Rattus thought it wonderful the story of Prince Louis ‘helping out’ by driving a digger at the age of five.
No doubt the health and safety people had kittens. Rattus doesn’t know the legal age for digger driving but he suspects it is not five. His father was helping. Of course for a five year old getting to drive a digger is great fun.
I suspect he mastered it in a few minutes and thinks it would be much more fun than being King. Rattus sympathises. Simplicity has its virtues.
Our education system is far too risk averse. Rattus would not go to the Masai extreme: you have to kill a lion with a spear to become a man, but keeping kids in cotton wool is not clever.
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They need excitement. They need challenge. They need to overcome adversity.
If they are always protected from danger then courage in the face of it will be foreign to them.
They need to learn responsibility. If you can be trusted then you can drive a digger.
Earn the trust of adults and life is much more fun, you can do more. Rattus loved the story of the kid who camped out for years to raise huge money for his local hospice. What a brilliant start in life.
Rattus rattus
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