Not sure why
Various readings and incidents in the recent past have me thinking about changing attitudes to health and safety especially in schools. When I was young (possibly the neolithic, copper may have been discovered) nobody thought about such thing at all. We played happily dropping lighted spills into test tubes of molten hyperchlorates. We put bits of sodium into sinks full of water. And so on. My favourite though was a lower sixth experiment where the teacher was synthesising HCl by passing chlorine and hydrogen over a heated catalyst to a third gas syringe. This took place in front of a class gathered around without any safety gear or anything. The whole thing exploded sending shards of hot glass in all directions. Miraculously no-one was hurt but I got a significant piece of glass embedded in the knot of my tie.
This wasn't untypical of the general attitude. When I was at prep school (same school, junior division) they used to drive small groups of us out into the local countryside and leave us with a one inch OS map, a grid reference and instructions to find our own way home. I have excellent map reading skills.
This wasn't untypical of the general attitude. When I was at prep school (same school, junior division) they used to drive small groups of us out into the local countryside and leave us with a one inch OS map, a grid reference and instructions to find our own way home. I have excellent map reading skills.