Yup.
When schools were about educating the children, children got educated.
Now, schools are about covering the bare and shivering asses of those who work there from their many natural enemies – crazed parents, hungry lawyers, drooling litigators, and politicians seeking issues to pounce upon for reelection.
Priorities are priorities, folks. We’d LIKE to teach your kids something, but don’t expect normal humans to stick their necks out TOO far. It’s a dangerous world out there…
You nailed it Master Wang-ka.
But the old days weren’t always quite so glorious. In elementary school we were not allowed to speak during meals. In high school, we were not allowed to speak as we moved through the hallway between classes. These rules were tightly enforced.
Then we went beserk on the playground and it felt so good. People got injured from time to time, but nobody even thought about suing, as far as I know.
Now people look for excuses to sue.
Gone are the days of dangling upside down off the monkey bars over the concrete.
I don’t know if concussion did anything for the concussed one but it did teach the rest of us.
I feel sorry for this generation of hot house flower kids. It can’t be any fun.
You know, we talk about our good old days of dangerous playground equipment and full-contact games (ours was simply called “kill the man with the ball”) and how well we turned out, but…
Those hyperprotective nutball parents suing at the drop of a hat? They grew up with the same playgrounds and games we did. What happened?
…they got hit on the head too many times?
I guess kiss chase is out of the question then…?
Yeah, I kinda saw this one coming. When my daughter was in fifth grade four years ago, the school announced that from here on out, there would be no “recess”. Instead, the children would go outside for 20 minutes each day to engage in SPA: Supervised Playground Activity. That year, a little boy from Macedonia joined my daughter’s class, and was suspended within his first two weeks for “inappropriate physical contact.” He’d chased a girl around the playground and when he caught her, he kissed her. I wish I was joking when I said there were a LARGE number of parents who thereafter considered this little boy to be a potential rapist.
Him, me and quite a few others then I guess. Let alone all the sluts that encouraged us to play it (especially Carolyn, who used to let me kiss her if I caught anyone at all!)
Thinking about it, I can’t think what we called it but we used to play a version of tag that involved lifting the girls’ skirts if we caught them. :eek:
Often it’s lawyers. Better the kids grow up not playing tag than have a sleazeball lawyer/parent combo suing the school for millions 'cause little Johnny grazed his knee. :rolleyes:
We’re breeding a generation of kids who can’t amuse themselves. Either their parents plunk them down in front of the TV, or they’re at school, and even there, their recess now is playing adult-organized, structured games. What happened to tossing some balls and jump ropes out, and saying, “go have fun”?
You’re right.
My kid amuses herself mostly because we ditched the TV. When we had TV, she’d watch it for hours a day if we’d let her. Now, even when she’s playing with other kids, she still plays by herself if she gets bored with what the other kids are doing.
… I’m missing something, but if she’s bored with what they’re doing, why wouldn’t she go play by herself?
This entire isssue really has nothing to do with “Political Correctness,” as the OP title would suggest, and really is all about Litigation Fear. Organizations like schools have adopted `avoidance of being sued’ as being almost their primary function.
They grew up and discovered that in the adult world, not only do you not get pounded and laughed at for being a whiney wimp, but now there is a whole army of lawyers who were prepared to listen.
There world is full of parents who are convinced that their children are fragile and in constant mortal danger from all corners. Maybe it’s always been that way. It’s just that now more people have fewer better things to get paranoid about.
What we really need is a good war, plague, or inquisitional genocide. Adults might suffer, but the children could get back to playing without the constant interference.
Well, at least we know that at this rate, children playing too many video games will eventually end. Somebody will sue for getting carpal tunnel syndrome in their thumbs.
My guess? They were the ones who got concussions, got smeared, broke multiple bones, got the living crap beat out of them during “fun” games like dodgeball, (or were the ones who beat the living crap out of other kids and know how awful kids might be to their slightly akward child).
The safer and safer playground has been creeping in for years (I remember in the early 80s when we weren’t allowed to do certain games because the sawdust wasn’t that thick). And while we whined about not being allowed to do bomb drops off the bars, we also didn’t get injured from not quite being able to do bomb drops off the bars.
but I do agree with
The really sad thing about it is that they’re brain-washing my kids, too. I go out of my way to praise and defend kids like this boy. My daughter looks at me like I’m insane. It’s obvious, to her, that kids like this boy are larval violent criminals.
You see, that’s my problem too. I’ve limited TV and computer time, frequently forcing my son outside to play, but a lot of the time all of the kids are at Tyler’s playing on the computer or down at Cody and Joey’s playing X-Box, so naturally, that’s what he goes and does too. I wish I knew a solution to this problem. He has no interest in organized sports, which was the one thing that came to mind, and frankly I’m baffled. When I was a kid, we played outside all day, and complained when it was time to come in. We didn’t have 500 channels of cartoons or home computers, however.
Brutus, good one. I’ve never agreed with you politically, but you did just give me a good laugh. Thanks!
That’s the same way I and my friends were. We were always oustide doing something, with no supervision. The rules were 1. Don’t do anything TOO stupid, and 2. Be home in time for supper. That was it. My folks sometimes used to comment that I was never home. But that was in the Stone Ages of the 50s and 60s, before video games and a bazillion cable channels. It was your basic hands off, let them be kids thing. We were allowed to bask in a sort of pleasant chaos, with only enough occasional supervision to see that we didn’t go too far overboard. None of the over supervised PC neuroses, none of the overcheduled, overcontrolled stuff I see now. I feel sorry for kids today. Piano lessons, dance lesson, tennis lessons, organized sports, school, sheesh. Top that off with all the new rules - no yelling, no contact, no runing, no anything. They are overcontrolled, and work harder at being kids than I ever did. I wonder how many are going to burn out before they hit the teens.
Heh, my thoughts exactly. Everyone raises a lot of good points here, but I’d like to expand on Matt’s:
Good question. For those of us with relatively benign experiences of our own, this all seems 100% ridiculous, but, as you say (and amarinth as well), there are folks for whom recess was not so happy and care-free. I think it is absoultely a good thing to address that issue. But, eliminating self-direction and freedom and creativity is not the way to do it. If a kid gets beat up once at recess, no one in a position of authority is to blame. If a kid gets beat up or terrorized multiple times, it’s the teacher’s fault. Teachers need to deal with overly abusive/agressive behavior, both in the class room and on the playground (which is nothing but an outdoor classroom).
I can see how having intense, stringent rules makes the teachers’ job easier, but it sort of defeats the purpose of recess in the first place. We had gym class for organized games with written rules.