Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > October > 19 > Entry
“Tag you’re it,” and other dangers
Sorry for the sparse posting. Major computer problems required me to get a new laptop.
Lots of education news out there this week. I was somewhat tickled to see this Boston Globe story about a school that banned kids from playing tag getting tons of media and blogosphere buzz.
It’s funny because this is a pretty old story that’s been reported in several other cities. I even blogged about it back in February.
As I said back then, I thought this was a joke until I started asking educators. Indeed, they are afraid of kids being injured playing tag. My own daughter’s school forbids kids to even chase each other! Jeez, what’s more natural for young grade school kids than to chase each other around?
It’s another example of our society’s fearful and litigious nature. It’s ruining the fun for our kids.
(Image credit: http://everydaymusings.blogspot.com/)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Student Health and Safety
Comments
By Olfprof
October 20, 2006 11:01 PM | Link to this
Let’s play the comparative risk assessment game—the one where we note that there are five times as many citizens killed from reckless driving per year than by terrorist attacks in the past 100 years, etc. Do these school districts that forbid tag also eliminate a game that kills a dozen students and cripples far more per year—that is, football? I’m not one to support the fallacious argument that life is full of danger and therefore added danger is irrelevant, but it seems to me that the risk of falling is greatest on stairwells and in locker rooms, NOT in running about the recess yard.By Mary
October 19, 2006 6:29 PM | Link to this
Fun and playing tag might sound harmless until you observe, first hand, differences in concepts of fun and tag. If the playgrounds and recess were adequately supervised, it would be less of a problem. Drive by groups of kids on a playground during recess and observe how many adults are present.