I loved that game as a kid. I played constantly. In my neighborhood, with family, at recess...it was just so much fun. And then as a teacher I witnessed students still loving the timeless game.
So I read this: Not it! Mass. elementary school bans tag. I learned that Mass. is not the only place that has banned tag. Several others have, too.
As a teacher, I can almost fully understand wanting to ban it. However, I also know that no matter what kids are playing, they will scrape their knees and hurt themselves! It seems a bit sad to me (for the kids) that it's not being allowed. First schools took down swings. Now no playing tag. What will be left for safety reasons?
As a parent, do you/would you feel safer with your children at school knowing they're not allowed to play tag? Maybe I am naive, but it seems almost silly to me. Our nation is too law-suit crazy.
5 comments:
I first heard about this while listening to the radio this morning. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The nationally-syndicated radio host that I was listening to blamed the schools/parents that wanted to ban the game of tag for attributing to what he called "The Wussification of America".
When the host was reading the same article that you linked to, I was surprised to hear that "a suburban Charleston, SC school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports". I don't recall EVER hearing anything about that in the local news. I decided to do a little research on my own. As it turns out, that suburban Charleston, SC school mentioned in the article is less than two miles from my house--Charles Pinckney Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, SC.
I was appalled when I learned of what is happening at my local elementary school. The school decided to outlaw all unsupervised contact sports after children suffered broken arms and dislocated fingers playing touch football and soccer. When I was in elementary school, in this very same town, we played tag and soccer EVERYDAY at recess. Soccer is THE sport here in Mount Pleasant--it has been for years, long before the term Soccer Mom was ever popular. I can't understand how there can be a recess field in the city without a game of soccer being played.
Kids will get hurt. Growing up, I had MANY injuries: disloctaed toes, a shattered knuckle in my left hand, tons of bloody noses and on and on. As far as I'm concerned, it is a part of growing up. Now I am not saying that we need to stand idly by and watch our children get hurt--but we should let them be KIDS.
I like your point about our nation being too lawsuit crazy!! People are being scared into submitting to the will of others into avoiding lengthy and expensive court battles. With our current system, it is much easier for the secularist minority to impose their demands on the silent majority. Serious tort reform is needed NOW!
And kids will always be kids, no matter what. They're going to get hurt from time to time--but I prefer that over our kids becoming lazy couch potatoes playing video games all day. Let them have tag, touch football and soccer!
Let kids be kids! They need to get dirty, be wild and learn from their mistakes!
When I was 14 I broke both my arms doing a trick jump on rollerblades. I was attempting a trick and I knew there was a risk before I jumped. I could not believe how many people asked me if I was going to sue! Then they would have the nerve to give me a nasty look when I acted appalled to their stupid question. If you sue someone for personal injury you are simply stating that you aren’t capable of handling yourself in a safe manor, and since you are so stupid, it should be everyone else’s job to do so for you.
If a store ever opened up and required all shoppers entering to sign a form, waiving their rights to sue in order to enter and shop, I would shop there simply to support the one store with the balls to tell the people they are not taking any crap!
Ridiculous. 10 years from now, there will be no more playgrounds, just little rubber cubicles for kids to bounce around in during recess. But they'll be encased in bubble wrap first.
Parents who want their children shielded from every pain, physical or emotional, are setting their children up for major heartbreak later in life. Let them climb a tree, play tag, and get picked last for dodgeball. It's part of life.
If they can't play tag, my experience is that they will just rename the game. My kids, at lunch, play "Hide and Seek Freeze Tag" or some such thing, which is basically tag....give the kids a grassy field and let them run. They need the "unstructured" games of recess.
When I was a boy in the 70s, we used to play "Smear the Queer," where one boy would run with a football and all the others would try to tackle him. Whoever grabbed the ball away from him became the queer and was then smeared. What's more, we usually played in winter, when the school playground was covered in a layer of solid ice.
How many possible reasons could a school find to ban THAT one?
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