Should parents give children freedom

They should be allowed to have the freedom to have fun within certain confines. Dangerous things (burns, broken limbs etc) are part of the responsibility of parents to mitigate: children need to have room to learn and grow. A child's brain automatically knows what it needs to build the wiring for it to grow into a functioning adult brain: play and fun are really just a description of the process by which we (without conscious thought) grow our minds. Without free input and structured play, the brain is sterile, rigid and unable to deal with large amounts of change - it's reduced to a machine that only sees what it already knows.

The great thing about play (for children and adults) it allows the mind to sit above the hard cold facts of a situation and see patterns that aren't evident on first look. We all need fun, play and social interactions: without these things we would be hopelessly insane.