“The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe.”
So says Long Hill, NJ, School Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto. That’s why, of course, one Long Hill School District’s elementary schools required that students, as part of “code of conduct” they had to sign, agreed to a ban on tag.
Because, of course, the next thing you know, they’re going to be shooting each other, or pushing each other off cliffs, or something.
Dodge ball, meanwhile, is on the outs, because of fears that certain kids will be ganged up on. And, of course, by banning dodge ball, bullies will no longer be able to pick on other kids.
Not, of course, that tag is any better.
“There’s potential for some victimization,” said Mary Beth Klotz, a psychologist with the National Association of School Psychologists. “Tag may look OK socially, but it can be a double standard because kids can use it to bully a certain student.”
Well, thank goodness we’ve put a stop to that.
Red Rover was a viscious endeavor on our playground. It was played against the brick wall of the school…. follow that train of thought and see the kids ‘breaking the line’ and running pell mell into the wall… or the ever popular, ‘oops my hand slipped’ resulting into a full-on crash with the wall.
If you weren’t into pain, you abstained from play.
Back then, we weren’t actively monitored on the playground. There *was* an adult out there *somewhere*, off in a corner, smoking…
TAG! You’re it!
Now dodgeball I could have done without . . . tag, though? Puh-leeze.
I was actually pretty darned good at dodgeball, despite my awful coordination. I think it was because they underestimated me, and I was good at guessing where the ball was going to be thrown.