Slashdot Mirror
School Bans 'Tag'
GillBates0 writes "CNN is carrying a story about a school in Boston which has have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable. According to the article, some elementary schools in other states have similarly banned "unsupervised contact sports". A parent was quoted as saying that her son feels safer now and that she'd witnessed enough 'near collisions.'" See, it's not just dangerous virtual games that are harmful to children!
Do these people seriously expect stopping kids touching each other is going to stop them getting hurt?
Kids are very simple life forms, they don't have a firm grasp of logic and hence do stupid things which get them hurt. This is a basic fact of life and if you repress it you make adults who do the same because they never learnt any better.
How the hell can any school know so little about children but have them for so long..
I like muppets.
... of the pussification of America.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
I would think the number of teachers in the U.S. molesting school children would be a bigger priority than protecting them from a game of tag.
Yes some children are going to play games and get injured, but this is insane.
I chipped two of my front teeth when I fell over in school aged 11, but my parents would have been laughed at had they decided to sue the school.
I'm sure there are probably (too many) rules about schools nowadays relating to who is in charge, or responsible for the pupils, etc. But at the end of the day accidents happen when you're a child.
Its about time people stopped talking to lawyers at the drop of a hat. Sadly it seems that even the UK is going in that direction.
We call this a free country, but lawsuits have scared everyone into ridiculous rules and restrictions. We shouldn't be allowed to talk about freedom when we are imprisoning ourselves even in the areas the government isn't. I'm tired of all the reasonable things I'm not allowed to do because some organization's insurance company doesn't like or some fool sued someone. Maybe I just didn't notice this stuff when I was younger, but it seems ridiculous anymore.
It's a sad day when children can't play tag. What are these kids going to be like if they grow up without ever playing contact sports. Scraping their knees or getting bruises are good ways for children to learn about the world they live in, and the consequences of their actions. It would be interesting to see how they enforce this, considering they are banning 'unsupervised' contact sports. If they are unsupervised, how are they going to stop it?
I was going to write up a witty retort to all of this, but I think its far simpler just to call these people fucking idiots and get back to work.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Wouldn't it be nice if someday schools were held liable for kids that couldn't read or do basic math?
Instead they're spending their time worrying about tag, metal jungle gyms, or any perceived threats or sexual harassment between students.
What is this country coming to? Being a kid is ABOUT getting hurt. I can't even count all the times I fell off my bike during games as a kid where we'd just ride around the neighborhood trying to knock/ram each other off our bikes. Or the times I've fallen out of a tree flat on my back unable to get up for 5-10minutes cause the wind was knocked out of me. Kids are SUPPOSED to get hurt, and to either learn from their mistakes or just go right back at it cause it's fun and they learned that the consequences do not outweigh the gain, which is fun and a good time.
And you wonder why the United States has an obesity problem that seems to be getting worse with the younger generations. They keep banning everything that gives them any excercise. The reason tag is so great is because it is so simple and meets an immediate need for hyperactive kids (read "all kids") to release all of that energy being balled up while they are sitting still in class and also starts them off young with a good perception of excercise. No wonder so many kids are "diagnosed" with ADD and put in special classes these days. In my day (born in '83) when a kid couldn't sit still in class, they would have him/her do some laps around the playground instead of pumping him full of drugs. After a couple laps the kid was more than happy to sit still and listen. Playing tag on the playground was the only thing keeping those kids attentive. Now they are told that all running and chasing activities are too dangerous, so therefore sports and excercise must be too dangerous, therefore, I should sit inside and simulate it on an xbox or ps[#] eating candy to occupy my time.
Seriously I think my head is going to explode
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
I've never been in a school that had unsupervised playground time. An adult was ALWAYS watching.
Now, if they are banning kid-organized tag games, that's just plain silly and harmful to their mental, emotional, physical, and social development.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
And no, I'm not referring to the ONE school in Boston.
I'm talking about the millions of people who will view the acts of a few schools around the country as the downfall of American society.
The problem these schools are seeking to resolve is this: They have all the responsibility for what happens to your little angel/monster but none of the parental immunity that comes with it.
Little Susie gets hurt playing a neighborhood game of tag. Nobody sues her parents. If little Susie gets hurt playing a school yard game of tag. The parents can sue the school.
The parents might not win, but who wants to be sued for something that can be avoided?
P.S. The difference between PE & recess is that you usually have to sign a waiver f liability for athletics.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It seems that we hear about two kinds of parents now-a-days. Ones who neglect their children so completely that the kids lose all sense of perspective and discipline and then go out and hurt innocent people. On the other hand there's a bunch of ridiculously over-protective parents who try to coddle their children every step of their lives, freaking out if the most minor of misfortune comes across their precious future.
As is often the case, the majority of average, decent, middle of the road parents/children are dealing with the consequences of vocal extremes. On one hand, we have unsupervised kids causing all sorts of problems, and resulting zero-tolerence policies in schools where even a minor, accidental infraction can cause a serious interruption in the education even of a model student. On the other hand, we have over-supervised kids whos parents live in so much fear for their child that neither that kid nor their classmates can act like children are supposed to act.
A normal child with decent parents will take some bumps and bruises as he/she grows up, and will end up stronger for it. While getting hurt is not pleasant, it's often an excellent learning experience. You learn that not only will certain things result in pain, but also that bad things are going to happen in your life, and you need to learn to cope with it. Denying a child the chance to learn such things is not good parenting.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Homeschool .... it's the only way to get an education these days.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
And then we send them off to war.
Someone call child services. I play "chase" with my 2 1/2 year old son. We bounce on the couch. We jump on the bed. We have tickle fights.
In the last week my son has earned him self probably 5 new bruises, a stubbed toe, a face plant on the coffee table, and too many trips, flops, crashes, bangs, ouchies, and other bumps to mention. Mom and Dad are right there, we intervien if he gets into a dangerous situation (ie: playing in the kitchen when we're cooking, climbing the back of the couch/chairs, playing with other heavy/electrified/hot objects, etc...) but for the most part, we let him develop his strengths and learn and challange his limitations.
It's not much unlike my own childhood. In fact, I would challange any one of those board members to imagine their own childhood with out such games. I would also challange them to present any statistically meaningful data that would indicate a link between tag and childhood death or long term disability.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I can't believe crap like this actually happens. I have an 8 (almost 9) month old that is pulling herself up on everything now. She has lost her balance more than once and taken a tumble. Should I remove my coffe table/fireplace/couch/ect just so she won't hurt herself? No. She needs to pull herself up so she can learn to walk. She also needs to learn that letting go can be a bad idea from time to time. I'm not going to let her really hurt herself, but a little tumble now and again isn't bad for any kid.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
You ban "unsupervised contact sports". By definition, no one is supervising. So how do you enforce the ban?
Home schooling and other alternative education programs (EG: charter schools, distance education, etc) are growing at exponential rates, approaching 50% per year in many areas.
With absurdities like this, is it any wonder why?
Take a look at the new Los Angeles Unified Director - he wants to "crack down" on children, make them all wear "regulation uniforms", adopt a "zero tolerance" set of rules, etc. None of which encourage anything like creativity, individuality, or happiness. And so the march of students into alternative programs grows ever stronger every year.
In my own home town of Chico, CA, there's a newspaper piece a few times per year, something like "Where are all the kids?". The census demographics indicate that Chico has a young population, inclined to produce lots of children. So for years, they've braced for this tidal wave of kids, that never came. Enrollments are lower than ever, and they're dealing with some fairly serious budget shortfalls.
So, they closed down the most remote school - a small school with like 50-60 kids - with the idea of bussing the children to a larger school closer in to save operating costs. Guess what happened? The parents of the school that closed down got a charter and opened up their own alternative education program in the same building as the old school. And *that* school now has almost 100 students! Closing the school actually *cost* the district money since now they no longer get the funding from either the kids they already had, nor the additional kids now enrolled in the new educational program!
It's choice in action - I wonder how long it will be until they get a clue and start competing?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
...raising them in a goddamned bubble.
I bought some Italian motorcycle boots today. The label tells me that motorcycling is an "ultra-hazardous activity" and that the boots won't protect me from all possible injuries (up to and including death). This is mildly patronising, but I can understand why the manufacturer would want to place a limit on their liability.
I bought some American snowboard boots last year. The label told me the same as above. It also told me that, if fitted with an avalnche transponder the product will not actually stop an avalanche.
One is patronising. The other is just plain stupid.
And after they're eighteen, they can pass through the body scanners, look into retinal pattern id readers, submit to body cavity searches, submit to endless background checks, drug checks, be pushed into first amendment zones, get checked on secret "terrorist" watch lists, have their email and IM's read, have their mail opened, packages scanned, DNA data catalogued, car monitored by GPS tracking devices, their phones tracked every second of their lives and by extention their own movements monitored until they die.
Sweet freedom! And that's just the people who haven't done everything. Get convicted of something and you are a prisoner for the rest of your life, if not in bricks then in opportunities.
And WHAT ARE THE ODDS of a terrorist attack hitting anyone? What are the odds of being killed by your car? Why aren't cars illegal, then? Why aren't there driver terror lists? Alchohol watch lists? Oh, why go on.
We've given up what it means to be free because we're terrorized cowards incapable of rational risk analysis. No sense of human rights, no idea of history not promulated by Fox News or equivalent.
So, what's a kid gonna look forward to after they release him from the school prison but the bigger prison that we all are sharing (unless we're rich -- whole different world for them, always).
These parents would be totally horrified to know I even played contact ice hockey!! Oh the horror!!
This keeps coming back to the Col. Dave Grossman (On Killing, On Combat) Sheep, Wolf, Sheepdog analogy.
I'll paraphrase:
Most people are Sheep - not in the pejurative sense, but rather in the sense that they are utterly incapable of doing violence to another human being. Most people will go through their entire adult lives without ever comitting - or even witnessing - an act of violence (not counting TV etc, which isn't "real" violence)
Sadly, there are Wolves, who prey on Sheep. Wolves seek out sheep to fuck them up, because they know that sheep cannot protect themselves.
Happily, there are also Sheepdogs; those who place themselves between the Sheep and the Wolves.
But to a Sheep, a Sheepdog looks a lot like a Wolf - same shape, same teeth, same snarl. So sheep are very uncomfortable around sheepdogs, because sheepdogs trade in violence, and it is violence (not intent) that most upsets sheep.
Sheep are always trying to make sheepdogs more like sheep, even when that is counter to their own long-term interests, because the ideal SheepWorld is a nice, safe, non-violent bubble where nothing bad ever happens to anybody.
So Sheepdogs must remain vigilant and active - not only counter the Wolves, but also counter the Sheep. It falls to the Sheepdogs of the world to prevent the sheep from defanging their own protectors.
As an aside, there's a local radio commercial here that just drives me absolutely insane - it's an ad for a jewelry chain, in which a soccer mom (with the most teeth-gratingly patronizing voice ever) congradulates her husband on his "evolution" - he packs lunches, he makes playdates, he cleans the house - but when it comes to buying gifts, he still sucks. So go to Jeweler X and don't screw it up this time. Oh, and don't forget to pick up the daughter and get her (irony alert!) to Tae Kwon Do by 5:00....
This is a PRIME example of the sheep trying to sheep-ify the sheepdogs.
But here's the real question: if you are a Sheepdog, what are YOU going to do about it?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Thank you, sissy parents of America, for creating the next generation of wussy kids and further enhancing the downfall of human society.
I think we can all agree this is silly. TFA makes it to be a liability issue. So though it may be silly to try to protect kids from simple games, it's worse having to do it because someone could sue and possibly win substantial money for what we know are scrapes and bruses and such that are a part of childhood.
"Ok, kidding aside, I actually did manage to end up with stitches in my eyebrow from a game of tag when I was young."
Stiches, scraped knees and broken limbs are part of being a kid. You learned from your stitches. It took me more stitches - but i eventually learned.
We shouldn't take the learning experiences away from kids.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Don't forget that when children get hurt, they often recover much quicker and more fully than an adult would with a similar injury. Evolution has created children to be more 'durable' than adults, for whatever reason. Kids need to get hurt and do stupid things, it teaches them what NOT to do in the future. When I was 8 I tried doing something stupid on the monkey bars, got hurt, recovered, never tried it again.
Yeah really. "Land of the Free" my ass. The kids aren't allowed to play tag?! TAG!!?
This IS Massachusetts we're talking about - the nanny state of all nanny states.
Their Senators are named Kennedy and Kerry.
'Nuff said.
$30 Off All Plans: Use code TRIPLESAWBUCK
Clearly, we can't allow any pain or injury at all. Therefor, all children should have all sensory nerves severed before entering school. To prevent injury we can epoxy a big wrapping of foam rubber on to them. They can breathe through tubes connected to HEPA filters.
Then, when they turn 18, we can send them to Iraq. If they live through that for at least 3 years we can let them drink in lieu of actual psychological help but we must all agree to disapprove on the record and wonder aloud why they can't just be productive little consumers like their parents.
I suppose we COULD insist that our civil law system acknoledge once and for all that sometimes stuff just happens and that it's really not reasonable or just to randomly subject people to thousands in legal bills they can't afford just to affirm that. Then....NAAAH! It'll never happen, pass the epoxy and a scalple!
Now if we could just figure out where they get the idea that popping some pills is a reasonable answer to life's little problems.
School is where you learn to interact with the real, big (sometimes painful) world, you don't learn that at home.
We are ending up with a society that is afraid of its own shadow, that cannot make real life and death decisions, and that wants to be protected from all harm. Without being exposed to activities where one could possibly be hurt in a minor fashion, people do not have a frame of reference to make decisions when things really do matter. Instead when someone does get hurt, there is a huge outcry to ban whatever activity caused the injury, no matter how minor.
I hate seeing anyone hurt, especially kids, but the lessons that can be learned from a minor mishap can hopefully be applied later when making a decision that has real consequences. Some of natures more harsher tests are a pass/fail grade with no chance to take the test again, it's much better being able to take some of the smaller pop quizes.
the issue is not child safety, or health and fitness. it is an issue of living in a litigious society.
I think most of us live in far more fear of civil courts than we do of terrorists. Likely soldiers in Iraq are more afraid of getting hauled into court on trumped up charges than they do the insurgents.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
To amend your statement: Thank you, opportunistic lawyers, wussy judges, and uninformed juries of America for creating a sue-me state that makes a simple game of tag a serious legal liability.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
Why aren't cars illegal, then? Why aren't there driver terror lists? Alchohol watch lists?
dude, booze and cars are great sources of tax revenue. if you could get terra-ists to pay enough in taxes and have their own lobby on capitol hill, boards of education would teach kids how to make bombs in shop class.
sarcasm:
-noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
The wuss answer for things of course - have someone else fight your battle for you.
This is prime example of what they have spoken about as far as the Wussification of America. We don't play tag, we don't play sports to win or lose, we have to cry to the authorities when things don't go our way.
This is a joke. Sports and especially games like Tag and Dodgeball teach prime lessions about life. That is mainly - if you don't like being the guy picked last or the one that is always it, or always getting hit first - GET BETTER. Seriously. If you are slow, and you are IT in tag, you better get faster or else you will always be it. If you don't like getting hit by the ball in dodge ball - learn to catch, and then learn to dish it out when you do have the ball.
Hell, sports - places don't want to keep score because "it will hurt feelings." BOO HOO. If you don't like losing - start winning. Learn to play better. Catch the football, hit the baseball, work out your jumper.
The amazing thing is that some of our best athletes were guys who learned that they hated to lose - Jordan (guy didn't even make JV his Sophmore year in high school!!!), McEnroe, Sampras, Montana, Gretsky (canaidian, but you get the point).
Fact is - IMHO, things like this are what are taking the competitve edge away from our country. It is starting the wusses young and making them that way as they grow up.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
What are you on? This said Boston, not America. Please go through your own country's (If it's not the US and your not just a self-deprecating troll) municipal laws and be sure they *ALL* make sense before referring to an entire population of people as one big lump of stupidity.
But there's no way I would treat my kid with kid gloves.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
Thank you...I was thinking along those line just the other day, when it dawned on me, that I'd not see a freaking diving board in a private or public swimming pool since I was.....lets see....about 16???
Geez...With freaked out paranoid parents, and the lawyers, I feel sorry for the kids of today who can't seem to do much of anything we did that was fun...and amazingly enough, survived!!
People wonder why the kids of today are fat, lazy and only want to sit inside and play video games. Well, its because no one lets them do fun outdoor things like we used to.
I do feel sorry for them today...sigh.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
When you say WMD do you mean: most powerful military in the world lead by commander-in-chief that has dismantled any check on his power and agenda? or do you mean the chemical weapons we never found?
We are all just people.
Not for long. You just know someone is going to sue the major video game companies for childhood obesity, and some wussy judge is going to allow the suit to proceed... and, of course, some uninformed jury is going to award millions to the plaintiff, who was only a victim of his own inability to get his ass off the couch once in a while.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
It's only just starting in sports, but soon it'll be just like the academic subjects: Everyone who wants to play a sport gets randomly distributed onto teams of mixed ability levels, and everyone is encouraged to play at the median level. Those who are faster, more flexible, more skilled, etc will have to sit on the sidelines until the rest of the team "catches up". The ones with real talent will have to look to outside programs to have any chance at developing their skills further.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Why not just pass a law that parents can't use the public legal system to sue public schools?
That's a great idea. The local schools here are run by absolute crooks and your proposed idea would allow them to hire child molesters too.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I am pretty sure child molesting is not a civil offence... i.e. you will go to jail for it - not be sued for it.
What happens when one of those kids winds up in a freak collision with a pole or another kid? The parents are pretty much screwed.
Huh? You mean that in America, when a kid gets hurt the parents have to pay for treatment? Bizarre. I cannot imagine what it must be like to live in a country where emergency medical care is not free. A country where poor parents can't afford to have their kids taken care of is hardly a shining light for the nations.
In fact, it strikes me as simply barbaric to basically say to a child, "sorry, I can't treat your injuries because your parents don't have enough money". How can doctors, who have sworn oaths to help the sick and wounded, live with themselves after turning injured children away?
(Don't give me that "other countries pay for it through taxes" bullshit, either. The proportion of my taxes that goes towards funding national healthcare is far, far smaller than the amount I'd have to pay to get comparable cover from a private health insurance scheme.)