Ah the Swiss army knife. The ultimate utility tool. Knife, bottle opener, corkscrew, tweezers, screwdriver, pry bar, saw, stick sharpener, bug dissection tool… The list of uses is endless.
I have had one close at hand for as long as I can remember. I was given one as a kid and in my list of life’s big events, I think it ranks in the top 10.
That Swiss Army Knife meant a number of things. Most of which I didn’t realize at the time but recently, I was afforded the opportunity to reflect on just how important that knife was in my growth into adulthood. It was the first stepping stone toward independence, feeling trusted and logical consequence.
Let me explain further. I had a very short conversation the other day with a neighbour about my daughter and her pocket knife.
“Hey Keith, do you realize that your daughter has been using your Swiss Army Knife in the forest?”
“Actually it is her Swiss Army Knife and yes I am quite aware”
“Do you think that is safe?”
“Just as safe as it was when I was twelve”
With that, I got a quizzical look but it got me thinking, what are all the good things that came out of having my very own pocket knife at my disposal when I was a kid?
Independence: Owning a Swiss Army Knife of your own, meant that you didn’t have to ask your dad for his or to have to ask permission to use the household one. You had the freedom to take it out and use it whenever necessary. Believe it or not, I even remember using it in class during Chemistry to fix some piece of science apparatus in about grade 11. Can you imagine doing that today?
Trust: It meant that your parents trusted you to responsibly use this sharp object without doing inappropriate damage to people, places or things. They also trusted that you were responsible enough not to impale yourself… too often.
Logical Consequence: Knives can be very unforgiving. Use it inappropriately or incorrectly and chances are you are going to get cut. Flesh wounds are a great learning experience, especially if they end up with a trip to emergency for stitches.
Nowadays, if you give a kid a knife… It is a cardinal sin. A tool with which a felony is sure to be committed but with that being said, I have given my eldest daughter one anyhow. Actually she has had it for about 2 summers but now she has free reign over its use.
She uses it for everything. It is an essential tool in her outdoor activity and she has been very responsible with it but why do so many parents think that modern day children should hot have access to such benign tools of the childhood experience.
It begs the questions
- Since when are kids incapable of being safe with inherently “dangerous” things?
- How are kids ever going to learn how to handle “dangerous” items if they never get the opportunity?
- If you can’t trust a twelve year old with a pocket knife, at what age can you trust them?
- Why wouldn’t you teach a child how to make sure potentially dangerous things, do not become dangerous?
We are raising social eunuchs, incapable of handling any kind of danger or risk. If we continue to “sterilize” our children’s world in the name of keeping them “safe” then what is the point of living? If we deny our children any rights of passage into adulthood which reach beyond the safety bubble we create for them, they will forever live as children in the eyes of society.
Simple risk activities and items can mean so much in the growth of your child, let them live a little. Even if it means a cut a bruise or an abrasion on occasion it is worth it in your child’s growth into an adult.
You mean we have to give them the tools to grow up? Things you could have written about before I got pregnant with my first child.
As a soon to be parent, I loved this article and the common sense advice through out your blog.
Cheers.
Carin Galletta Oliver´s last blog post ..Wines By The Glass Survey Winners
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I completely agree with the article.. though the law does not.. not in australia it doesn’t. You are not allowed to carry a knife without a lawful excuse full stop. I went out to buy a SAK for my 17th birthday with my father recently as i wanted it for camping.. first of all, its impossible to find a good knife shop; they’re non existent and when i found a camping store to buy the knife i got quizzical (actually closer to horrified) looks from a lady with her kids and the shoppers wondering why “a minor” is being allowed to handle a knife.
And personally i think they’re imbeciles, they buy their little kids phones, ipads, even extremely violent games like call of duty without question, and they’re disgusted when someone goes out and buys knife for their kid. The internet is capable of just as much.. even MORE harm, psychologically, and kids are on it every single day, constantly in a cyberspace prison, a place that isn’t real, but can cause real harm and if they don’t understand that, that’s very bad parenting
I would just love to see how the new technological generation would fare when their technology is taken from them. It funny because there are so many people now who can’t live without their phones and wouldn’t even be able to find their way home without gps/google maps, let alone read a physical map if given one, many don’t even know HOW the technology they’re using works, they just have to click a few buttons to get to what they want. The technology we’re using is dumbing us down as its oversimplified and they say that we’re getting smarter (yeah right). Many teachers don’t even teach properly anymore, they just use powerpoint show us a few slides and are done with it which is extremely lazy, as the whiteboards are barely used for their purpose, only for projecting, the teachers don’t help you with their constant condescending attitudes, and for the lower years its just as bad as they’re forced to buy an ipad which the teachers spend all their time working out how to use and kids just use for playing games in class. Seriously, they should just go back to chalk on blackboard, pen on paper. Keep it simple. Simplicity is best and maybe kids will actually learn something… WOW learning something at school?? it must be a foreign concept to me cause i never learn anything at school, i have to go home and learn it all myself. Tests/Exams, testing the knowledge you’ve learnt over the year, that’s also wrong, it doesn’t test what you know….. i don’t know about how it was in the olden days but now.. tests are there to test how much someone can bullshit! It has nothing to do with how much we know or how much we’ve studied, its about winning a teacher or testmarker over and no matter how much you study, your score doesn’t improve, then you get teachers saying you don’t try hard enough once you’ve studied as hard as you could for it and its extremely demoralising.. while the people who do get the marks.. you ask them to explain a concept to you and they’re like “i dunno, we did that test last week”, and when you look at people’s explanation’s/answers on tests (once they get them back) they’re ALL generic answers like they got them straight from the textbook or dictionary.. that’s what they want.. they want generic answers with no individuality not even a hint of your own explanation.. because.. you’re not an expert you’re not supposed to be able explain it in your own words so.. i’ll just give you no marks for trying. The Australian education system is SHIT avoid it at all costs
And i’ve gone waay off track from the original conversation, sorry for rambling on.