Elementary schools in US banning tag/other chase games

[Kasarn]

As an Australian, I honestly have no idea how US elementary schools work but at my schools we had well defined "in bounds" areas and two teachers wandering each of the five areas.
Anybody who was deliberately out of bounds or playing rough got a swift kick up the backside

Really. Cause at my schools, we got to do what the heck we wanted. Climb, run, swing, jump off of the play equipment. I don't recall ever that one of the kids got injured, other than maybe a few scrapes or a sore arm/leg. We even got to play near woods. And woods down south is full of ankle biters. o: That's the kinda recess I likes, mmhmm.

Who said we couldn't at my primary school? Getting a metaphorical kick up the backside is embarrassing but no reason not to go back to whatever you were doing as soon as the teacher is looking the other way.

[ninjannihilator]

A bruise isn't risk. I don't see how you can get hurt by playing tag or dodgeball. They allowed us to play tackle football in Middle School until somebody complained about getting hurt. It's called a physical sport for a reason; you will get hurt. But really anything outside of football, lacrosse, and rugby; I am highly doubtful that you will get anything more than a bruise.

[Kenji]

As an Australian, I honestly have no idea how US elementary schools work but at my schools we had well defined "in bounds" areas and two teachers wandering each of the five areas.
Anybody who was deliberately out of bounds or playing rough got a swift kick up the backside

Really. Cause at my schools, we got to do what the heck we wanted. Climb, run, swing, jump off of the play equipment. I don't recall ever that one of the kids got injured, other than maybe a few scrapes or a sore arm/leg. We even got to play near woods. And woods down south is full of ankle biters. o: That's the kinda recess I likes, mmhmm.

Who said we couldn't at my primary school? Getting a metaphorical kick up the backside is embarrassing but no reason not to go back to whatever you were doing as soon as the teacher is looking the other way.

Be that as it may, the fact is there's danger in everything there is in life. As people used to say, something along these lines, "a little pain builds character".

Either way, I'm bored with this topic, so I'm away to do something constructive.

[komissarmakarov]

I'm against this, but only because I know kids can get real stupid if they were left alone to be 'creative'; when I was six, one of the game me and my friends played was to crawl on hands and feet under someone on a swing

Thankfully, my parents found out and stopped it before any of us got head injuries*.

*Unless you count having to pull your ears and do 50 squats 'head injuries'

[DigitalMan]

I remember playing a variation of dodgeball not too long ago. I wonder if I'm still completely untouchable... Although there was that time I got hit in the nuts. That hurt, but it was fun anyways. I was right back in the game next round. Thank god for private schools.

In the end, the problem is the idiot parents who want to sue when their kid takes a spill even if its his or her own damn fault. Normally, I suggest simply destroying such individuals, but it occurs to me that simply stripping them of their right to sue might be the most beneficial and amusing option. May they be forever tormented for their stupidity!

[Kasarn]

Meh, during lunch we played Pegs

Pegs is like dodgeball... but with tennisballs...
You just go into a field and peg (ie throw as hard as possible) tennisballs at each other. The overall objective is just to watch your friends cringe in pain and have a good laugh about it.

If I had kids, I don't know that I'd want them playing that...

[Zedd]

Whats next they ban...Leapfrog?

[Kasarn]

Leapfrog could cause neck damage to the person underneath

Kids will be kids but these decisions are made by adults to appease adults.

[Vidar]

These decisions are made by people who are desperate to not get sued in a sue-happy country that awards ridiculous amount of money to whomever complains.

Soccer-mom : "My son cut himself while on school!" 
Lawyer : "Sue them for gross negligence, and you can rake in the millions, and I can get richer." 
Judge : "You get $15000000."
Soccer-mom : 
School : "No more scissors in school: kids will now have to learn how to cut paper without sharp things. Also, kids are now required to wear movement-restricting full body-armour before stepping on school grounds. We wouldn't want them to get hurt, now do we."
Kids : 

[grayvn]

German mom : "My son cut himself while at school!"
German dad : "Sue 'em! In the US you would get gazillions for it."
German Judge : "So what? The insurance already paid for a plaster."
German mom : 

---

I hurt myself at a game of tag as a kid, but who cares? Three stiches and your done.
Shouldn't have run against that iron rod with my head. But so I avoided running around corners ever since. Doing something wrong (and often hurting yourself while at it) is just part of learning to do it right (or just not to do it).

On the other hand I really don't see a problem in someone supervising the kids while they play. It's safer for the kids and I understand that the school doesn't want to be sued. Telling the kids not to run around corners, because they could hurt themselves, has not quite the same impact as an iron rod, but it's educational, too. Besides: Out of school they can still play unsupervised.

[Slavkei]

Just so you're aware... the theory here isn't to prevent kids from getting hurt roughhousing, that's kinda part of being a kid. It's to prevent a kid from getting hurt roughhousing and a parent to go "CHA CHING!" and sue like a crazy donkey bitch from hell becuase the US has no anti-idiot-lawsuit laws.

[Stygian]

And here I am, perhaps the only one who thinks that martial arts should be a mandatory part of PE grades four and up. Before that, it should be the kids' choice. Never mind overbearing parents; if we all learn to be a bit stronger, a bit tougher, a bit more disciplined and much more in control of what we do, even at an early age, we would have no need for this kind of crap.

[Alondro]

*Charles favors the natural selection approach*  Let the weak and inferior children be weeded out by scraped knees, papercuts, and rugburns!    

[Stygian]

*Charles favors the natural selection approach*  Let the weak and inferior children be weeded out by scraped knees, papercuts, and rugburns!    

You never fail to make me smile. Though I beleive that sometimes a bit more consideration would be appropriate.

Everyone looks more beautiful with scars, is what I say.

[Kasarn]

Everyone looks more beautiful with scars, is what I say.

Having scars is only cool if you're a guy.
Well, unless you're like me and have a shaving scar on your leg... then you're just gay

But a broken limb will make anybody instantly popular.

[Aridas]

You know what's worse than that though, is when your school enforces one of those bullshit 0-contact rules in the lower grades. As I keep telling people and my mom keeps telling me, it can go a little like this: Some girl was crying in class because of something, and when I hugged her? 0-CONTACT. Screw you, teacher. Punishing kids for being nice? I think I know now why I always feel antisocial.

Seriously. It was NO TOUCHING. PERIOD.

[Kasarn]

Sounds like there needs to be an "I'm not touching you" protest

[Stygian]

Stop! Tolerance time! Can't touch this! Duun-dun-dun-dun, duuun-dun...

And scars are cool on anyone, girls included. They make for nice details. I've got two in the face and a whole lot on my body, and my girlfriend has quite a few as well. Of course, all alone scars are mostly not beautiful, but put together and on a nice body...

[DigitalMan]

No fair, my only major scar is from when my friend's mom hit me with her car

Although I do have a scar on my hand. It's from when that same private school took a trip down to the Bahamas. It was hard to see things underwater without my glasses, and I ended up slicing my hand pretty good on fire coral. That was not fun at all. But no one sued... and to this day, the 7th and 8th grade classes visit the same place every other year. Booyah!

[Vidar]

1 2nd degree burnscar on my foot, the size of my-foot-when-I-was-a-baby. My mom (accidentily, I was told) dropped a kettle full of hot water on it.

1 scar-let in my left eye-brow from when some basterd fringe-criminal immigrant punched me in the head. That experience made me a lot more jaded towards immigrants.

[Destina Faroda]

I have dozens of scars on my face, many of which come from Physical Education.

That's one reason why I am not necessarily a fan of making everyone play sports.

[Dakata]

We're talking about scars now?

...Well, I have stitches on my forehead from cracking my head open in 1st grade. A kid got pissed at me 'cuz I didn't wanna play with him*, chased me around the playground, and I ran into a table leg. (This was at a day care, not at school.)

* - He liked pretending that I was a little princess who was stuck in a castle, and he was a brave, UBAR-SEXAH knight who had to save me. >> And he wanted to play the "Knight saves the princess" game EVERY. F*CKING. DAY. GOD.

I don't like it. Little kids always have to notice it and go "HAY! You gots a scar like Harry Potter! "...even though it looks nothing like a lightning bolt.

*Rant rant rant*

You know what's worse than that though, is when your school enforces one of those bullshit 0-contact rules in the lower grades. As I keep telling people and my mom keeps telling me, it can go a little like this: Some girl was crying in class because of something, and when I hugged her? 0-CONTACT. Screw you, teacher. Punishing kids for being nice? I think I know now why I always feel antisocial.

Seriously. It was NO TOUCHING. PERIOD.

Yeah, there was a rule that was kinda like that in my elementary school. They only enforced it when kids were hugging and being nice though.

"OMG Izzat a 5th grader beating up a puny little 2nd grader? Who cares! Let's go yell at that boy comforting that sad girl and hugging her and shitz LOL"

Teachers just sicken me sometimes.

...Hell, alot of people sicken me. That's why I'm antisocial too. *Feh*

[Alondro]

I have a huge scar on my right thumb from skipping stones.... If anyone here does that, make sure the stone you pick up is not coke (partly burned coal) as it can have razor-sharp edges that slice through flesh like a hot knife through butter.  

*upon reading this note, the NJ legislature has banned stone-skipping.  Violators will be sterilized*  

[RJ]

I don't really have any big scars... they've pretty much all faded away by now. However, there is some weird white line/lump thingy on my left pinky. I have no idea what it is- it could be a birthmark for all I know since it feels like it's been there forever.

[ninjannihilator]

You know what's worse than that though, is when your school enforces one of those bullshit 0-contact rules in the lower grades. As I keep telling people and my mom keeps telling me, it can go a little like this: Some girl was crying in class because of something, and when I hugged her? 0-CONTACT. Screw you, teacher. Punishing kids for being nice? I think I know now why I always feel antisocial.

Seriously. It was NO TOUCHING. PERIOD.

All this no touching just reminded me of this.

I have a first degree burn on my entire right hand; soup. Third degree burn on my right thumb; soldering gun. Index finger on my right knuckle is cut; punched a kid with braces. My left knee has a deep cut on it; bicycle accident, I still don't know how it happened.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

All this no touching just reminded me of this.

Gee, ya think?

[DigitalMan]

How does everyone keep getting burn scars? I burn myself nearly every time I use a soldering iron. And in many other ways, like that time with the lantern, and that time with the exploding grill, and my favorite, the time I heated a piece of steel to glowing-red-hot with a propane torch and then picked it up. Melted the skin on my thumb and finger, but even that didn't leave a scar o.O

[RJ]

I used to get a few burns when I worked in McDonald's. I still have a small scar left on the back of my left finger from the time some moron pushed my hand into the heat lamps trying to get a packet of fries before I had even finished making it.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The only scars I have on my hands are the place where I pushed a knife into my left hand, slicing a freckle in two, and the place where I nearly sliced a finger in two, and got three stitches.

Which is surprising, since I worked at Mickey D's for a while, and collected the usual set of burns from the grill etc...


Other than that there's just the one through my eyebrow. Which matches the one my friend got, on the same day, except the other eyebrow. Apparently he was playing with his younger brother, and said "I bet you won't hit me in the head with that hammer."

.... nuff said.

[Roureem Egas]

We're on scars now? Interesting turn.

I have a faded mark on my left elbow, but I can't remember if it was from a scrape or a burn. Both of those happened in the same month, which sucked.