Massachusetts Emasculation Project

Its a pretty sad day when children are no longer allowed to be children. School officials at an elementary school south of Boston "have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable." (I'm quoting from this article.)

 

Gone are the days of scraped knees and elbows. Never again will children know their limits through trial and error; being learned on the playground and through interaction with their friends. I'm like most people. I hate to see anyone get hurt, especially a child. But I understand the role pain plays in the learning process. What better explanation is there for feeling pain? What other purpose could pain serve than to say to us, "Don't do that again." To suppress playground activities that could lead to bumps and scrapes will only serve to emasculate our children.

 

It won't be too many more years before these children become young adults. From this I can see two potential outcomes. The first would be that because they don't understand how much pain they can endure, they will fear all pain. This fear will cause them to become prey to anyone who threatens them with bodily harm. The second scenario is the complete opposite. Because they don't understand pain, they have no respect for it and will do crazy and reckless stunts like driving their cars through city streets at over 100 miles per hour. In other words, they will think they are invincible because they have never experienced pain brought on by bodily harm. Even today, we can see this phenomenon of reckless disregard for life and property in our youths.

 

And if you think this is an isolated event, you're wrong. Quoting again from this article:

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

 

"I think that it's unfortunate that kids' lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they'll never develop on their own," said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. "Playing tag is just part of being a kid."

I second her comment. I say let our kids be kids. As parents, we must understand that sometimes our kids will get banged up while playing. There's no need to sue for every bump and scrape your child may endure.