Schools Ban Tag, Dodge Ball and Other Games

Foxnews.com ^ | Nov 19,2002 | The Associated Press

[ConservativeDude]

"Hide the Belt sounds vaugely like Smear the Queer. "

No! You obviously need to return to the school yard and brush up.

In smear the queer, once you get the treasured object (the football), you must flee to avoid getting smeared. You are like a fox being chased by hounds.

In hide the belt, if you find the belt, you can use it as a weapon and wreak havoc on the mortals until they can run away from you to safety. You are not pursued, you are the pursuer, as if you were an evil deity on the top of Mount Olympus!

See the difference?

[MD_Willington_1976]

PE should revolve around the same physical training required for entrance into the military, then when finished school there should be a mandatory 2-3 years of selective service in the military.

Anyone who objects to selective service will do civil service. I am sure there will be fewer jerks entering higher education after that.

My views may be harsh but thats just the way I see it.

[laker_dad]

We did something similar with a mini football. If you were brave enough to hang onto the ball, you were fair game for a (n-word) pile. Most of the time, if you yelled "uncle" from the bottom of the pile, the kids would let you up. The best games were invented/played in the late evenings in the summertime (Detroit Suburbs). Ah, yes... the memories!

[ConservativeDude]

"Most of the time, if you yelled "uncle" from the bottom of the pile, the kids would let you up."

A few comments. I like that qualifier "Most of the time"...one wonders what happened the "rest of the time".

Also, one wonders if the breathe was squeezed out of you and you couldn't yell....what then? In my experience you just had to simply...wait. And hope you weren't too obviously crying when you managed to stagger to your feet, bordering on unconsciousness b/c your brain has not had oxygen for several minutes.

[lavaroise]

Liberals are not protecting children, they are turning them into wimps incapable of understanding the honor of a challenge. Such sports gears the kids to fight to win while fighting to end the fight. These are not fight starters but fight enders, exactly the type of peace making activity our youth need, instead of that body piercing freak trouble making sh!t.

[xeno]

Typical response from a brainless bully?

I am a bodybuilder and runner. I played sports throughout jr. high and high school but alot of kids don't. All I am saying is that schools should focus on making sure that all kids are physically active, even if they aren't on a sports team. It might help with the obesity problem among our youth.

[orfisher]

>>Smear the Queer.<<.....as long as we're being politically incorrect, there's another game we played called Lone Injun.
This was developed specifically for an area called Grand Army Plaza. The were two mounds on each side of the plaza that were fenced in. The game was played at night with 6 to 10 participants. One person was chosen to be the Lone Injun. The rest would walk around the perimiter of the park.
The object was for the Lone Injun to hide, then ambush and tackle anyone he could. The person tackled would join the other. The game would continue like that until there was only one person left. Needless to say the last person got creamed. (g)

[aruanan]

"The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe," Long Hill Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

Once again we see the essentially moronic nature of upper level educational bureaucrats. Note that he doesn't say that the act of loosely [sic] running around and chasing each other is not safe. He says that the idea of doing so is not safe. Well, that's certainly in keeping with the general level of anti-intellectualism that pervades much of modern education. Read how this whole sorry mess came to be in The Graves of Academe by Richard Mitchell, the Underground Grammarian. This book, Less than Words Can Say, The Leaning Tower of Babel, The Gift of Fire, and a complete selection of Underground Grammarian newsletters and other essays are all online. Feel free to download them, print them up, and pass them out. Be the first to edify and educate your family, friends, and neighbors.

[jwalsh07]

I knew it after I typed it. Amazing how the years can make the names of childhood games seem deviant.

[MEGoody]

No wonder obesity among kids is increasing by leaps and bounds.

[MEGoody]

I was the chunky, unathletic kid way back when I was in grade school, and I absolutely LOVED to play dodge ball. For some reason, it was the one athletic activity I excelled at. (And it ended up making me much more inclined to be active, because I knew there were SOME things I could do.) Of course, the game was played with adult supervision, and anyone who purposely tried to hurt someone was yanked out of the game.

[summer]

Re your post #86 - I was thinking more about your question today, and I think it just goes back to both what the nurse was saying about this federal law and the need for universal precaution, and, the nature of HIV. For example, let's see what would happen if letters were sent home, like letters are sent home about lice.

The school sends home a letter about lice, and says here's how to get rid of it: use this shampoo, don't share combs, etc.

But what does the school say about HIV other than: two kids in your child's class have HIV. (There's no shampoo you can buy to irradicate this disease.)

So, OK, you know two kids in your kid's class are HIV infected. But, you demand to know which ones. Consequently, let's say the law goes further and tells you: Little Johnny and little Jane are the students with HIV.

But, now comes the problem the nurse warned about, and the reason for the current federal law: unbeknowst to you, and unbeknowst to the school, little Bubba in that class is also HIV infected, but his mom doesn't want to disclose it, and Bubba isn't going to disclose it because he's five years old and doesn't know he has HIV. COnsequently, everyone is worried about their kid possibly getting HIV from Johnny and Jane, but one day, one kid accidental fall, and a bunch of kids then trip over him and pile up, and - there's blood. The first child bled and your child got some blood on his mouth.

But, you think to yourself, mistakenly relieved: Thank goodness it wasn't little Jane or Johnny who bled - it was Bubba - who's NOT on the HIV list the school sent me.
Do you see what I mean? Now, what "benefit" did you get from the incomplete information? In addition, I left out all the problems this will cause teachers and students, and parents will not want their kid sitting next to or eating with Johnny and Jane, and, Johnny and Jane will start to cry everyday wondering why the other kids shun them.

Maybe cajun-jack (who is definately not HIV, as far as I know!) can share his experiences in this situation in terms of how those in another workplace - not teachers in a school - have the same sitation to deal with as teachers.

[cajun-jack]

you make a lot of sense my friend....BUT....while hiv has a much longer period of incubation than measles...is it fair to not inform the people that are going to be in day to day contact with johnny and jane......or just let them take that chance????I am not a mean person.....but i feel that if it has to be reported in you have the "clap" and have to name all of your contacts....if you are hiv, you should have to do the same.....is that too far fetched??

[summer]

Well, that is not at all what you freepmailed me! LOL... :)

[summer]

And, I don't think I agree with you - because clearly, the next step is: How to get Jane and Johnny into a separate school, for HIV kids only. I don't think that will happen.

But, the AIDS problem has made me change, completely, on my position as to sex education - there was a time, long ago, when I was all for it in the schools. Now, I am opposed to it, and I think the only message we should tell kids is this: Abstain until marriage. I know that is a total 180 from my previous more liberal position, but, the truth is that kids are not necessarily interested in "safe sex" if they are interested in sex. IMO, the key is to create a climate where sexual activity takes place only in marriage, and even then - the nurse in this presentation told us a very sad story of a kid who had HIV and the mother didn't believe it, only to discover she TOO had HIV, and the disease was transmitted to her child during birth -- AND her HUSBAND had HIV, and his first wife DIED from it. The husband knew he had it - but he never told anyone.

[summer]

Re my post #112 - I meant: eradicate

[summer]

And, frankly, I am not convinced "safe sex" even exists - because abstaining is the only truly "safe" think one can do in these circumstaces. Holding hands may be safe, but oral sex is not, and kids mistakenly think it is.

[summer]

I meant: "safe thing" one can do in these circumstances.

[Political Junkie Too]

Of course, the difference between lice (and my examples of chicken pox, mumps, and measles) is that the children get cured (and except for lice, will never get the disease again). HIV is ultimately a death sentence.

The law is not trying to protect the masses -- it is trying protect the one from being ostracized by the rest. The simple solution is to remove the infected student, but that ultimately leads down the path towards leper colonies. Therefore, nobody must know, but everybody must know. In the name of safety, they will inform the parents that a student is infected, but to protect the one they won't tell who it is. So, instead of removing the one infected student, parents will remove all the other kids out of fear.

In effect, we now have a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in our schools, too. (I'm not implying the students got HIV though homosexual activity, just that the schools don't want to know or say).

-PJ

[MissAmericanPie]

It's just more feminization of males. My son's school is run like a prison, I would pull him, but he loves his popularity too much at present.