{"id":226255,"date":"2024-01-16T22:29:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T22:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecircleeducation.org\/?p=226255"},"modified":"2024-01-18T21:52:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T21:52:27","slug":"healthy-risk-taking-is-about-growing-and-developing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecircleeducation.org\/2024\/01\/16\/healthy-risk-taking-is-about-growing-and-developing\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Risk Taking is about Growing and Developing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Teenagers crave and seek risks. It helps them to develop and grow. We often think of risk-taking as dangerous, but risk-taking is not always negative. Healthy risk-taking \u2013 like hiking up a mountain, riding a unicycle, or performing on stage \u2013 helps kids build confidence and strengthen leadership skills. We talked about these healthy risks and how you can encourage your kids to take those, with Dan Adair, an experienced scout leader with Scouts Canada, and James Cowan, circus and gymnastics coach on Salt Spring Island.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When you were young, were you a risk-taker yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n James: <\/strong>\u201cYes, in some ways. But I always had a healthy sense of risk calculation already at a young age, so it was nothing too dare-devilly. It was all within the confinements of mountain biking, riding bikes and mountaineering. And I played in a rock and roll band for years which brought on different risks. Later on, I got into kayaking, but at the same time, I started kayak guiding, learning much more about risk calculation and safety instructions to keep my clients safe. I still use these skills. I am managing risks for multiple jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan: <\/strong>\u201cI was into mountain and road biking, and skiing, and I played a lot of watersports when I was young. There were certain risks involved, but I was just having fun and I don\u2019t think I ever looked at anything being risky. I definitely took more risks when I was in university. I did a little bit of skydiving and caving and when you do those things, the risk piece is forced on you. I didn\u2019t do these activities because of the risks, I was just doing an activity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n