No More Tag At Recess?!!?

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Permalink Reply by Becky on March 6, 2009 at 8:51am

I work at a elementary school. Although this sounds cruel to ban tag, unless you have actually been on recess duty to watch the kids play you should probably not make judgments on why schools ban tag. We have tried everything imaginable to make tag safe two finger touch rules, no tripping, no kicking, no pulling, no swinging your coats at people to tag them... If you get my drift we had to make so many rules it was crazy. The game was still played children still were getting hurt. Our first responsibility is to keep your children safe at school. Believe me if we could have allowed tag we would have. It is not played safely and puts children at risk. Please see this from the side of the schools. We are caught between a rock and a hrad place. Keep your children safe...let the kids have fun. If you have any great solutions I am all ears.

Thanks,

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Permalink Reply by Judi on March 6, 2009 at 10:11am

I certainly hear what you're saying Becky, and I, for one, really do appreciate everything the schools try to do to keep our kids safe. I just don't understand how it's changed so much from when we were kids? Is it that there is more supervision, and so now more is actually "seen" that happens on the playground? As a kid I attended a pretty big elementary school and there would be maybe one yard coach on duty. Yes, we played tag, and a lot of times we got hurt. Heck, I broke my pinky playing tether ball and got a nice big bruise once playing tag....but again, I wouldn't trade that time I had for all the tea in china. It was part of learning and being a kid. But again, I get what you're saying, I really do. i can't think think of another solution. anyone else?

Becky said:

I work at a elementary school. Although this sounds cruel to ban tag, unless you have actually been on recess duty to watch the kids play you should probably not make judgments on why schools ban tag. We have tried everything imaginable to make tag safe two finger touch rules, no tripping, no kicking, no pulling, no swinging your coats at people to tag them... If you get my drift we had to make so many rules it was crazy. The game was still played children still were getting hurt. Our first responsibility is to keep your children safe at school. Believe me if we could have allowed tag we would have. It is not played safely and puts children at risk. Please see this from the side of the schools. We are caught between a rock and a hrad place. Keep your children safe...let the kids have fun. If you have any great solutions I am all ears.

Thanks,

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Permalink Reply by whitney on March 6, 2009 at 5:07pm

I couldnt believe it when i heard this,its crazy. Tag is a great way to release some energy!! There are way to many people out there that are just ready to sue. They just need to get it out of there heads that kids dont get hurt. Its part of being a CHILD!!! My daughter is not in school yet but i would sign it. My daughter and everyone else's should be allowed to be a kid.

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Permalink Reply by Jenoveva on March 7, 2009 at 1:20pm

This has been going on throughout the country here and there for a long time now. When my children were in school in the 80's, I noticed that there was less and less emphasis on Physical Education. Odd thing...as P.E. was designated as a less important subject in school, the news reporters had more and more stories about increasing obesity in children. Then I started hearing that some schools were also doing away with recess altogether. No P.E., no recess...what do they think is going to happen?

I remember years ago when I heard that some schools were banning dodge ball. Ok, so that can get to be a bit rough, especially if you are not well-liked in class (which I was not). But I can hardly think of another game which can improve one's reaction times and reflexes. I don't regret one bit the few times my classmates were able to zing me with a dodge ball. I remember those times fondly. Monkey bars have been removed in many areas around me. Too dangerous. Someone might get hurt. When did a few bumps, bruises and cuts get to be so onerous? Kids have to experience those in order to learn what they can and cannot do. Now tag is not considered politically correct any more.

All I can do is think of the song, "In the year 2525," where it says: "...In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

I wonder if that is just where the human race is headed....

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Permalink Reply by Erin on March 8, 2009 at 12:45pm

You would think if kids were getting hurt there are bigger issues than just tag at fault. If there is an emphasis on caring for each other and being aware of safety then incidents like deliberate tripping and wounding would become much less. Of course it's easy for me to say not being a teacher but I remember similar issues when I was a kid at school and these things were addressed as a school 'family'. If things are just being banned and more and more rules implemented that totally bypasses the problem. However if a caring sort of atmosphere is being promoted, bigger kids are taught to look out for the littler kids etc then school is a much happier place. All it takes is for the staff of the school to work together a bit and be proactive rather than reactive.

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Permalink Reply by hillarysayshi on March 8, 2009 at 6:04pm

Oh my goodness. yet another reason why we homeschool!! gimme a break!!!

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Permalink Reply by Judi on March 8, 2009 at 6:51pm

Good point! It could be such a great learning opportunity! Especially when you talked about the older kids looking out for the younger ones! You SHOULD be a teacher! :)


Erin said:

You would think if kids were getting hurt there are bigger issues than just tag at fault. If there is an emphasis on caring for each other and being aware of safety then incidents like deliberate tripping and wounding would become much less. Of course it's easy for me to say not being a teacher but I remember similar issues when I was a kid at school and these things were addressed as a school 'family'. If things are just being banned and more and more rules implemented that totally bypasses the problem. However if a caring sort of atmosphere is being promoted, bigger kids are taught to look out for the littler kids etc then school is a much happier place. All it takes is for the staff of the school to work together a bit and be proactive rather than reactive.

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Permalink Reply by Callie Domingues on March 8, 2009 at 7:07pm

hillarysayshi said:

Oh my goodness. yet another reason why we homeschool!! gimme a break!!!

Can I just say......I totally agree! Me Too!!!

Kids will be kids, let them play tag for heavens sake.....weight issues, too many video games, junk food.....the list goes on! So for the Love of.....whatever....let the kids do something fun for the whopping 20 minutes or so that they still have!!!!

No Child Left Behind? Look around America, we can't even compete all that well in the Olympics anymore because of the lack of physical endurance of our young people. So by all means....take away tag at recess so you can push more junk into the brain of our future Leaders! It doesn't seem to be working too well now.

Oh brother......what a crazy mess! No tag? What next?

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Carson on March 9, 2009 at 4:43am

I'm surprised that my generation ever managed to survive childhood. There is even an e-mail going around which lists all the dangers to which we were exposed. 'Heavens to Betsy!!' We played tag, Red Rover, dodgeball, musical chairs, many other ring-type games where we first made a big circle, like Farmer in the Dell, but some of them could also be physical. We even played jump rope, with hot pepper and double ropes to challenge us, trip us up and add skinned elbows as well as knees.

The main problem is that we have become such a litigious society, ready to sue someone at the drop of a hat that I'm almost afraid to allow kids to play in my yard anymore. When my kids were small, I would invite all the neighborhood kids to play here where I treated them with ‘Heavens’ sugar cookies and Kool-Aid made with REAL sugar and goodness knows how much butter-fat in the cookies. I couldn't read the nutritional information on the box because it didn't come out of a box. They were made from scratch.

If anyone goes with the waiver idea, you need to include a clause saying something about obvious neglect, serious injury wherein they were allowed to do something like playing tag with the cars on the street or trying to dodge the cars. Unfortunately, there are some teachers who will allow REALLY unsafe play, or the get so tied up on their cell-phone that they are not paying attention to the children. The majority of them won't do these things, but there are always a few.

Part of the problem is that the children of today are not being raised to have respect for other people, whether it is other children or adults. Many of them lack an understanding of ‘feeling’ for other people and thinking, ‘If someone did that to me, it would hurt, so I shouldn't do that to someone else.’ They see so much violence in even the cartoons they watch that they think violence and foul language are the norm. They are not being taught.

Playing on monkey bars, the jungle gym, the wooden bottomed swings--even standing up in them or leaning backwards and wrapping our legs around the chains, all those things were dangerous and we could easily have broken an arm or a leg, or even suffered a concussion, but that is where acrobats are born. That is where shy children can stand out. That is where children are challenged to be all they can be. I'm so thankful that I grew up in the 50's and raised my children in the 70's.

It's a very sad indictment against our society when if a child takes an aspirin for a headache that his mother sent to school with him 'in case it got worse' can be construed as 'taking drugs'. When 6 year old kids kiss one another on the cheek, it is considered 'sexual abuse'. A boy's pocket knife is a deadly weapon...although with the children of today a pocket knife can be deadly--they have no idea how to ‘whittle’.
Playing with pocket knives was probably the most dangerous of all the things we did. The boys used to throw their knives and make them stick up in the ground of into a tree. Sometimes they would ricochet off a knot in the tree or a rock in the ground and hurt someone, but very rarely. The really 'Bad boys' would throw them at their feet to see how close they could get without hitting them and daring other little boys to allow them to throw at their feet to prove how brave they were. That's when our teachers used to intervene, not for playing tag.
You might need to 'Google' this one to understand, but Pogo, a resident of the Okeefinokee Swamp in Florida once said, 'We have met the enemy, and he is us!' Alas my young mothers, it is true. We are our own worst enemies.

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Permalink Reply by Jill on March 9, 2009 at 8:42am

That is just nuts. I'd sign it!

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Permalink Reply by I Used to Be Cool on March 9, 2009 at 9:40am

That's nuts. As a teacher I can tell you that tag is one of the only things that gets kids MOVING at recess. It doesn't exclude anyone, no teams are picked, it's good all around fun.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca on March 9, 2009 at 10:20am

My gosh! That's the whole part of growing up! That is so insane! I'd be with you on that...and I would def sign that waiver!

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