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Palestinian metaphor: mud bricks
This blog represents a departure from its usual hunting ground. It addresses a subject that I have been itching to speak about via this medium for some time. My reluctance to do so, until now, was based on my awareness that my understanding of the issue was based primarily on book-learning, newspaper/magazine articles and lectures,… Continue reading
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Blog 39
Originally posted on Islington Play CEO: I know it has been a while since my last blog. I was waiting til I felt a bit more settled and knew what to say but I can see that this is not going to happen anytime soon so here I am. I am feeling overwhelmed by social… Continue reading
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BBC news story flagrantly manipulates statistics on school accident claims
Originally posted on Rethinking Childhood: A major news story on the BBC website this morning uses false comparisons and basic errors to create a highly misleading picture about the sums paid out for accident claims in schools. Far from revealing a ‘claims culture’, the figures actually show that payouts make up a tiny proportion of… Continue reading
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Reforming play equipment and surfacing Standards: a few thoughts
I think it fair to say that within the broad community of play advocates – play designers, landscape architects, play provision providers, pedagogues – play equipment and surfacing Standards have not been a hot topic of debate or contention. For some they were, and continue to be, a form of assurance as to the ‘safety’… Continue reading
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I am compelled to share this
Truly, there are no boundaries to the surreal. Or perhaps Rockhampton Regional Council wishes to demonstrate its sense of humour. Or a particular world view taken to its logical conclusion – reductio ad absurdum With thanks to Liselle Wolmarans and Free Range Kids Continue reading
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It’s not all progress
Preamble I want in the article that follows, and the next one, to consider aspects of the resistance, current and developing, to what can be called the ‘pro-risk’ movement in respect of play and outdoor learning. In this, I’m as interested in the subjective, internalised, self-oppression experienced by at least some – I hazard to… Continue reading
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A renewed, misguided ASTM attempt to change surfacing standards, a Guardian editorial and risk-benefit assessment
‘Bicycle helmets save lives’ a Guardian editorial pointed out today (27.09.2016) referrencing recent Australian research. The editorial then posed the question: Should wearing cycle helmets be made compulsory? Now read on for the editorial’s succinct explication of a form of reasoning we have come to know as risk-benefit assessment. ‘From the point of view of… Continue reading
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An alert and call for action – a new Standard threat to play provision
This is an alert. An alert to all those – across Europe and wider – where European play equipment and surfacing standards are held, or will be held, to apply. A new Standard is being proposed, one that will further undermine play provision. Proposed change The particular proposed change I focus on here (there are… Continue reading
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There is a link, I promise: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and play
I accept that at first blush it might seem odd to link words such as play, children, teenagers, risk-taking to the international trade talks currently being conducted between the European Union and the United States of America. But there is a link, and it is potentially a threatening one. The talks, known as the Transatlantic… Continue reading
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Bernard Spiegal 