this is headed. Cheers, John Following-on from previous correspondence, I was recently sent the attached newspaper article. George Marshall (in Australia) was 'too shy' to send it direct to the Sundial Mailing List, and so this had been sent to me privately for my consideration. However, if anybody wants to respond to George (who is located in the Brisbane area) - his E-mail is: geo...@exemail.com.au At least there is now a 'ray of hope' that the world might just be reverting to a more reasonable attitude - rather than being ruled by the Health Safety brigade, or Lawyers/Accountants. As other people have said, the main problem seems to be one of possible 'litigation', and/or 'compensation' - if a child were to be injured by anything (no matter how harmless it appears). I am certainly no legal expert - but apparently this is caused by a mix of Due Diligence, plus Contributory Negligence. Certainly here in the UK, we must conduct a 'Risk Assessment' of anything new for a school - and especially if the children might be physically interacting with this, in whatever ways. Unfortunately, the current thinking seems to be that (if any child were to be hurt), then SOMEBODY must be to blame - but it cannot be the child, since obviously somebody else has not fully conducted that preliminary 'Risk Assessment' properly ! In other words - somebody, somewhere, will be held as (partly) guilty of whatever happened, due to 'Contributory Negligence', but it will be for the Lawyers to fight over and profit from. Apart from schools, I even heard about a sundial designer (in Croatia), who was not permitted to put a metal 'analemmatic' layout into a public area - because the metal might get too hot in the sun, burn people's feet, so give rise to claims for compensation plus also potentially harming the tourist trade ! As a person on this 'List' said - the world has gone crazy. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -- Cheers Donald 0423 102 090 This e-mail is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Un-authorizeduse of this email is subject to penalty of law. So there! --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Part of the problem seems to be that society is getting to a point where what ever happens there must be someone to blame. People just can't accept that stuff happens, get over it. It is true that if a child is over protected then they cannot learn how to effectively handle situations they face as they grow up. And with society looking for someone to blame for EVERYTHING that happens to them is proof that they have not learned the same thing. A child falls and skins a knee, the parents call the school and chew out the teacher for not watching their child. The sad thing is those of authority are too afraid of bad press of law suits that they may discipline the teacher. I don't know of any cases in the US where sundials are banned from schools but I have not looked either. It never crossed my mind that it would be a problem. -Original Message- From: Donald Christensen dchristensen...@gmail.com To: sundial sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Sun, May 27, 2012 8:29 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up. “Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.” Tanya Byron in the Browser. No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: In message 20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I despair of the direction all this is headed. Cheers, John Following-on from previous correspondence, I was recently sent the attached newspaper article. George Marshall (in Australia) was 'too shy' to send it direct to the Sundial Mailing List, and so this had been sent to me privately for my consideration. However, if anybody wants to respond to George (who is located in the Brisbane area) - his E-mail is: geo...@exemail.com.au At least there is now a 'ray of hope' that the world might just be reverting to a more reasonable attitude - rather than being ruled by the Health Safety brigade, or Lawyers/Accountants. As other people have said, the main problem seems to be one of possible 'litigation', and/or 'compensation' - if a child were to be injured by anything (no matter how harmless it appears). I am certainly no legal expert - but apparently this is caused by a mix of Due Diligence, plus Contributory Negligence. Certainly here in the UK, we must conduct a 'Risk Assessment' of anything new for a school - and especially if the children might be physically interacting with this, in whatever ways. Unfortunately, the current thinking seems to be that (if any child were to be hurt), then SOMEBODY must be to blame - but it cannot be the child, since obviously somebody else has not fully conducted that preliminary 'Risk Assessment' properly ! In other words - somebody, somewhere, will be held as (partly) guilty of whatever happened, due to 'Contributory Negligence', but it will be for the Lawyers to fight over and profit from. Apart from schools, I even heard about a sundial designer (in Croatia), who was not permitted to put a metal 'analemmatic' layout into a public area - because the metal might get too hot in the sun, burn people's feet, so give rise to claims
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
I was sickened how society prevents children from growing up or learning how to cope with life. That is until I read about Lenore Skenazy http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ and Tim Gill http://rethinkingchildhood.com/ It looks like this will turn around. It may take a generation or 2 to do so. However, society is starting to figure out that the current idea is harmful to children. On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Part of the problem seems to be that society is getting to a point where what ever happens there must be someone to blame. People just can't accept that stuff happens, get over it. It is true that if a child is over protected then they cannot learn how to effectively handle situations they face as they grow up. And with society looking for someone to blame for EVERYTHING that happens to them is proof that they have not learned the same thing. A child falls and skins a knee, the parents call the school and chew out the teacher for not watching their child. The sad thing is those of authority are too afraid of bad press of law suits that they may discipline the teacher. I don't know of any cases in the US where sundials are banned from schools but I have not looked either. It never crossed my mind that it would be a problem. -Original Message- From: Donald Christensen dchristensen...@gmail.com To: sundial sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Sun, May 27, 2012 8:29 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up. “Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.”* Tanya Byronhttp://thebrowser.com/interviews/tanya-byron-on-child-psychology-and-mental-healthin the Browser. * *No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society* argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: In message 20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I despair of the direction all this is headed. Cheers, John Following-on from previous correspondence, I was recently sent the attached newspaper article. George Marshall (in Australia) was 'too shy' to send it direct to the Sundial Mailing List, and so this had been sent to me privately for my consideration. However, if anybody wants to respond to George (who is located in the Brisbane area) - his E-mail is: geo...@exemail.com.au At least there is now a 'ray of hope' that the world might just be reverting to a more reasonable attitude - rather than being ruled by the Health Safety brigade, or Lawyers/Accountants. As other people have said, the main problem seems to be one of possible 'litigation', and/or 'compensation' - if a child were to be injured by anything (no matter how harmless it appears). I am certainly no legal expert - but apparently this is caused by a mix of Due Diligence, plus Contributory Negligence. Certainly here in the UK, we must conduct a 'Risk Assessment' of anything new for a school - and especially if the children might be physically interacting with this, in whatever ways. Unfortunately, the current thinking seems to be that (if any child were to be hurt), then SOMEBODY must be to blame
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
I was a free range kid, as were my kids. We created our own activities, took risks, and ended up learning from these experiences to accept personal responsibility and be creative. I ended up being a chemical engineer involved in research most of my life. As a kid, my personal chemistry set contained the forbidden stuff, strong oxidants, strong acids and bases, and poisonous chemicals. Explosives, rocket fuels, stink bombs etc where much more interesting the changing the colours of litmus paper. Our parents were generally unaware of our activities with minor exceptions. My father shut down our rocket society after a static test from a bedroom window. My mother objected to the escape of nine captured snakes into the house and neighbourhood. These were reasonable restrictions considering the situation. No rockets or snakes in the house? OK. Playgrounds with dangerous equipment like swings, slides, teeter totters, skipping ropes, analemmatic sundials are such trivial risks in comparison. Kids need to grow and develop. Give them space. Let them challenge themselves. Regards, Roger Bailey From: Donald Christensen Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 7:29 PM To: darkro...@aol.com Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world,'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I was sickened how society prevents children from growing up or learning how to cope with life. That is until I read about Lenore Skenazy http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ and Tim Gill http://rethinkingchildhood.com/ It looks like this will turn around. It may take a generation or 2 to do so. However, society is starting to figure out that the current idea is harmful to children. On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Part of the problem seems to be that society is getting to a point where what ever happens there must be someone to blame. People just can't accept that stuff happens, get over it. It is true that if a child is over protected then they cannot learn how to effectively handle situations they face as they grow up. And with society looking for someone to blame for EVERYTHING that happens to them is proof that they have not learned the same thing. A child falls and skins a knee, the parents call the school and chew out the teacher for not watching their child. The sad thing is those of authority are too afraid of bad press of law suits that they may discipline the teacher. I don't know of any cases in the US where sundials are banned from schools but I have not looked either. It never crossed my mind that it would be a problem. -Original Message- From: Donald Christensen dchristensen...@gmail.com To: sundial sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Sun, May 27, 2012 8:29 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up. “Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.” Tanya Byron in the Browser. No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: In message 20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
And in Australia we can’t even purchase fire works that go off with a bang. And blow the letter box metal lid onto the roof. And who didn’t make a fire cracker gun out of a metal bicycle pump and marbles. But it was hard to get the wick to come out of the hole in the end of the pump. Regards, Roderick Wall. From: Roger Bailey Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 1:56 PM To: Donald Christensen ; darkro...@aol.com Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world,'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I was a free range kid, as were my kids. We created our own activities, took risks, and ended up learning from these experiences to accept personal responsibility and be creative. I ended up being a chemical engineer involved in research most of my life. As a kid, my personal chemistry set contained the forbidden stuff, strong oxidants, strong acids and bases, and poisonous chemicals. Explosives, rocket fuels, stink bombs etc where much more interesting the changing the colours of litmus paper. Our parents were generally unaware of our activities with minor exceptions. My father shut down our rocket society after a static test from a bedroom window. My mother objected to the escape of nine captured snakes into the house and neighbourhood. These were reasonable restrictions considering the situation. No rockets or snakes in the house? OK. Playgrounds with dangerous equipment like swings, slides, teeter totters, skipping ropes, analemmatic sundials are such trivial risks in comparison. Kids need to grow and develop. Give them space. Let them challenge themselves. Regards, Roger Bailey From: Donald Christensen Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 7:29 PM To: darkro...@aol.com Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world,'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I was sickened how society prevents children from growing up or learning how to cope with life. That is until I read about Lenore Skenazy http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ and Tim Gill http://rethinkingchildhood.com/ It looks like this will turn around. It may take a generation or 2 to do so. However, society is starting to figure out that the current idea is harmful to children. On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Part of the problem seems to be that society is getting to a point where what ever happens there must be someone to blame. People just can't accept that stuff happens, get over it. It is true that if a child is over protected then they cannot learn how to effectively handle situations they face as they grow up. And with society looking for someone to blame for EVERYTHING that happens to them is proof that they have not learned the same thing. A child falls and skins a knee, the parents call the school and chew out the teacher for not watching their child. The sad thing is those of authority are too afraid of bad press of law suits that they may discipline the teacher. I don't know of any cases in the US where sundials are banned from schools but I have not looked either. It never crossed my mind that it would be a problem. -Original Message- From: Donald Christensen dchristensen...@gmail.com To: sundial sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Sun, May 27, 2012 8:29 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? I found an excellent book on the matter It shows how we are making the world more dangerous for children. Society protects them so much that we prevent them from learning how to cope in the stressful world. Children grow old. We can't prevent that. However we can prevent them from growing up. “Beautifully written [...] lays out very simply how we are absolutely screwing the development of children, given our complete paranoid fear of the world we live in.” Tanya Byron in the Browser. No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion. This restricts children’s play, limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds. http://rethinkingchildhood.com/no-fear/ On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: In message 20120517002755.K4ADT.56582.root@nschwwebs03p John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted
RE: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Hi Martina, How about contacting the Health and Safety Executive (think that is what they are called). I have heard that they get a bit annoyed with being used as reasons for not doing things. They sponsored the conker championship after people were saying it was too dangerous for children. Ask their opinion of the dial to see if they say it is a problem. Good luck in your campaign, I will certainly join in. Jackie Jackie Jones 50° 50 09 N.0° 07 40 W. -Original Message- From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Martina Addiscott Sent: 15 May 2012 15:20 To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
That is even more ridiculous. Almost daily some child in my school is falling down and skinning a knee, arguing with others or getting in a small pushing match. We have over 460 kids, its going to happen. And if 20 years from now, getting skin cancer, prove it that it came from standing on a sundial when you were 7 years old and it was not from playing at the beach or playing on weekends in their own backyard. There is no more a liability with a human sundial then there is playing hopscotch, probably less, you could trip playing hopscotch. I would like to know the real, truthful reason these sundials are being banned, and it better be a good one. Pat -Original Message- From: David Bell db...@thebells.net To: darkroom3 darkro...@aol.com Cc: Reinhold.Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de; sundial sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Wed, May 16, 2012 2:12 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? It has little or nothing to do with controlling the students, or even concern over their welfare. It all comes down to liability. Should some child be injured in a schoolyard scuffle, or 20 years later develop a skin cancer, some shyster lawyer WILL find a way to hold the school responsible! Dave Sent from my iPhone On May 15, 2012, at 9:15 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Those are utter rediculous reasons for not having an analemmatic sundial at school. Do these schools have no control or supervision over their students? It is great to get students outside to learn. Many people learn better by hands-on-learning. I had planned to make an analemmatic sundial on my school bus lot this year but it will have to wait until next fall. Our principle and teachers are excited to have it because it will be used for several different lesson by the entire elementary school. My environemental club made small sundials and learned the basics, next year will be the human sundial project. Roger Bailey and Mac Oglesby, I have not forgotten you and still all everything you gave me to help make the sundial at school. It will happen. I would think the ones banning the sundials should be more worried about the weapons, drugs, bullying, stealing, and anti-social behavior of their students instead being out in the sun too long or fighting over the sundial. Pat -Original Message- From: Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de To: Sundial Mailingliste sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Tue, May 15, 2012 11:21 am Subject: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest… and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest… as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me “There are also other good teachers at our school!” – because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnenuhr.html image001.jpg I created a nice story about this analemmatic sundial within my homepage www.ta-dip.de and I am always grinning when I see that the link was visited again… Do not fight against these stupid people who seriously think that analematic sundials would be dangerous! Create a wall of shame with lots of funny comments and write the names of those who want to ban the sundial on it! A big laughter is the best medicine against such people! And if such a wall of shame is multiplied by social networks there would be a beautiful big laughter around the world! Good luck to you! And build your analemmatic sundial!!! Let many analemmatic sundials grow on school grounds or before them…! Reinhold Kriegler * ** *** * ** *** Reinhold R. Kriegler Lat. 53° 6' 52,6 Nord; Long. 8° 53' 52,3 Ost; 48 m ü. N.N. GMT +1 (DST +2) www.ta-dip.de http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCoJHwzzjUfmt=18 http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das/r-e-i-n-h-o-l-d.html http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das.html -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] Im Auftrag von Martina Addiscott Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012 16:20 An: sundial@uni-koeln.de Betreff: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I despair of the direction all this is headed. Cheers, John Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
…….I would like to know the real, truthful reason these sundials are being banned, and it better be a good one. Don’t ponder on this with logic too long or you will get a headache. I hope nobody under 18 reads the email. I’d hate for this forum to get sued for being too dangerous. The legal tsunami and the helicopter parenting have combined and they resemble a runaway freight train. Even some of the pawns and bureaucrats that enforce the ridiculous, know that it’s ridiculous but feel powerless to stop it. I really like the writing of Lenore Skenazy. She became famous when she let her 9 year old son ride the train by himself. He has made journey hundreds of times with an adult. He knew it so well that he could almost do it in his sleep. http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ The media got hold of this and she was invited to appear on radio and television. She was then ambushed by child experts to help her reform. She also appeared on ‘The View’ where the 4 ladies all blasted her for reckulous child endangerment! She then wrote a book called Free Range Kids. It’s a quite a wake-up call! Below is an article that I wrote for her website Children grow up to be adults. The transition stage for child to adult can be very stressful. We all know that confidence and self esteem are very import. Some people have a low self esteem while others esteem is high. However, where does it come from? Is it something that you may be borne with like a cleft chin? Confidence and self esteem is a life-long development that starts on the very first day. When mom walks out into the other room and walks back, the baby starts understanding that he or she can live without mom for 10 seconds. When they open the refrigerator a pour a glass of milk by themselves, it adds to the confidence tally. It’s inevitable that parents have to make decisions about the child’s safety and how far will you allow them to wander. Whether or not they allow them to walk to school or use a public toilet is an open debate. Is it too dangerous to let them do this? There is a danger factor of allowing them freedom but there is also dangerous not to. Hindering the development of confidence also stunts their growth in self esteem. Parents get so caught in protecting their children so much that they forget that it is also their duty to prepare them for life. Anxiety and depression is happening in epidemic proportions. It is also strongly connected to self esteem. Before you tell off a mother for being neglectful for allowing her son to ride the train, stop and think. Are you being neglectful for not allowing your son to ride the train? The transition from child to adult is very stressful. However, we make it MUCH more stressful if we prevent children from experiencing life for as long as we can. We make the learning curve much more severe. Life is stressful enough. Why do we want to make it more stressful? Donald On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 8:04 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: That is even more ridiculous. Almost daily some child in my school is falling down and skinning a knee, arguing with others or getting in a small pushing match. We have over 460 kids, its going to happen. And if 20 years from now, getting skin cancer, prove it that it came from standing on a sundial when you were 7 years old and it was not from playing at the beach or playing on weekends in their own backyard. There is no more a liability with a human sundial then there is playing hopscotch, probably less, you could trip playing hopscotch. I would like to know the real, truthful reason these sundials are being banned, and it better be a good one. Pat -Original Message- From: David Bell db...@thebells.net To: darkroom3 darkro...@aol.com Cc: Reinhold.Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de; sundial sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Wed, May 16, 2012 2:12 pm Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? It has little or nothing to do with controlling the students, or even concern over their welfare. It all comes down to liability. Should some child be injured in a schoolyard scuffle, or 20 years later develop a skin cancer, some shyster lawyer WILL find a way to hold the school responsible! Dave Sent from my iPhone On May 15, 2012, at 9:15 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Those are utter rediculous reasons for not having an analemmatic sundial at school. Do these schools have no control or supervision over their students? It is great to get students outside to learn. Many people learn better by hands-on-learning. I had planned to make an analemmatic sundial on my school bus lot this year but it will have to wait until next fall. Our principle and teachers are excited to have it because it will be used for several different lesson by the entire elementary school. My environemental club made small sundials and learned the basics, next year will be the human
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Children, protected from all hazards in the nanny cocoon will ultimately rebel, seeking freedom, take risks and causing trouble. We are all familiar with acts of vandalism against sundials in public places. This link shows this is a worldwide phenomenon. The pictures show a couple of examples in Mallorca. See http://www.bernisol.com/relojesdesoldemallorca/acosvandalicos.htm . The first is rogue bikers trashing Rafael Soler's analemmatic sundial in Palma. The second shows the equatorial disc on another of his sundials bent and twisted. It had been twisted right off when I checked the site last month. Let kids explore and take risks. Perhaps then they will be less interested in destructive risks later. Regards, Roger Bailey -- From: Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 7:19 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Did any of the schools ever mention what the danger is of an analemmatic sundial? Thibaud At 16:19 15-5-2012, Martina Addiscott wrote: Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
RE: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
I remember this discussion a year or so ago (maybe more?) A dialist in Australia explained that the school argued that the children would be tempted to spend too much time in the sun because of the dial. In another part of this discussion, perhaps in the UK, someone mentioned that the school worried the dial would provoke fights over using it, or just because it was there. These sorts of things. Ross Caldwell43° 20' N3° 13' E Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 16:46:18 +0200 To: sundial@uni-koeln.de From: tcha...@dds.nl Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Did any of the schools ever mention what the danger is of an analemmatic sundial? Thibaud At 16:19 15-5-2012, Martina Addiscott wrote: Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Those are utter rediculous reasons for not having an analemmatic sundial at school. Do these schools have no controlor supervision over their students? It is great to get students outside to learn. Many people learn better by hands-on-learning. I had planned to make an analemmatic sundial on my school bus lot this yearbut it will have to wait until next fall. Our principle and teachers are excited to have it because it will be used for several different lesson by the entire elementary school. My environemental club made small sundials and learned the basics, next year will be the human sundial project. Roger Bailey and Mac Oglesby, I have not forgotten you and still all everything you gave me to help make the sundial at school. It will happen. I would think the ones banning the sundials should be more worried about the weapons, drugs, bullying, stealing, and anti-social behavior of their studentsinstead being out in the sun too long or fighting over the sundial. Pat -Original Message- From: Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de To: Sundial Mailingliste sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Tue, May 15, 2012 11:21 am Subject: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest… and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest… as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me “There are also other good teachers at our school!” – because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnenuhr.html I created a nice story about this analemmatic sundial within my homepage www.ta-dip.de and I am always grinning when I see that the link was visited again… Do not fight against these stupid people who seriously think that analematic sundials would be dangerous! Create a wall of shame with lots of funny comments and write the names of those who want to ban the sundial on it! A big laughter is the best medicine against such people! And if such a wall of shame is multiplied by social networks there would be a beautiful big laughter around the world! Good luck to you! And build your analemmatic sundial!!! Let many analemmatic sundials grow on school grounds or before them…! Reinhold Kriegler * ** *** * ** *** Reinhold R. Kriegler Lat. 53° 6' 52,6" Nord; Long. 8° 53' 52,3 Ost; 48 m ü. N.N. GMT +1 (DST +2) www.ta-dip.de http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCoJHwzzjUfmt=18 http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das/r-e-i-n-h-o-l-d.html http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das.html -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] Im Auftrag von Martina Addiscott Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012 16:20 An: sundial@uni-koeln.de Betreff: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar "Health and Safety" reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/l
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
It has little or nothing to do with controlling the students, or even concern over their welfare. It all comes down to liability. Should some child be injured in a schoolyard scuffle, or 20 years later develop a skin cancer, some shyster lawyer WILL find a way to hold the school responsible! Dave Sent from my iPhone On May 15, 2012, at 9:15 AM, darkro...@aol.com wrote: Those are utter rediculous reasons for not having an analemmatic sundial at school. Do these schools have no control or supervision over their students? It is great to get students outside to learn. Many people learn better by hands-on-learning. I had planned to make an analemmatic sundial on my school bus lot this year but it will have to wait until next fall. Our principle and teachers are excited to have it because it will be used for several different lesson by the entire elementary school. My environemental club made small sundials and learned the basics, next year will be the human sundial project. Roger Bailey and Mac Oglesby, I have not forgotten you and still all everything you gave me to help make the sundial at school. It will happen. I would think the ones banning the sundials should be more worried about the weapons, drugs, bullying, stealing, and anti-social behavior of their students instead being out in the sun too long or fighting over the sundial. Pat -Original Message- From: Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de To: Sundial Mailingliste sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Tue, May 15, 2012 11:21 am Subject: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest… and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest… as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me “There are also other good teachers at our school!” – because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnenuhr.html image001.jpg I created a nice story about this analemmatic sundial within my homepage www.ta-dip.de and I am always grinning when I see that the link was visited again… Do not fight against these stupid people who seriously think that analematic sundials would be dangerous! Create a wall of shame with lots of funny comments and write the names of those who want to ban the sundial on it! A big laughter is the best medicine against such people! And if such a wall of shame is multiplied by social networks there would be a beautiful big laughter around the world! Good luck to you! And build your analemmatic sundial!!! Let many analemmatic sundials grow on school grounds or before them…! Reinhold Kriegler * ** *** * ** *** Reinhold R. Kriegler Lat. 53° 6' 52,6 Nord; Long. 8° 53' 52,3 Ost; 48 m ü. N.N. GMT +1 (DST +2) www.ta-dip.de http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCoJHwzzjUfmt=18 http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das/r-e-i-n-h-o-l-d.html http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das.html -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] Im Auftrag von Martina Addiscott Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012 16:20 An: sundial@uni-koeln.de Betreff: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Dear Reinhold, You write... Create a wall of shame with lots of funny comments... Your story is full of drama. There is good news... ...Herr Kriegler sei der beste Lehrer an der Schule... Then the bad news... ...da hatte dieser Satz die Wirkung eines Stichs in ein Wespennest. Some people suffer a kind of allergic reaction when they see an Analemmatic Sundial. This reaction sometimes results in serious brain damage. There must be an evolutionary explanation? Perhaps, when seeing a user standing on an analemmatic sundial looking up and down at his own shadow, these people are reminded of a Cobra about to attack? This brings on a desire to destroy the snake and its environment. You can test your own sensitivity when you look at this cartoon: http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=jcon3346 Does this give you a headache? Tschüß Frank --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
In message C999F252986D457EA20FAC7AD947B60D@samsung Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de wrote: Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me There are also other good teachers at our school! because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnen uhr.html Dear Reinhold, Thanks for your reply, saying you also had some difficulty with an 'analemmatic' sundial at a school - and caused by jealousy plus people being frightened of some legal action, against them. As you suggest, I would love to 'defy' our Educational Authority to install this feature - but if I did so, then I am afraid that both myself and my Head Teacher will be dismissed from our jobs. I really cannot understand why (say) any Hop-scotch grids and Snakes Ladders layouts are OK for playgrounds - but when it comes to interactive Human Sundials, they are deemed 'dangerous' for children. Nobody seems to be able to give me a satisfactory explanation for it - except to say, Health and Safety reasons. If anyone else has some ideas on this, then please let me know. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
R: Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. ~ Friedrich Schiller Ciao. Gian Messaggio originale Da: martina.addisc...@gmail.com Data: 15/05/2012 19.23 A: sundial@uni-koeln.de Ogg: Re: Why are schools, across the world,#39;banning#39; analemmatic sundials ? In message C999F252986D457EA20FAC7AD947B60D@samsung Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de wrote: Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest… and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest… as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me “There are also other good teachers at our school!” – because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnen uhr.html Dear Reinhold, Thanks for your reply, saying you also had some difficulty with an 'analemmatic' sundial at a school - and caused by jealousy plus people being frightened of some legal action, against them. As you suggest, I would love to 'defy' our Educational Authority to install this feature - but if I did so, then I am afraid that both myself and my Head Teacher will be dismissed from our jobs. I really cannot understand why (say) any Hop-scotch grids and Snakes Ladders layouts are OK for playgrounds - but when it comes to interactive Human Sundials, they are deemed 'dangerous' for children. Nobody seems to be able to give me a satisfactory explanation for it - except to say, Health and Safety reasons. If anyone else has some ideas on this, then please let me know. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Martina Gian is quite right. But one must try… So you need a strategy to overcome the stupidity. Why not recommend to your school the superb Mac Oglesby Beam Spar dial (equiangular - so correctable for summer time and EoT!). This is designed for boy scouts/girl guides and involves ropes (children will hang themselves) and tree climbing (broken legs guaranteed) and - dare I say it - knives (child murder inevitable). So that is bound to be refused. Now you suggest a gentle analemmatic in its place and the authorities will melt with happiness at its simplicity and safety. Or fight the dead hand of bureaucratic idiocy with its own kind. Do a full risk assessment of all potential dangers and provide the strategy required to overcome each risk. (Sun hats against the sun …. non-poisonous paints … pre-cut lengths of string … old fashioned supervision of rowdy children … a tool-box talk etc etc). My heart goes out to you and I hope you show copies of this e-mail thread to your head teacher and point out that there are very few things in the current overcrowd curriculum that can gently and cheaply draw together the diverse threads of art, history, astronomy, geography, geometry and maths as sundials in the playground. And they get the children out of the unhealthy atmosphere of the class room into the great outside. Good luck - you have my full support Kevin Karney On 15 May 2012, at 19:16, sun.di...@libero.it wrote: Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. ~ Friedrich Schiller Ciao. Gian Messaggio originale Da: martina.addisc...@gmail.com Data: 15/05/2012 19.23 A: sundial@uni-koeln.de Ogg: Re: Why are schools, across the world, #39;banning#39; analemmatic sundials ? In message C999F252986D457EA20FAC7AD947B60D@samsung Reinhold Kriegler reinhold.krieg...@gmx.de wrote: Dear Martina, I still remember your previous message! The world is crazy! In Germany I have heard in a radio transmission last year, parents went to a lawyer after there children fell over a tree root while walking with the class on a public path through a forest… and private forest owners are thinking of no longer allowing people to walk on their paths through the forest… as they had to fight with several reports at the law courts! My beautiful analemmatic sundial was destroyed by jealouse women colleagues and they worried a lot about a friendly newspaper article. I was even called by the headmistress and she was not ashamed to tell me “There are also other good teachers at our school!” – because of a harmless sentence of a 10 years old girl about me! Nothing else! So you see where the real danger is! It is the jealousy, nothing else! http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/analemmatische-sonnen uhr.html Dear Reinhold, Thanks for your reply, saying you also had some difficulty with an 'analemmatic' sundial at a school - and caused by jealousy plus people being frightened of some legal action, against them. As you suggest, I would love to 'defy' our Educational Authority to install this feature - but if I did so, then I am afraid that both myself and my Head Teacher will be dismissed from our jobs. I really cannot understand why (say) any Hop-scotch grids and Snakes Ladders layouts are OK for playgrounds - but when it comes to interactive Human Sundials, they are deemed 'dangerous' for children. Nobody seems to be able to give me a satisfactory explanation for it - except to say, Health and Safety reasons. If anyone else has some ideas on this, then please let me know. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
I abhor the Nanny State and its consequences on individual freedom, personal responsibility and creative learning opportunities. Yesterday we watched a couple of girls climbing a tree. They were well out on a limb and enjoying the experience. Good for them. There is hope for the future. In Canada there has been a reaction against nanny state playgrounds with nothing to challenge kids. Several schools and parents groups have worked to develop playgrounds with objective hazards, places where someone might slip, fall, and get hurt. A minor bruise, a skinned knuckle even a broken bone etc is a minor inconvenience for the satisfaction from enjoying a personal challenge. While in the UK recently we were aghast at the pervasiveness of the nanny state. Signs saying Face forward, Use the handrail, Mind the gap, doors closing, doors opening etc. So many warning defeated their purpose. It is much better to allow people to observe, assess and decide themselves, taking personal responsibility for such hazardous things as taking an escalator, elevator, just climbing a the stairs or checking the time on an analemmatic sundial. Often in life I just did it. It was easier to seek approval, authorization or forgiveness later. Regards Roger Bailey Life's but a Walking Shadow -- From: Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 10:23 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Why are schools, across the world,'banning' analemmatic sundials ? Dear Reinhold, Thanks for your reply, saying you also had some difficulty with an 'analemmatic' sundial at a school - and caused by jealousy plus people being frightened of some legal action, against them. As you suggest, I would love to 'defy' our Educational Authority to install this feature - but if I did so, then I am afraid that both myself and my Head Teacher will be dismissed from our jobs. I really cannot understand why (say) any Hop-scotch grids and Snakes Ladders layouts are OK for playgrounds - but when it comes to interactive Human Sundials, they are deemed 'dangerous' for children. Nobody seems to be able to give me a satisfactory explanation for it - except to say, Health and Safety reasons. If anyone else has some ideas on this, then please let me know. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial