The teachers' response? "Amused, and occasionally impressed," says McKie.
He is, of course, contrasting the tolerance of youthful inquisitiveness and playfulness in the old days with the regime of health and safety measures introduced over the past decade.
It is nowadays taboo for young people to have access to anything more risky than litmus paper, McKie reckons. He then reports a story by a colleague about a geology field trip. Students used to hike into the wilderness, armed only with a tent and a hammer for breaking up samples. Then it was decreed they must wear hard hats. "So we set off with some building-site helmets in our minibus," says geologist Ted Nield, a lecturer at University College Swansea. "Then the bus went round a bend, and the helmets fell off their rack and gashed three students' heads. We hadn't had an injury until then."
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