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| Not It! Playing Tag Outlawed at School |
| 2006-10-18 |
| Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston 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. What's next? Helmets and knee pads for hopscotch, 'cause you might fall down? Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban. And people say that edumacation colleges don't teach their graduates a damn thing! While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous. Nope, only if you were too stupid to get outta the way of the oncoming ball... Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports. "I think that it's unfortunate that kids' lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they'll never develop on their own," said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. "Playing tag is just part of being a kid." Another Willett parent, Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. "I've witnessed enough near collisions," she said. That was always part of the fun, Celeste....or were you one of the dorks who weren't smart enough to get out of the way of the oncoming ball when you were a kid? |
| Posted by:Swamp Blondie |
| #10 Had to laugh at this- at our last school in Central Australia we had a School Whip and the Official School Spear Collection, both hunting and punishment spears. Second last school had a Munga Wirri, a fighting club/ wooden axe, and a Wirri- a killing stick. Never had to deploy any of them, but there they were. Cultural heritage, don't you know. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-10-18 19:55 |
| #9 Q. What is the definition of the word "boy", according to what educators have been taught for the last 25 years? A. "Defective girl". And yet, American boys are not being feminized - the women public school teachers are too jealous of their anointed victim status as females to share. American boys are being emasculated, something completely different. It satisfies the teachers' need to strike at the evil male, and makes the boys docile and less work to teach, all at once. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-10-18 18:36 |
| #8 Darrel, Many years ago (11 to be precise) my 4th grade son responded to a bully and got into trouble for fighting back, more than the bully. I went to school and told the teacher & principal that my son had been taught to never start a fight. BUT, he was also taught to end any fight that was forced upon him. And, if they didn't like that I would have them speak to my lawyer. Never had any trouble after that. ;^) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2006-10-18 15:59 |
| #7 A few years ago I learned (to my amazment)that a time honored recess activity had been outlawed by my daughter's school. When I was growing up we called it "artillery" (although to others it was known as "dodge ball"). Ever notice the correlation between the people outlawing dodge ball ( or tag ), or forcing the wearing of bike helmets, to the same people wanting to outlaw your right to wear own and carry a gun? Hmmm.... |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2006-10-18 15:16 |
| #6 Home schooling is really looking like a bargan. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-10-18 15:09 |
| #5 I'd agree with ya, Darrell, excepting that this irrational fear is somewhat founded. School districts get sued all the time for all sorts of idiotic stuff. I blame it all on the hyper-lawsuit happy/ambulance chasing attorneys. While I feel the Districts should fight back, they've been beaten down so hard by so many different lawsuits (and idiotic judges ruling in favor of these lawsuits), that I almost don't blame them. Of course, you'll always have your moonbats in power at schools, but for the most part, pretty much all teachers I know are more conservative and just want to go about their job of actually TEACHING KIDS (what a novel idea) instead of having to deal with all this bureaucratic/legalese types nonsense. In this case, it is the principal's fault (it's NOT a district-wide "policy"), so I'd blame her. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-10-18 14:23 |
| #4 When one of my sons was in 8th grade, he received a one-day suspension from the principal because she didn't line some things he had said on his Xanga website after school hours. She didn't like what I said to her in response either, but she couldn't suspend me. Meanwhile, my son learned that Dad will back him up when he's right and we had a nice father-and-son luncheon on his day off after he finished sleeping late. Many of the professional educators that I am exposed to are just a tad better than idiotic. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-10-18 14:11 |
| #3 Broadhead you're wrong.....he'll be writing editorials for the Globe. The Herald is way to butch for people like him. My wife is a Kindergarten teacher about 40 miles West of Boston and is constantly fighting agains this kind of lunacy. Given what she says they'll be putting little boys in chains to "protect" them. Of course if a bully starts trouble the administrative reaction is to go all relative and blame the victim at least as much. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2006-10-18 14:01 |
| #2 This should be titled, "Revenge of the Wimps". The Wussification of America proceeds apace. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-10-18 13:44 |
| #1 "Another Willett parent, Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule." -That's because your son is a pussy. He'll prolly get a great degree in the arts or some such and then write eiditorials for the Herald while spending his weekends shopping for birkenstocks and sipping lattes. Fricken' prancer. Good job mom. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-10-18 13:32 |