--- title: About Tim | Rethinking Childhood date: 2013-01-23T13:57:53Z source: http://rethinkingchildhood.com/about/ tags: kids --- ![Photo of Tim Gill][1]Tim Gill is one of the UK's leading thinkers on childhood, and an effective advocate for positive change in children's everyday lives. For over 15 years his writing, research, consultancy projects and other work has focused on the changing nature of childhood, children's play and free time, and their evolving relationships with the people and places around them. > "Tim Gill rejects the premise underpinning almost every anxious, interventionist impulse of modern parenting – that children are more at risk than ever before from adults… His voice is striking for its persuasively measured calm." [Decca Aitkenhead in The Guardian][2]. Tim's book _[No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society_][3] was published in 2007. Tim appears regularly on [radio and television][4]. He has given [talks][5] and run [workshops and seminars][5] with audiences in Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan. He has been widely [published][6] in the mainstream, academic and trade media. Tim has advised political parties and thinktanks across the political spectrum. In 2008 he shared the platform with David Cameron and David Willetts at the [launch][7] of the Conservative Party's [Childhood Review][8]. His [consultancy][9] clients include the National Trust, London Legacy Development Company, Forestry Commission, Mayor of London, Argent plc and Play England. He is also a [Built Environment Expert][10] for [Design Council CABE][11], the UK Government's design champion for the built environment. In 2009 Edge Hill University, Lancashire, awarded Tim an honorary doctorate for his "outstanding contribution to improving children's lives through challenging our views of childhood in a 'no risk' culture." In 2012 Tim accepted an invitation to be the founding patron of the [Forest School Association][12]. He is on the international advisory board for the journal _[Children's Geographies_][13]. **An introduction to Tim's views** In 2011 [Vichealth][14], the public health agency for Victoria, Australia, recorded [a series of interviews][15] with Tim about the benefits of getting children out and about in their neighbourhood, playing outside, building connections with the people and places around them. In this interview, Tim discusses why children's horizons have been shrinking for generations. **Tim's background** Tim was Director of the Children's Play Council (now [Play England][16]) from 1997 to 2004. In 2002 he was seconded to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to lead the first ever Government-sponsored review of children's play. The review was chaired by Frank Dobson and shaped the Big Lottery Fund's subsequent £155 million [Children's Play Initiative][17] funding programme. ![Tim Gill as a child][18]As the child of a service family, Tim grew up in various places, including four years in the American midwest towns of Fairborn and Yellow Springs in Ohio. He ended up in Haddenham, a large village in Buckinghamshire. He won a scholarship to read mathematics at Keble College, Oxford, but switched his degree course, graduating in philosophy and psychology in 1987. In 1996 he completed a Master's in philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. Tim lives in Walthamstow, London with his partner and their sixteen-year-old daughter, having moved to London in 1987, and to the area in 1996. He was until 2012 a parent volunteer in a local [Woodcraft Folk][19] group, and he is involved in [Wood Street First][20], a local community group that was set up in 2012. He prefers to walk or cycle to get around (and sometimes just for fun). As a parent, Tim is trying hard to practice what he preaches. **Tim's philosophy** Tim believes that children and young people have the potential to be more resilient, responsible, capable and creative than we give them credit for. Yet their lives are becoming ever more scheduled, controlled and directed. If children are to enjoy and make the most of their lives, we need to revisit and revise our ideas of what a good childhood looks and feels like. We need to reconnect children with the people and places around them, and with the natural world on their doorstep. We need to design neighbourhoods so that it is easy for children to walk, cycle, get closer to nature and play near their homes. We need to improve play and recreational spaces and services, and ensure that schools, nurseries and childcare settings give children time and space for play and exploration. We need to support parents, so they feel able to give their children some of the freedoms that previous generations enjoyed when they were young. We need to accept that it is natural and healthy for children to take risks, make mistakes, have everyday adventures and test themselves and their boundaries. In short, we need to expand the horizons of childhood. ### Like this: Like Loading... [1]: http://timrgill.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/tg-perth-pic-1.jpg?w=223&h=300 "TG Perth pic 1" [2]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/nov/03/familyandrelationships.family5 [3]: http://timrgill.wordpress.com/no-fear/ [4]: http://timrgill.wordpress.com/media-work/ [5]: http://timrgill.wordpress.com/events/ [6]: http://timrgill.wordpress.com/writing/ "Journalism" [7]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/05/politics.uk [8]: http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/2008/02/04/more-ball-games/ [9]: http://timrgill.wordpress.com/consultancy/ [10]: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/bee [11]: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/CABE/ [12]: http://www.outdoor-learning.org/Default.aspx?tabid=336 [13]: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14733285.html [14]: http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/ [15]: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94EF4EAF9A95C7EB&feature=plcp [16]: http://www.playengland.org.uk/Page.asp [17]: http://www2.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_childrens_play.htm [18]: http://timrgill.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/tg-stick.jpg?w=213&h=300 "TG stick" [19]: http://www.woodcraft.org.uk/ [20]: http://woodstreetfirst.org/