And I thought we had a near monopoly on stupidity in bureaucracy and litigation phobia in the US! Very, very sad...
Dave -----Original Message----- From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Martina Addiscott Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 4:27 PM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Are there any commercially-available 'Teaching Sundials',for schools ? In message <4bf91f91-2e43-4531-8fdb-e98e9db0f...@thebells.net> David Bell <db...@thebells.net> wrote: > The only conceivable problem that I could suggest is related to the complaints (were they also from the UK?) of outdoor dials being an "attractive nuisance". I can see a flock of unruly kids pushing and shoving to each have a go at the dial. Eventually someone would get hurt, and the local Council doesn't want to be liable... > > Dave Firstly, thanks to everyone who took the trouble to reply to my query. I do not really have the time to respond to you all, individually - but hope that the following will explain the situation, (and the rather ridiculous attitude adopted by Councils plus Educational Authorities, within the UK). As at least some of you will know, schools must (under the law) conduct a "risk assessment" of any new addition to the school buildings or grounds. Just as mentioned by Dave Bell and Frank King (though they were probably intended as 'tongue-in-cheek' comments), that is EXACTLY why we cannot get permission for a 'dangerous' Human Sundial painted on to our playground. Basically, the "powers that be" think that there will be arguments and/or fights between the pupils who want to use it as intended - but also those children who want to use at the same time for other things (and, yes, the central 'scale-of-months' does indeed look a bit like a Hopscotch grid). Not only that, but they feel that "enticing" (their words, not mine) kids into the sunshine is a 'bad thing' - in case it increases their chance of developing skin cancer in the future, and the Educational Authority does not want to get sued for injuries or health-related compensation claims. I do not know whether this is true or not, (perhaps someone on this List can confirm) - but I was told that schools in Australia have BANNED the use of analemmatic dials on playgrounds, for sunshine/skin cancer reasons. It seems that children in Australian schools must by law wear protective clothing (and hats) when outside in sunshine, within the school grounds. Anything which increases 'exposure-time' to sun, is actively discouraged. At least in the UK, there seems to be a general opinion that any 'public' Human Sundials are a "cause of trouble" - and I was referred to this page on the "Modern Sunclocks" website at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-015.htm For all of those above reasons, our request has "fallen upon deaf ears", which then led to my request for details on any other 'Teaching Dials'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
