In his 2012 TED talk, Gever Tulley, founder of the Brightworks School and Tinkering School, and author of “50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)” highlights the importance of letting kids explore their world without a sense of fear attached to experimentation. In his talk, he adds five more items to the original list of 50, including “Make a bomb in a bag” (replicating the classic, and benign, baking soda volcano experiment), and “Superglue their finger and thumb together” pointing out that after only 10 minutes, individuals can build the creative thinking ability to compensate for a disability and adapt their actions.
Similarly, The Atlantic article mentions the increase in “forest preschools” which are schools for young children ages 3-6 held almost exclusively outdoors. The preschools are based on the principle of letting children explore and learn directly from nature (versus learning inside a building and visiting nature), while learning to manage the elements and becoming more self-sufficient at a young age.
