All one has to do is look at the change in playground equipment design in the last hundred years to see that risk tolerance in schools has changed. In general, society is more risk-averse, but schools specifically have taken huge steps to make certain that students never get hurt. I should know since in the last couple of years my role has included leading our school in all things crisis-related. My eye is constantly tuned into spotting potential dangers and averting disaster before it happens.
But play a thought experiment with me. Imagine if we did not already have sports in schools. How would a person proposing basketball to a school administration who had never heard of "sports" be received in this century? My guess is they would be met with ridicule and scorn for introducing something that so regularly results in twisted ankles and elbow-induced bruises. How long sports will be "tolerated" in today's safety culture is anyone's guess. In the USA parents regularly balk at allowing their kids to play American football and this trend toward protectiveness from parents trickling into other sports. This comes at a price. When play equipment is safe enough that no one will ever get hurt, and students don't have the opportunity to fall or hang, shoulders weaken, bone density drops, and students don't learn how far they can safely fall. A self-reinforcing cycle means more and more steps need to be taken to protect from injury as students become weaker and more injury-prone. Covid lockdowns further accelerated this trend as students sat at screens and forgot (or never learned) how to play organized sports.
In general, the opportunity to find limits and to test oneself seems less available than ever. Enter the Spartan Race. Why take 25 high school kids on a weekend trip to participate in something so "dangerous"? There are lots of reasons, but the fact that it is a little dangerous happens to be a positive in my mind, not a negative. It is not life-threatening, but the heat, the uneven terrain, the high obstacles, and the unknown all make this worth doing.
The race will be hard; for some kids as hard a physical challenge as they have ever faced. And there is a real possibility that some kids will fail to complete the course due to physical exhaustion or even injury. Even without an injury, race day may come with heat exhaustion, muscle cramps, blisters, and discomfort. We have been practicing for most of a quarter for this race and I have done what I can on our campus to give students similar challenges so they are physically ready on race day. Ideally, our practices would be so hard that on race day the students might even find the race easy.
Besides the physical strength and endurance that our participants are gaining through this training, those who push through the pain (in training and on race day) and seize this opportunity to find limits may open a window into their own psyche, learning that they are capable of more than they thought. This translates to other obstacles that they will face in life...losing a job, losing a loved one, working on a degree, or starting a business. Once a student learns that they will not crumble when things get rough, they learn that they can push through in all sorts of other areas of life.
Just to be clear, I am not advocating for some of the crazy playground equipment seen in old photographs. But I am not worried that someone might "suffer" on race day. That may be where the greatest learning takes place. It seems that God has created us to learn best when the heat is on and things are tough.
