[Dialup Llama]

I never liked musical chairs because it teaches that for there to be a winner someone else must be made a loser. Only in certain artificial societies like corporations is such a thing true.

On second thought, maybe it is good training. It teaches you that you'll have to kick some people to the curb in order to receive recognition. In a company like Intel with its 'normed' system of evaluation, you had better be able shove aside the lower 20%.

[mattdono]

I, I, I can't even believe this.

I am sincerely at a loss of words...Un-Phuqing-Believable!

[Dialup Llama]

>What a wonderful memory!…until now.

Yes I have many fond memories of institutionalized education. The green two tone, insane asylum like color scheme, the prison like architecture. All fond memories.

[Arthur McGowan]

"Musical chairs" is not appropriate for a public school because it does not teach cooperation. A more appropriate activity is teaching sodomy, because this not only teaches tolerance for diversity, but also teaches the children how to cooperate.

[Trust but Verify]

How sad! My kids think I'm crazy when I tell them I had a better childhood than they did. They have so many material things I did not have since I grew up in a very large, lower middle-class family.

What we did have as kids was tons and tons of kids to play with. Dozens. That was when there were a lot of families with 5+ kids. We had kick ball and dodge ball and kick-the-can and Red Rover. We had freedom to wander (as long as we were home for dinner) without our parents having to worry about us.We had penny candy!

I would not trade my childhood for all the trappings of today's adult-run, ultra-PC society.

Simon says, "Let kids be kids!"

[tcostell]

I remember an episode of the Simpsons where Bart had been moved into a remedial class. They played musical chairs but with 8 players and 10 chairs. I remember his expression when the music stopped, everyone sat down and the teacher yelled "Yeah! Everyone is a winner." Shameful.

[THEUPMAN]

looks like the little weenies that always lost are making the rules now ....

[Stand Watch Listen]

indexing

[boris]

Can we replace Musical Chairs with Twister?

--Boris

[scottinoc]

Besides, tag is a form of sexual harassment, and duck-duck-goose is offensive to the web-footed community

[scan58]

Good article. I especially liked the lesson at the end.

It never bothered me to beat someone to the chair — I was very competitive. But now that I hear it encourages exclusion, I am saddened that we are teaching children it is bad.

My husband comes home from work and actually MAKES the kids or the dog get out of his chair. I wonder if CPS or PETA should be called?

[Exit148]

Recess! That's what I want to get rid of! How many kids were left waiting for their turn at whatever, when the bell rang and they had to file back into class. All those dejected kids! Was that a proper atmosphere for learning?

Who among you were in line, ready to jump into the swinging rope, when that bell rang? Who among you were just about to tag that last kid when you had to stop because of the bell?

Oh ---the despondency of it all! The crestfallen little kiddies. Their little psychies ruined forever because of unfullfillment. And all because of recess. Recess should join the ranks of Musical Chairs and remove that building block of childhood incompleteness.

[HamiltonJay]

Musical Chairs, Red Rover, Dodge Ball and Kick Ball... these are the games and memories of childhood... games that will never be played in adulthood and remain reserved to that brief time when the world is vast open and all possibilities are possible. Why is someone banning them? They are great and simple joys... Competition is not evil... I hate liberals.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

There was some famous quote about the military victories of the British Empire having their origins on the playing fields of Eton. I imagine that some future historian explaining the decline and fall of the American Republic will link our future military defeats to our feminized, pansy government schools.

[billbears]

bump!!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Can't have anything in school that even approaches reality, can we? To have some as winners and some as losers simply isn't the communist way.

[Destructor]

In order to undermine the Capitalist System you must discourage competition at a very young age.

[southern bale]

I can only imagine that someone who has never experienced any rejection, exclusion, or competition could probably "go ballistic" at his first job interview when told someone else got the position.

That person would probably just pop another Ritalin or some other new psychiatric "wonder pill" that will surely become available in the future.