Learning safety by playing with dangerous things

You have to feel for the teachers.

Four students were injured, one seriously, when a teacher was pouring methanol onto a table top and igniting it during a chemistry class demonstration Monday at Denver's Science, Math and Arts Academy, a charter high school.

A 4-foot flame erupted out of the methanol bottle, burning one of the students, although the parents have declined to have information about his condition released.

Sept. 3, 13 people, mostly children, were burned by a methanol-fueled flash fire during a science demonstration at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum in Reno.

The Laboratory Safety Institute estimates that about five methanol-related accidents occur in high school labs every year, and the Chemical Safety Board said it knows of at least 11 methanol-related fires in science demonstrations since 2000, and more are coming to light because of the recent fires.

The incidents have naturally brought calls for increased safety training, or even instituting training where none existed before.

While the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires school districts to train and supervise teachers who handle hazardous chemicals like methanol, many schools don't have training and no one is keeping track.

While it's true more training is needed and science labs should be made as safe as possible, another school of thought takes a different tack.

Software engineer Gever Tulley helped found the Tinkering School, a week-long camp where kids get to play with their very own power tools, as well as helping found the San Francisco K-12 private school Brightworks.

He gives kids a chance to learn how to build things, solve problems, use new materials and hack old ones for new purposes.

He's also the author of "Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)."

You can check out his TED Talk here http://bit.ly/1B6YQT3 to find out more.

It's a bit disconcerting to see children using power tools without eye or hearing protection, and we wonder what kind of liability insurance Tulley's school carries.

But we agree with the concept with letting young people explore possibilities unhindered by a bubble-wrap suit.

We have to wonder if the teachers involved in the methanol accidents had a chance to play with dangerous materials when they were children.

There's an old story about a visitor who was concerned when she saw a Native American mother allow her baby to crawl toward the camp fire.

"He will learn," observed the wise mom.