School Bans 'Tag' 1000
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!
Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
How do you think we get goth kids?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
At least they'd choose... An emo kid would just cry in a corner faced with a decision like that... (or a decision as to what condiment they want on their veggie burger)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
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We send them to play Tag over there, so we don't have to play it here?
(seriously though, your post: +5 OUCH)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
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Please think of the children when chaining them up (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.greatcompanions.com/images/GC1013_.JPG [greatcompanions.com]
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
please clarify (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
It puts the lotion on the skin, else it gets the hose again?
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Simple Child Care (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok, kidding aside, I actually did manage to end up with stitches in my eyebrow from a game of tag when I was young. I went for one of those high speed turns where you grab a pole and whip around, and another pole ran right out in front of me. The last thing I recall was seeing the school upside down, sometime after that I woke up on a couch in the office. I ended up with several stitches in my left eyebrow. (Is it just me or does the needle they use to do that look awfully similar to a fishhook?)
So, would I stop kids from playing tag because they might hurt themselves? HELL NO. It's a ton of fun, it gets kids out and running. Which, when you consider all of the health risks of kids being obese, I'll take the trade off of one or two of them getting knocked cold now and again. Also, any parent who sues over this sort of thing should be taken out and shot. Kids are going to run around and play, they are going to fall and get cuts, bruises, they will require stitches and they will break the occasional bone. This is why you have health insurance, to keep those occurances from breaking the bank. Use it as a teaching opportunity to explain why you need to be careful and GET OVER IT!
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Funny)
And now, if you're lucky, you've got a cool scar across your eyebrow, which says your dangerous, and might help you get laid some day. Think of the adults-to-be! Encourage kids to play tag, injure themselves, and maybe they, too, will get lucky down the road.
Sadly, my dropped-bench-on-my-toenail-injury doesn't work. Good thing I'm married!
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This IS Massachusetts we're talking about - the nanny state of all nanny states.
Their Senators are named Kennedy and Kerry.
'Nuff said.
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Interesting)
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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.
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:DCFS (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:DCFS (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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If you want a "man's hobby" for your childen, get into historical reenacting. They can learn to shoot a gun, dress in military uniforms, pretend to kill people, cook food over an open fire, and camp under the stars all in the same day. If you join something li
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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But there's no way I would treat my kid with kid gloves.
Re:Simple Child Care (Score:5, Informative)
Write to the principal who implemented this rule: gheppe@attleboroschools.com
And to her boss, the superintendent: pdurkin@attleboroschools.com
And to anyone else you can find on this page: http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/home.asp?mode=so&ot=
Ban Mantels! (Score:5, Funny)
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That's easy; God. I can just see the reality show opportunity: God Court. This will totally work if I can get James Earl Jones to play the voice of God.
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
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..
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
A large portion of the physically fit people I know are physically fit because we like playing/competing in sports. I wonder how many of these kids who might otherwise get interested in a physical activity will shy away from them because their school tells them they are too dangerous? I wonder how many of these kids "saved from the dangers of physical activity" will end up dying from a heart attack? If there can be lawsuits against McDonalds for making kids fat, I think there can be lawsuits against a school for making kids fat. Maybe if there are enough of these lawsuits then kids will be able to have fun again.
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get sued (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Sheep, Wolves, Sheepdogs (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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I think the fucking & assholes analogy from Team America: World Police is a more legitimate world view IMHO.
For those of you who think sheepdogs are important, I ask you the following -- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Re:Sheep, Wolves, Sheepdogs (Score:4, Insightful)
For those who think that sheepdogs are irrelevant, let me ask you, what would you do to protect yourself from the wolves?
Re:Sheep, Wolves, Sheepdogs (Score:4, Informative)
See here:
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2004/articles/072
The sheep dogs, by definition, must police themselves. Is it easy? Of course not, and that is why the world is in the state it currently is.
Although to be fair, it is a statement of ideology and puts everything into a black and white (or sheepdog, wolf, and sheep) classification, which does not always hold up when you compare to the real worlds shades of grey.
While I agree that the analogy from Team America is similar, I think it is a much more pessimistic view of the situation. Not to mention it goes out of its way to be as vulgar and offensive as possible. (but hey... that's funny)
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People who protect the sheep arn't sheepdogs, they're just sheep willing to bite.
Wolves are.. well wolves. Theres always assholes but they can be assholes for multipule reasons..
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a hypothesis that much of the adrenialine-junkie, self destrcutive behaviour that has become a staple of American life is due in large part to overprotection of our children.
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This isn't about protecting the children. It's the schools covering their own asses from lawsuit-happy soccer moms who who are looking to blame someone when their child falls off the teeter-totter. This ban on tag is retarded, but not nearly as retarded as some of the moronic lawsuits I've seen not just filed, but won. I am s
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
If you actually correlate government size/responsibilities with overprotection of kids, I think you will come to very different conclusions. (Hint: this stuff happens in the US and never in Europe)
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Do they still get transported to school in motor vehicles?
Kids are very simple life forms, they don't have a firm grasp of logic and hence do stupid things which get them hurt.
In other words, they take after their parents.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
If a child goes through life placidly believing what their parents tell them, as good as the advice may be, that child is going to grow up to be a worker bee, not challenging authority, just following orders. Kids need to learn to push boundaries, that is the only way they are going to get ahead.
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Tiny lessons like this throughout childhood is what makes for responsible adults with common sense. Good to see that the schools have officially stated that they have no plans to teach responsibility, common sense, social skills or empathy, all lessions learned on the playground.
--
Evan
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Near as I can tell, this is a design goal of the current school system. See: Dickens.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
By and far Dickens is my favorite author.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet here we are, the intelligentsia of the present, blaming the school for something it shouldn't have to worry about in the first place.
The best solution I can imagine would be a "loser pays" system, whether only those truly liable would be punished through the legal process. At present, both sides are financially penalized, and a wealthy litigant (or one with political support) can run a public school into the ground. In these circumstances, the school is perfectly understandable in it's efforts to prevent behavior that creates complaints and lawsuits.
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I can still remember it. I must have been 6 or so at the time. I wanted to see if a burner on the stove was hot. Have no idea why, but I wanted to know. So I laid my hand on it. It was hot. I have been much more circumspect ever since.
So I get old and have my own son. We move into a house with a wood burning, fireplace insert type stove. BIG chunk of very hot steel sitting at one side of the room. I still remember the pain from that hot stove, and I could imagine Ro
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's much the same in the UK, and I'll bet there's the dank and clammy hand of the insurance industry behind this. To be fair, schools are probably wistfully nostalgic of the days when they could spend money on books and stuff, rather than having to shell out for lawyers every time some chancer with a bruised kid hires a shyster. This sort of initiative is probabably a desperate attempt to reclaim those halcyon days, regardless of how ridiculous it looks. They'll lose, naturally, but democracy seems to involve letting insurance companies dictate the rules of acceptable behaviour. In theory, this should be left to legislators, but they've got less money and don't seem able to hire the talent.
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Naw, naw, democracy is where you let politicians pandering for votes in the run up to an election dictate the rules of acceptable behavior.
Capitalism is where insurance companies get to dictate what you do. I know that capitalistic and democratic ideas are strongly tied together in the West, but anyone who follows capitalism and allows insurance companies to dictate terms will exper
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Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why home schooling is booming (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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Charter schools receive state funds, and so must teach to state standards in education. You can teach the material by any of various means, but it still has to be taught. Follow the money....
The only problem with both home schooling and charter schools is that parents, like everybody else, has their biases and they pass them on to their kids.
But, tha
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The never ending march ... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
This isn't really new (Score:5, Funny)
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Free country, my ass! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh gods.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Attleboro, MA <> Boston, MA (Score:5, Informative)
We'd reach new heights of absurdity... (Score:5, Funny)
This is soo sad, its not even funny.. (Score:3, Funny)
Come on, the classic game of tag has been played in various forms, seemingly, for ever. With few to almost none getting hurt. My goodness, we are are rasing a bunch of whiny little snots who can't even take a little bruse. What, I wonder will they do, be when they grow up. (best friends with lawyers or a lawyer themselves I suspect, where NOTHING is ever their fault).
Sheez.. stuff like this gets me sick.
Not the sport, the spray (Score:5, Funny)
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Oh, I will. I'll also include some of the married ones, too...
And its not the body spray (Score:3, Funny)
And then I read the article summary and find it is just the schoolyard game. Too bad - I was hoping for some interesting reading describing just how well that stuff worked.
I hate to make gender-based.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Those kids tend to have less certain notions of what's possible, what isn't, and what's just plain stupid. Some of those kids certainly got it in the nature-equation - meaning those parents may, in fact, have some reason to be fearful. Plenty of other kids are developing much shallower skills with respect to falling and not falling.
So, to wrap up with another generalization, it's more likely a mother would feel relieved at this ridiculous development than a father.
Fat Kids & ADD (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously I think my head is going to explode
A Modest Proposal . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Not only is this a brilliant idea from a liability standpoint, preventing children from engaging in these sorts of dangerous games can reduce bruising and other possible damage during their critical growth period.
I propose that schoolchildren not be allowed to move at all. They should be hung via sturdy cloth from the ceiling, thus immobilized, and fed heartily whilst at school. I have been assured by a very knowing gentleman of my acquaintance in Boston, that a young healthy schoolchild well-fed is at elementary school age a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled . . .
Elem. students should ALWAYS be supervised (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, if they are banning kid-organized tag games, that's just plain silly and harmful to their mental, emotional, physical, and social development.
hello overreaction (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Can't normal people get on with their lives? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Homeschool ..... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Too many parents use homeschool as a means to get their kids away from the "godless liberals and queers" in public school and teach them that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church and little else outside of religious dogma.
Or move to a red state (Score:3, Informative)
My 8 year old is on an organized football team. Aside from the comic relief provided by a 64 pound (in full gear) defensive end, there are no
I'm a parent, and my son has bruises. (Score:4, Insightful)
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
This is just scary (Score:3, Insightful)
Erm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Erm... (Score:4, Informative)
If a kid gets caught playing tag or some other "violent" game what's the worst that could happen? If I got a call from my kids' school saying little Billy was in trouble for playing games I would reward him for not caving to stupid rules. Yes. That's right. I'd teach my child not to follow the laws. He very well could grow up and become that guy you always see J-Walking. Who knows what other new-fangled laws will come into act by the time he grows up.
I'll Tell You What's Harmful To Children... (Score:3, Insightful)
The Underground History Of American Education (Score:3, Informative)
"The Underground History Of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto [johntaylorgatto.com]
If you're thinking about homeschooling your children, go read it. The entire book is there, online, for free. (just try not to slashdot it !)
British Bulldogs anyone (Score:3, Interesting)
everyone used to play British Bulldogs [on tarmac], but that was banned
(and this was decades ago) since it caused too many injuries
[about one broken nose or equivalent per day].
Bloody fun game though - a bit like rugby, but not nearly as
safe http://web.ukonline.co.uk/conker/games/sept.htm#b
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So.. standing there, crying, blood spurting out of my head... and only like a month before the school had enforced a policy that none of the teachers could apply bandages or provide medical aid unless they'd gone through the right training course (which only one or two had done) and can't phone an ambul
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(Now, my own personal position on gay "marriage?" M