Sure glad someone is watching this country's children for us
Guys:
I couldn't make this up if I tried.
Today's topic is why we all grew up in a dangerous environment. I'm not talking global weather nor am I referring to how dangerous it is to drive down the highway. What I am referring to is the environment most of us were raised in.
When I was a child, I was often sent outside with my siblings and told to find something to do. Because there were enough siblings, our front lawn had permanent mud holes where 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base should be located at. If we didn't play ball, then we would play dodgeball, kickball, or even that dangerous game of “Red Rover Red Rover”.
And if that wasn't enough our mother allowed us to play those dangerous games, we went to school and teachers allowed us to play the same games. In fact we were allowed to pick our own teammates at times.
Now on to the topic of the day.
Today I read a short article about the town called Attleboro, Mass. It seems that the school system has decided it's charter is to protect all the kids going to their school. So they have decided to ban “TAG, Touch Football, Kickball, Dodgeball or any other unsupervised chasing games. A direct quote is that "Recess is a time when accidents happen”. That was a quote from the Principal of all things. One parent states her son “feels much safer now”
After reading that crap this morning, I went and filled my coffee cup and sat back down. I leaned back and thought about all the fun I had as a child and how different I would be if I didn't play in those group games.
Am I stronger or weaker because I was tagged out first? Did my backbone become stronger when I was not picked to be on a team? Did I learn a skill of physics by tossing a ball at another and that ball never hit the opponent?
I can't say for sure that I learned or grew stronger. I do know that I became a team player in life and feel some of that came from playing those games. I have to think that I learned I would not always be a winner nor be on a winning team. But in the end I had friends who would play again with me.
In fact I am just curious enough, I think it would be fun to drive over to Attleboro Mass and park outside the school grounds. There I would wait and watch when recess starts. I envision seeing a teacher or other helper standing next to a door and pointing as each child exits. All this person would be doing is telling Sally to go stand over next to the fence, Billy has to go over there and lean against the building, Dirty Johnny has to go over and stand next to the tree where all the soft rubber matting has been placed in case someone runs into the tree and falls down. This would go on until all children are placed in their safe zone.
I guess the next slogan for schools will not be “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”, but “No Child will enjoy School Here” or maybe "Your child will stand over there"
And to think our mother let us play on the gravel driveway. How dare she!
Later
Comments