Virginia Elementary School Halts Game of Tag Due to 'Intense Aggression'

foxnews ^ | 04/15/08 | fox

[TornadoAlley3]

McLEAN, Va. — Some northern Virginia elementary school students are getting a time-out from tag.

The principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean told students this month that they are not allowed to play the game of chasing and yelling "You're it!" at recess after determining the playground pastime had gotten out of hand.

[Clintonfatigued]

As we’ve said before, we could not possibly make this up.

[waimea.man]

It’s hard for me to believe, but the public high school my son attends in the politically-correct SF Bay Area actually has them play dodge ball on rainy days. I love it.

[Argus]

Well, you know, if you let them get away with playing tag like this, someday these kids might grow up to reject their liberal indoctrination and turn into conservatives. Can’t have that.

[mtbopfuyn]

Tag is out but football is in...

[navygal]

Are you series?(sarcasm off). While they are at, ban recess too.

[JimSEA]

After reading the article, this seem to be about teachers lacking the ability, for one reason or another, to supervise the playground. Very disturbing as kids have always done the things complained about in the article.

[pacpam]

It got out of hand because of failure to teach.

[silverleaf]

Group punishment is so much easier to mete out than confronting a few rowdy brats directly. I think this is taught as a basic tenet of getting a PhD in Education.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I guess its a given that “Smear the Queer” has been banned as well.

[brytlea]

I'm actually surprised that Freepers are decrying what appears to be discipline based on behavior, and as a reward, when the behavior improves, tag will be restored. From the article:

"This is not the old-fashioned tag, where you could use two fingers and you would be it and move on to someone else," Hooker said. The game has become much more aggressive, she said, and involves grabbing people who do not necessarily know they are playing and possibly bumping them to the ground. "They pile on each other. (Sometimes) they call it 'jailhouse' or 'jailbreak,"' because the child has to break out, she said.

and then:

tag will be restored as their behavior improves.

I know it's fun to find everything public schools do wrong, however, if it happened to be your own child who was being grabbed, thrown to the ground and piled on, when they were not even playing tag, I suspect you would be saying the school was allowing kids to run wild. I suspect there were parent complaints.

susie

[Sig Sauer P220]

Maybe they should have paintball wars instead.

[Michael.SF.]

I'm actually surprised that Freepers are decrying what appears to be discipline based on behavior,

IMHO, it is because they are disciplining everyone for the actions of a few.

They should punish the guilty, not take the cowards way out and punish everyone.

[janeliberty]

I guess they would rather have the children act out their aggression in the classroom.

The do-gooders are taking the childhood out of children. There was a time when kids got together, formed a game, faught like cats and dogs over the rules, then went on the play without parental supervision. They learned “conflict resolution” without supervision. We need more of that today instead of so many organized sports.

Organized sports have their place, but when children are not allowed to act out their frustration, such as kicking the dirt or being mad at themselves, the results are children who lash out at the slightest provocation.

[Caramelgal]

It got out of hand because of failure to teach.

Yes, but more correctly, it got out of hand because of the failure to discipline – parents and teachers working together on discipline and teaching and enforcing personal responsibility and common sense.

As a kid, I played a lot of tag, dodge ball and other school yard games and I don’t remember anyone having to go to the nurses’ office. Even in elementary school, we knew the difference between playing and assault and if some kid did get out of line, they were disciplined by the teacher and the parents backed up the teacher for doing it. And if some kid accidentally got a bit bruised or got a skinned knee, no body made big deal about it.

But then, true story, in the 6th grade our class was playing soft ball on a late spring afternoon and our teacher, who was the pitcher, accidentally beamed me in the head, nearly knocked me out and gave me a black eye as he tried to pick me off as I was trying to steal second base.

He felt terrible about it. I was carried by the teacher to the nurses’ office and my parents were called, but no body filed a complaint, no charges were pressed, no law suits filed and he didn’t loose his job, and the next day I proudly showed up at school with my big “shiner”. My teacher said “you shouldn’t have been trying to steal on me” and I said, “you should learn to throw better” and we all got a big laugh out of it, including my parents.

[brytlea]

I suspect the problem is that it is many kids doing the behavior. Out of curiosity, have you ever monitored and been in charge of a playground full of kids?
susie

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

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Like many people have said, *Watch England*.

Didn't they go through this kind of stuff just recently with playground games?

[metmom]

We’re in a tiny, conservative town in NYS and on every day above about 40, you can hear all the elementary school kids outside at lunchtime. Our district MAKES them go out.

Even the high school kids get to go out in nice weather, and if it’s not nice, they get put in the gym to blow off their steam.

At least SOMEONE in our district realizes that kids need to move.

[wintertime]

There was a time when kids got together, formed a game, faught like cats and dogs over the rules, then went on the play without parental supervision. They learned “conflict resolution” without supervision.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And...It is through this **play** that children learn the social skills that will benefit them as adults!

It is in loosely supervised free **play** that children learn the **real** social skills that they will need in their marriages, on the job, with their extended families, neighbors, and friends.

It is through unstructured play that children learn how to lead, mentor, take directions, follow the more experienced person, negotiate rules, make compromises, and cooperate to achieve a mutually agreed upon goal.

In play children gain confidence and they learn how to concentrate on a project for sustained periods of time. Geeze! Is is any wonder we have so much ADD and ADHD? How can a kid learn to concentrate if he isn't given the opportunity to practice!

It is too bad, but children today do not get the play they need.

By the way, I predict that with more children in all day kindergarten and now in government pre-K, we will see MORE dyslexia, more ADD and ADHD, and learning disabilities than ever before.

[wintertime]

This is all part of the Marxist plan to make little boys into weenie men.