Do schools overprotect our children? "tag" eliminated.

[Disneyglobegirl]

Well I had to take DS to the emergency room after a friendly game of tag at school - the kid chasing him tripped and fell into my son and his teeth collided with my sons head causing a HUGE gash. DS has to get 2 staples in his head - not fun. After that I can see why some schools may be eliminating Tag soon.

 

[ckay87]

Well I had to take DS to the emergency room after a friendly game of tag at school - the kid chasing him tripped and fell into my son and his teeth collided with my sons head causing a HUGE gash. DS has to get 2 staples in his head - not fun. After that I can see why some schools may be eliminating Tag soon.

Oh, I'm sorry about your son. That sounds painful!

But don't you just say *stuff* happens? That's what I always say. Kids, by their very nature, are accidents waiting to happen. If it wasn't tag, it would be something else.

My 3rd grade DS even sees what's happening. He told us about how a girl got her finger pinched in a closet door and the top part was choped off But his next statement was the best. He goes "great, we won't be allowed to go in the closets anymore." Was he right or what??

 

[In a hurry]

Well I had to take DS to the emergency room after a friendly game of tag at school - the kid chasing him tripped and fell into my son and his teeth collided with my sons head causing a HUGE gash. DS has to get 2 staples in his head - not fun. After that I can see why some schools may be eliminating Tag soon.

I am sorry to hear about your son! That is so scary.

But, as a teacher, I still hate to see games that encourage running, laughing, chasing, sliding and occasionally falling discontinued. Sure people sometimes get hurt, but not usually. Life is full of accidents. But, the activity and stress relief is invaluable for kids that are being forced to work so hard and long during the school day.

 

[ckay87]

These schools that are eliminating tag, dodgeball, running at recess are probably the first schools that will complain that our kids are out of shape. It's getting ridiculous. Just let kids be kids!

What an excellent point!

When was the last time you saw a merry-go-round on a school playground? And I ask you...is there a better workout than running 300 pounds worth of kids in a circle at full speed?

 

[horseshowmom]

The schools aren't trying to overprotect the kids.

They are protecting their pocketbooks. Can't say I blame them - Junior breaks an arm at school in the yard at school and all of a sudden lawyers are involved!

More and more schools are canceling recess outdoors altogether due to liability issues.

While our district does still have it, we've paid medical bills on several occasions. For example: a child falls out of the swing; trips and breaks an arm; or the time we had a small snake bite somebody (it's a very rural area, and nobody saw the little snake until it was too late).

After the snake incident, the parent had a TV news crew from the city that broadcasts to our area (about 50 miles away) come in to do a story on the "snake infestation" at our elementary school. No snake infestation folks, and she probably has had a snake in her yard from time to time too.

Kids do need to be able to get out and play, but it's getting harder and harder to have children in situations that are unstructured (note: I didn't say unsupervised just unstructured) like just running and playing on the playground.