More Lost Childhood due to moronic "educators"
Schools ban playground classics amid injury and self-esteem fears Monday, November 18, 2002 • BY JERRY BARCA • Star-Ledger Staff
At 9, David Meltzer is something of an outlaw. He wants to participate in illicit behavior specifically banned at Millington School in Long Hill, where he attends fourth grade.
He likes to play tag.
"It shouldn't be banned. You're just running and tagging," he said simply, as if explaining it to, well, a fourth-grader. "You can play it with all your friends."
Without any boundaries, kids playing tag were darting through hopscotch and basketball games, bumping into other students and ending up in the nurse's office, Millington Principal Karen Wetherell said.
In an age of rising insurance premiums and increased angst over physical and psychological trauma, seemingly innocent playground classics are coming under increased scrutiny. Millington, in Morris County, is not the first New Jersey school to ban tag, and dodge ball is an absolute pariah in some circles.
Still, some experts and parents wonder aloud whether something is being lost in the rush to protect children.
"We live in a society that makes kids so safe, ultimately, we'll put them in a cocoon," said Charles T. Kuntzleman, a University of Michigan professor of kinesiology, the study of exercise and body movement.
At Millington, where pupils attend second through fifth grades, the ban on tag was part of a code of conduct children signed at the beginning of the school year. Pupils at the K-1 Gillette School, the only other Long Hill school with recess, are similarly banned from playing tag, but nothing has been put in writing.
"The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe," Long Hill Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto said.
In 1999, Tuscan Elementary School in Maplewood ended tag games, fearing a lawsuit because children were getting hurt when they fell on the asphalt, Principal Pat Browne said.
At Gould Elementary School in North Caldwell and Ross Street Elementary School in Woodbridge, tag games escalated into knockdown, pile-on and pushing clinics, school officials said. In the past few years, both schools have banned the game in favor of organized recess activities.
Then there is the brouhaha over bombardment.
Neil Williams, chairman of the physical education department at Eastern Connecticut State University, touched that one off a few years ago when he crusaded against the game, also known as dodge ball.
Educators followed Williams' lead and the game has been banned in schools in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, Ohio and Texas. The knock was that some students get singled out as targets, and the game fails to provide enough exercise.
Mary Beth Klotz, a psychologist with the National Association of School Psychologists, said tag can produce some of the same problems.
"There's potential for some victimization," Klotz said. "Tag may look okay socially, but it can be a double standard because kids can use it to bully a certain student."
Kuntzleman, the University of Michigan professor, said such concerns can be overblown. He said that children can be singled out in any game.
"That's life," he said.
In Millington, children do play a form of tag -- but unlike the playground free-for-all remembered by parents of a different generation, this tamer event is played indoors with plenty of supervision. The rules vary, but sometimes a teacher decrees that a child can only be tagged once during the game or teams are chosen.
Experts say that misses the point.
Judy Young, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, said it is important for kids to have time for creative, unorganized play.
Kuntzleman said there are important social lessons to be learned, such as conflict resolution and respecting a fellow student's personal boundaries.
"You don't just learn these things when you're 21. It starts much younger," he said.
Susan Orshan, whose 9-year-old son, David, attends the Millington School, said she remembers many a rough game of tag as a little girl. She said that no matter how many times she was "it" or got pushed or scratched or fell, she shrugged it off.
"There's almost nothing kids can play where they can't slip and fall or get hurt," she said.
http://www.pburgea.org/_Articles/02-03/A11/PlaygroundGames.htm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Barca is a reporter in the Morris County bureau. He may be reached at
jbarca@starledger.com or (973) 539-7910.
Copyright 2002 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.
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