On a recent article in the New York Times , I highlighted a German fire safety training program that aims to keep kids safe by teaching them how to make fire–not to stay away from it. Check it out here

Kain Karawahn

Here’s a bit of Kain Karawahn’s fire training for kindergartners in action: (in German) The fire lesson really gets going about 1:35 in…

See more video at Karawahn’s youtube channel. And more images at the website  Mitfeuerspielen (that’s ‘playing with fire’ in German)

For more on the long human history with fire, read Professor Daniel Fessler’s paper: Burning Desire: Steps toward an Evolutionary Psychology of Fire Learning (PDF)

What do you think?

Does the American fire-prohibition approach of “learn not to burn” work to keep kids safe? Or should we try the German fire training method and teach kids how to make fire safely?