I’ve heard this point made before and agree that such “stories” are fodder for the hacks. But I do question whether teachers can really be so ignorant of the law’s reality? Are they really that gullible? What about the councils who fence off conker-trees and the like? Are these stories fabricated, too? (Not being rhetorical, I honestly don’t know.) Are the councils (and all those other organisations, fete-holders and the rest) similarly misinformed? Don’t they have legal departments? Or if they do, are they all staffed by gutter press pap-suckers?

I guess the crux is in my own admission that I’m not sure – the “when in doubt, refrain” mechanism must be kicking in across a broad front, it seems. Then again, why don’t the conkering councils get a bit more militant on behalf of their electorates and defy the lies? When did a council with a big publishing facility last issue any defiant reassurances to the contrary? “Don’t worry folks – have your gymkhana and sod ‘em if they can’t take a joke!” Could it be that other agendas, budgets are influencing the reticence, as well?

You’d also surely have to lay some blame on the transatlantic litigious tendency, the compensation culture et al so virulent amongst the citizenry at large? Is that what the organisers really fear when they call off the tombola?

Wherever the fault lies, the solution looks pretty clear – as per this article, why can’t the truth about these laws’ efficacy/inadequacy be more broadly promulgated?

I'm sure I read it in the Independent some time ago that the Health and Safety Executive are tired of telling people that no-one in their organisation ever said children in school could not be photographed. That's one example of myth becoming reality.

The average tory wants to bring back slavery. So they do not care about health and safety.

Having read the responses so far I think that there are two points worth making.

Point one - Perception is everything, it doesn't matter whether a science teacher is right or wrong about the legality or safety of a particular experiment, it only needs to be regarded as controversial for it to be banned. If one of the business people that runs a school is getting their ears bent about something, then it will usually be discouraged. Any science teacher that persists in rocking the boat will make themselves unpopular with the hierarchy, this is not good for ones career, end of story.

Point two - I am sick of both 'the right' and 'the left' blaming each other for everything of which they disapprove. Since we now seem to have no choice at all about our economic system, the left/right axis has been compressed practically out of existence. To continue to label New Labour and their supporters as 'socialists' is ridiculous, they are free market capitalists, the same as the Tories and the Lib-Dems. The only real differences these days are on the libertarian/authoritarian axis, and it is the authoritarian tendency which is the cause of most of our woes. Has nobody else noticed that the Stalinists are now happily collaborating with the Capitalist fundamentalists both in the US and the UK?, this is because they are all authoritarians and hence natural allies.

This is an absurd and dishonest comment from Hari. The key cause of the stopping of field trips (and anything else remotely risky) is fear, not of genuine harm but of litigation. And who pushed the 'human rights' agenda that gives people recourse to the courts for every tiny imagined slight or mistake in procedure? It was the political left! The Mail etc (that's the 'right' in Hari-speak) may sensationalise cases and use them to rile up their readers but they don't invent them - they really do happen.

Presumably Johann will now support a campaign to give individuals and institutions immunity from prosecution and/or civil actions save in the most extreme of circumstances? Oh, you won't? So why are whining on and blaming 'the right'? Our view is that sometimes shit happens and no one is to blame. Your view is that almost every mishap is an injustice that requires mediating by the courts and recompense by 'the powerful'.

Perhaps some of you are familiar with the school science syllabi? Not so long ago I was a 'mature re-entrant' (sounds nasty, doesn't it?) to science teaching after years as a well paid working scientist. Some of the recc school experiments were nothing more than hair-raising celebrations of adolescent male preening: noisy, dangerous and worst of all prime examples of bad laboratory practice. Much 'field work' was simply an undisciplined excuse for a nice afternoon, or even a week, away from the chalk face.
Bad ( usually male) educators make bad science. Full stop.

It may be germane to ask who we should consider more at fault: the liars or those who believe, perhaps condone and ultimately perpetuate the lies. The word on other rooms in this Open House (including the one religious discrimination) tend to suggest that it’s the latter.

This blog is boring. Its author rarely seems to have much to say apart from that everything everywhere is the fault of "the right wing". Zzzzz.

Dissection started to disappear from A level biology years ago with the growing concerns over animal welfare in the context both of science experiments and farming. I don't recall there ever being a health/safety dimension to that debate. Field trips also started disappearing years ago (often against a background of pay disputes and general unhappiness in the profession), with teachers increasingly reluctant to take on legal responsibility for such trips, when they knew that if anything went wrong, their careers could be wrecked even if they'd done nothing wrong. Which is also why teachers are understandably paranoid about any kind of physical contact with students - a malicious or unfounded complaint can wreck a teacher's life and career, and many schools and politicians are more concerned to cover their own a**es than back up their teaching staff. Health and safety legislation is not necessarily to blame (any more than human rights law is responsible for idiot council decisions), but the toxic blame culture of the media, politics and society at large increase both the risk and disproportionate fear of litigation. And Right and Left have both played a role in creating this culture.

Yeah, your idea of H&S is getting high on ecstasy, enjoying NuLabs 24/7 booze and gambling culture or taking a growing array of psychactive mood drugs, prescribed by the NHS.
The fear you mention is generated by the same mass media that pays your wages, but also by a culture of irresponsible hedonism.

Funny -- last night there was a polite comment posted noting that Professor Sherry Turkle is not a him but a her -- and now it's disappeared! So let me make the point again and let's see if this gets removed too. Assuming distinguished scientists are male is not really ok.

What @Beggsy said. This is a really lazy piece and deserves the comments it is receiving, I'm sorry to say.