I remember being average in elementary school. Not particularly not particularly fast, not particularly slow, but on the lower than average scale for co-ordination.
I’m wondering, from some of you, how does the bullied kid magically acquire co-ordination? Or dexterity? Or speed? I was with the same people from second grade up through high school graduation… we were all faster than we were at 7 years old, certainly, but for the most part, the same kids who were good at sports stayed good at sports. The same ones who were average, stayed average. The same ones who were not good stayed there. It seems to me that when the slower kid does get faster, so does everyone else, and the bullying doesn’t stop.
I do think tag & other games do need to be watched more closely by people with a clue.
In my case, necessity. Also, I’m short and have worn glasses since first or second grade, so people don’t expect me to be athletic. When we had to run cross-country in gym, I ran a consistent 5 minute, 50-odd second mile, usually finishing in the top 3. Still, I was not considered fast or athletic. Quite frankly, I liked messing with people’s heads that way! Also, after getting hit by snowballs way too many times, I got good at ducking.
Unfortunately, my best friend didn’t have those advantages – it’s kind of hard to duck when you’re wearing back brace or run fast when you’re wearing a leg brace. The sad truth is there will always be someone who’s slower and weaker, and some kids will tend to victimize that person. In my opinion, it is one of society’s obligation to protect that person and to teach that bullying such a person is wrong. Doing so by banning tag, however, remains ludicrous!
Well, since the only article I saw was from Fox News, I still don’t know if there are all the details. (Fox News isn’t exactly the most unbiased source).
But yeah, for “self-esteem” purposes, that’s stupid. I mean, if kids lose games. If, however, it’s being used as a way for kids to bully others, then they should lose their right to play.
I think that the idea that we should take a time in each person’s life when they’re going to be exempt from the rules and protections of sanity, human decency, and civilized society, and choose for this the time in their life when they’re the least sure of themselves, experienced, or physically coordinated is barbarity.
I abominated tag. Hated every second of it. When I was given no option but to participate, it did not make me stronger, faster, more coordinated, capable of dealing with adversity, or any of it. It was of no damned use to me, and I’m as bitter about it as I am about the chem teacher who made me sweep up mercury with a broom and got 20 boys two years older than me to pound on tables and yell at me to drink hydrochloric acid.
Obviously, the solution is not to ban tag. Presumably somebody’s having fun. The solution, as I see it, is to let kids not participate if they don’t want; keep watch over the little monsters to make sure they’re not turning it into let’s pick on the short/fat/asthmatic kid; and hire gym teachers who are not sadistic assholes.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but where in the article did it say that this was ‘required games of tag’. The way I saw it was that it was a bunch of kids who decided on their own to play tag, like we did every single day at the bus stop.