I was awfully worried that nearby Dry Creek Elementary might win the Nutty School Administrator Award of the Quarter for punishing kids playing “Army and Aliens” during recess (since it involved the verboten practice of “shooting” finger guns).
I should have rested easy that my old home state of California would pick up the slack, as they have at Santa Monica’s Franklin Elementary, where the principal has banned tag — but only during recess.
The problem, it seems, is that being declared “It” can be very damaging to a child’s self-esteem, especially when it’s done in social, not controlled/pedagogical fashion. Older, bigger kids often dominate the game, and thus impose the outcast-causing “It”/”victim” status on smaller, younger, weaker kids (clearly reenacting the anthropological ostracization of the “Other”).
Said younger, weaker kids, their self-esteem crushed, internalize this lesson of the strong being able to dominate the weak, and perpetuate this madness upon succeeding generations of children.
War, domestic abuse, and the Paternalistic Theocracy ensue. Civilization collapses shortly thereafter.
By moving chase games into the realm of PE, with proper supervision by socially sensitive educators, the children can be taught … well, I guess they can be taught to not run faster than other children, to tag gently with only two fingers between the shoulder-blades (but not below the waist or on the head), and to bounce their ball in an eerily synchronized fashion when playing after school
The other Horrific Justification for the restriction is that kids playing tag and other chase games sometimes don’t watch where they were going and, lacking sufficient recess supervision (or State-Approved Padding Apparatus and Shock Collars), occasionally run into other kids, causing (gasp) injuries.
According to the article, over the last year there have been two concussions and a couple of broken bones (and untold psyche-shattering bruises, scrapes and bumps), ostensibly due to tag and other chase games.
This will, of course, be resolved by playing tag solely in PE, since the kids will be restricted to walking, and will be enclosed in giant plexiglass bubbles, with 5-point restraints and air bags.
Sheesh.
In a nation where child obesity if rampant, we should be encouraging any form of physical activity. If kids are not permitted “running” games, how are they going to get there squiggles out and get some exercise at the same time.
I bet most teachers like “running” games at recess. It winds-down the kids so they can sit still in class.
As a “it” kid, I thought tag was one of the less humiliating games. With enough kids playing tagging another kid was not that hard.
PS: What are “older” kids doing playing tag with the young kids anyway. We always plays with other kids from our class. Each grade seemed to have their own section of the playground.
I’ve been linking the current school/zero tolerance thing with the probable success of the war on terrorism. Because, you know, that’s where it all starts – with that pointed ‘shame’ finger on the playground…
And I think the comparison illustrates the effectiveness of any ‘war’ on a concept. In order to be effective, you have to take away any possibility of growth through adversary… any possibility of independent thinking… any chance of personality among individuals.
Pointing the finger has long been a taboo in our society. The playground gesture of drawing one index finger down the other while pointing at someone – the ‘shame, shame, shame’ gesture – is an old, old holdout.
Once upon a time, in the Utopian Village Past (that of ‘It Takes a Village’ fame), the mere gesture of pointing at someone was enough to make them alter their behavior. It meant, ‘I see you do that and you know your behavior is not correct’. This was a step or two above the whole community agreeing to not talk to the law breaker, a procedure called ‘shunning.’
When survival meant relying on the ability of your neighbors to provide you with what you lacked (If you were a blacksmith, you traded for food, for clothing, for beasts of burden, for furnishings, etc.), shunning was a serious business. Very few people, even in the past, could survive comfortably without interaction from their community.
Zero tolerance on the pointed finger.
Zero tolerance on the ‘I see you.’
Zero tolerance… bang! Who’s dead?