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Chapter 4 58 raise their children therefore has to do with who they are , and as such is not reducible to a series of tasks. We think that Suissa, by differentiating between doing and being, is pointing to the same distinction that Bollnow makes when he distinguishes an attempt or taking a risk on the one hand from a Wagnis on the other. In taking an existential risk ( Wagnis ) one has to put oneself on the line, and this, we think, is also what happens when becoming (being) an involved parent. We leave open whether Bollnow’s conception of risk applies to all adult-child relationships, but we have shown that because of its particular intimacy, for the parent-child relationship the idea of Wagnis is particularly appropriate. Striving for flourishing as a Wagnis Striving for flourishing is affected by a general uncertainty about what happens to us in life. Nussbaum argues that a good human life is fragile, because human lives are subject to ‘luck’. 33 Therefore, when parents strive for the flourishing of their child, some things will happen that are beyond the control of a parent. We have said that according to Bollnow, the distinctive element of a Wagnis is that a person risks herself. Because striving for flourishing is subject to the influence of luck, parents who are committed to striving for their children’s flourishing can also be considered, for that reason alone, to take a risk of the type of a Wagnis . We have shown, however, that child-rearing entails a specific risk that can also be typified as a Wagnis . Where the first riskiness is due to a general influence of luck on the course of a life, the second type of riskiness is due to the freedom of children to not do what their parents intend in raising them. Therefore there are two distinct ways in which we can understand parents’ striving for a flourishing life for their children as a Wagnis . 4.4 T HE DISCOURSE OF RISK IN EDUCATION ( AL RESEARCH ) Philosophers of education observe that there is a specific discourse of risk used in educational research. In this discourse the word risk is depicted as something that should be avoided, i.e. that educational research and policy should be mainly focused on how to eliminate the possibility that something goes wrong when raising a child. As such, this discourse denies or (at least) ignores the possibility of inevitable risk, that is, the possibility that a) there are risks that cannot be avoided; 33 Nussbaum 1986, p. 3. Luck is related here to the Greek word tuchē , and is defined as ‘what happens to him, as opposed to what he does or makes’.