This radio show transcript is just too funny, and sad, all at the same time. The last paragraph is the best.
GLENN: Colorado schools have banned tag on its playgrounds. I’m having a hard time with this one. For as evil as I think tag is, you know, I worked tirelessly to make sure we didn’t do dodge ball. Dodge ball, they are throwing a ball at you. How are you expected to survive, you know? Red Rover, Red Rover, send so-and-so right over? I was never picked. It lowered my self-esteem. I mean, he was always the last guy. Red Rover, Red Rover, send anybody but Glenn over. Can you check in the classroom, see if there’s anybody doing their homework. Where’s Arnold? Can you call Arnold’s mom, see if he can come out to play because we definitely don’t want anybody — we don’t want anybody named Glenn to come right over. Oh, it’s tragic. So hopefully we can get Red Rover, Red Rover banned as well.
A Colorado school has banned tag because some children complained that they were being chased.
Just a second. I’m sorry. I just want to — they’re playing tag. Tag, tag, tag… tag, and they were being chased. Well, what will they think of next? Now kids are chasing each other during tag. My gosh, what’s next. One of the assistant principals of the Discovery Canyon school — may I ask, please tell me, Colorado, that’s called Discovery Canyon that that’s the town or the area? It’s not like, hi, welcome to Discovery Canyon School; you can discover all kinds of things. Doesn’t that just sound politically correct?
She says that the running games will still be allowed as long as you don’t chase each other. May I ask you a question? When you were in the third grade, isn’t that pretty much what you did all day? When you would go out and you’d play on the playground, you’d chase each other? Right now Cheyenne just learned how to walk and every day I look down at my — I look down at my webcam and for, like, an hour all they’re doing around the house is chasing each other around our — we have this enormous coffee table in our living room, and all they’re doing is chasing each other around the coffee table. That’s what happens with kids. That’s what they do. And I don’t know if you’ve missed the — well, I haven’t seen tag’s rules in quite some time, but isn’t that it? They chase you? You try to outrun them so you’re not it and then when you are it, you chase somebody?
Here’s an idea. Kids, if you don’t want to be chased, stop running. Then they’ll tag you. Then you chase them! That way they can have their attorneys call your parents and sue you for chasing them as opposed to your attorneys suing them for chasing you. It’s incredible.
Two parents have complained about the ban on tag but most parents and children didn’t object, the assistant principal said. Yeah. You know why? That’s because they’re all dead now. They’re all just, their souls have been sucked out of them. They just might as well, they’re in their house now and they see on the news… “Oh, looks like they’ve banned tag” and they’re just sitting in their living room, of course we ban tag; I mean, why not ban tag. Kids are being chased. Honey, do we have anything in the house that I can overdose on?
I mean, that’s what’s happening to us! We’re not complaining anymore because we know it won’t make a difference! We’re sheep. Banning tag.
38 comments
Does it get any more ridiculous?
Colorado, eh? I would have thought Massachusetts would have nabbed this one up first 😛 j/k…but this is absolutely ridiculous.
I know where I live, and where my children go to school, the playgrounds are blacktop, or macadam. Kids were falling a lot from being chased, which was resulting in multiple wounds, daily. The kids get carried away, so the teachers outside sometimes tell them to call it quits on games….but I do not think they banned tag.
It is sad that anymore, parents make a big deal when kids are hurt at school. There seems to be inconsistancy….when it is sometimes ‘convenient’, the teachers are the authority in place, and must be blamed. At other ‘convenient’ times, the teachers need to understand that the parents are the authority. I e seen parents play the cards however it fits to support their cause. So, the schools probably feel they must always cover their butts. I do not think this stems form the schools, per se..but complaining parents.
Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Here in Australia some schools have banned kids from doing cartwheels. All because they are worried someone might get hurt and parents will sue the school.
People just won’t let kids be kids anymore.
Well, you want to ban “marrying/boyfriend/girlfriend” games – which most people see as fairly harmless. Heh.
So happy to be childless…
*whistles and walks away*
Hahahaha. What are they going to ban next? Knitting??
Say what??!!
I will add one more to my list of things to be grateful for… I live in Jamaica and the kids still chase each other freely. They get bumps and bruises, but no one dies, and the scrapes heal.
Sheesh! What on earth were they thinking?
Not surprised. But most of those kids are probably doped up on Ritalin (so they will sit still!!!!)
So they are too calm to run anyhow! LOL
Honestly, I feel like I CAN JOKE about that because my son’s doctor tried to diagnose him as ADD…
and thankfully he has the opportunity to stand on his head and do math if he likes. 🙂 Or chase his brothers. 🙂
And some people think homeschool is wierd?
I like Glenn Beck as well.
This is preposterous. *Shakes her head*
Unbelieveable…….
Priceless! Hard to even fathom that this is not a joke but actually happening! :)jen in al
AM,
You make a good point that needs considering…children are used as pawns sometimes without a lot of good sense.
It is not beyond some parents to sue the school over a few bruises; conversely, how many parents have had their rights threatened because their children got hurt on the parent’s watch?
I was thinking about this the other day…if a child gets hurt–even purely accidental, the parents can be called into question of neglect.
Kids get hurt! Accidents happen. This used to be a normal part of life, and now it’s an opportunity.
This is old news…I’m pretty sure Californica banned tag first…
Thankfully I live in an area of Colorado where its reasonably safe to let the kids go out and play and get dirty and scraped up…got plenty of burr bushes to take care of that : ) LOL
I live and teach in California, and our students play tag all the time. My own son fell off the jungle gym in kindergarten and broke his arm ~ basically in half! ugh ~ but you know what? I broke my arm in second grade too. It happens. Kids get hurt.
To Kim M ~ kind of surprised at the vitriol. I have been teaching for thirteen years, and though I do know that there are students who are medicated (in a school of 750, we’ve always had a handful), to suggested that “most” are on Ritalin is just too much. I’ve personally never had a student who was medicated. And I’ve had plenty with ‘ants in their pants’ who do better standing where they are comfortable rather than sitting at their desks. So be it! That’s just how many many kids are, and it doesn’t require medication.
To Kim M ~ I’m sorry, I just re-read your comment, and I think I took it wrong at first glance. Now I see that you’re being a little ‘tongue in cheek’ because of your own experience with your son.
I over-reacted because it didn’t jive with what I see all the time, which is that *most* parents and teachers do not choose to use medication for normal, energetic children.
WW – “how many parents have had their rights threatened because their children got hurt on the parent’s watch?
I was thinking about this the other day…if a child gets hurt–even purely accidental, the parents can be called into question of neglect.”
So true. This has actally been a big part of my prayer life lately (I was not the accused). CPS can take (and has, many occasions) your childen away on a suspicion or an anonymous phone call. You have to get a lawer and have home invasion with a case worker to get your kid back. Guilty until proven innocent.
Earlier, I should have said “extreme” and not “wierd”.
Wow. Can you say “Get a helmet?”
Next they’ll ban Hide and Go Seek because it might damage an ego.
Angela, I don’t know if it gets anymore ridiculous, but something tells me we’re gonna find out real soon, now that the majority of Americans have decided that Socialism is the way to go!
Tag…really? People are really teaching their kids to be wimos.
Oh, and Kelly, I like Glenn Beck, too. Yeah, he’s Mormon. But he tells the truth and he’s not afraid to tell it like it is!
Ha – our local school has rules against those “running” games, as well, and – get this – you aren’t allowed to PICK UP snow at all at recess. So, how fun is that in elementary school: go outside for a break, don’t run and don’t pick any snow up, basically just stand there. That’s definitely going to get the energy released in all of those kids so that they can sit down and behave in class!
So glad we can run, pick up snow (and – gasp – even have been known to have snowball fights), and actually release energy during the day here at homeschool!
Oh, pul-eeze! Sounds like they’re just catering to a few whiny children.
Best thing to do: Homeschool your children. Then they can run around on street asphalt and get bigger cuts and bruises to become tougher, learn to be quick and observant in order to get out of the way of cars (mind you, I mean for slightly older children, not toddlers- the backyard is a good place for them), and interact with all kinds of neighborhood children but not become saturated with the bad behaviors of other kids at school.
‘Ego’ would not be a problem either because the children can feel secure and loved by their OWN parents, instead of some unrelated teacher, and they can be taught the Word of God more than in school- which includes humility and loving your neighbor more than yourself- that totally rules out all ‘ego’.
Your don’t have to submit to the totally ridiculous rules of the school or ‘government’.
Anonymous,
Thank you for the apology. 🙂
Yes, I was joking… although I *had heard* that children do get overdiagnosed. I think that it is a common concern.
So I do admit that probably helped my joke along. But not meant at all as vitriol.
(On a side note: I used to be a traditional school teacher with a medicated student in my class. In my opinion, he needed love more than anything.)
Also, Please keep in mind that though it may appear that children aren't being medicated; parents are more likely to give pills at home.
Just to make sure I didn't just "think" I had heard this, I looked up info directly from the American Academny of Pediatrics website….
"psychologist Gretchen LeFever has presented evidence that overdiagnosis of ADD/ADHD is a significant problem in a number of communities (LeFever, Arcona, & Antonuccio, 2003). She found in an earlier study (LeFever, Dawson, & Morrow, 1999) in the Tidewater, Virginia area that among 770 children on one of the communities surveyed who were one year younger than their peers, 62.7% were being given stimulant medication in school. When one considers that at some 20% of medicated children at the time of her survey were treated with a long-acting stimulant at home only, one may reasonably assume the actual prevalence of treatment was around 79%. Finally, Angold and colleages (Angold, Erkanli, Egger, & Costello, 2000) found in a prospective study to determine the prevalence of ADD/ADHD in rural Appalachia, that among all those children treated with stimulants, 57% did not fulfill criteria for ADHD, and 29.3% of these had no ADHD symptoms at all."
Also, from the following website:
http://www.srmhp.org/0201/adhd.html
A critical review of epidemiologic research suggests that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not universally overdiagnosed; however, for some U.S. communities there is evidence of substantial ADHD overdiagnosis, adverse educational outcomes among children treated for the disorder, and suboptimal management of childhood behavior problems. Evidence of ADHD overdiagnosis is obscured when findings are reported without respect to geographic location, race, gender, and age.
Sarah,
Or a few potentially whiny parents?
This excerpt from msnbc news…(looks like MA was first.)
“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.
Recess is “a time when accidents can happen,” said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.”
Two words should stick out at you–“FEAR” and “ACCIDENTS”
We are a nation afraid of accidents because there is no such thing as personal liability. It’s ALWAYS someone else’s fault. BLAGH!
And that’s what we should be teaching our children–“don’t take blame for anything–if you get hurt, blame someone else.” That’s healthy.
It just keeps getting better…this from Fox news:
“A Santa Monica elementary school has banned the game of tag, once synonymous with youth and innocence, because they say it creates self-esteem issues among weaker and slower children….
The principal said children playing tag suffered both physical and emotional injuries.
“Little kids were coming in and saying ‘I don’t like it.’ [The] children weren’t feeling good about it,” Samarge said.”
C.S. Lewis said the most important strategy in creating a socialistic/communistic culture is to “lop everybody off to equal”..that is, erase the idea of winner, loser, more athletic, more studious–convince the masses that any such label is harmful to the self esteem, and aim to create a bunch of robots with little or no ambition to “be better”, because, remember, “being better is bad”.
When God said he would give men over to a reprobate mind, is this one of the clues? Grown ups in positions of authority talking such nonsense?
Anon and Kim,
I saw an interesting video about the over-diagnosis of drugs to our children, particularly Ritalin…may be of interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xehHwkPpevk
It makes sense, really. Aren’t we about half way down this slippery slope by now? Unless we become a body, called by His name, of fasting, praying, and humbled warriors, is there another outcome likely?
Thanks for the compliment, Kim.
To add to the discussion, while I do believe overdiagnosing is a problem, I dont know if it is done so much in schools. I dont know of more than one person who has their child on meds. Moreso, I think adults in general may be taking pills a lot, and while some of this may be just a mask for a deeper problem, the wolrd in general seems very oppressed, depressed, and does not know how to manage their anger.
I personally am on an anti-depressant. I tried natural stuff, and can tell you now for me, it was a waste of time and lots of money. I take Paxil now and have had great benefits. Many people are going through difficult periods and the body and mind reach limits where they just need a little help. Getting that help, for me, has helped me keep my focus, helped me develop goals, etc. It has not been a cure all but just takes the edge off, so I can function and get the help I need to get my life to a place of managability. I used to be very ANTI medication, then ended up putting my foot in my mouth. I didnt know everything. Looking back, had I been willing to go on meds 3 years prior, it would have saved me a lot of trouble…my head would have been more clear and focused to deal with my family issues.
That being said, my daughter got detention at her elementary school in 2nd grade for throwing a few snowballs at some boy who was throwing them at the girls. I understand no snowballs being a rule…but it was comical. Her first detention at age 7….a straight A student who they just tested for the gifted program. LOL.
If the kids run, they might expel energy and solve the obesity problem in children. We wouldn’t want that to happen. It’s more fun to sue McDonalds for millions. You know it’s their fault anyway.
Boy will these parents be in for a big surprise when Obama signs the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and then these children will have the “right to play” (Article 31) but perhaps that would conflict with their right to be protected from “activities that would harm their development” (Article 36).
I don’t know about other schools, but my son’s school allowed the kids to bring Game-boys to school (those little electronic games kids play).
My son’s first grade teacher told me that “he didn’t get his work done today in class… I had to get onto him because he was turning around during class”.
Why was he turning around?
“Because the child behind him was playing a Gameboy”. “his work was finished so he was allowed”.
Granted my son should not have been trying to watch the other kid play a game, but don’t ya think it might be just a little bit distracting?????
Anyway… the irony. No playing tag. But game-boys (electronic babysitters) are allowed. Now, like I said, I am not sure about other schools, but that one allows them.
Kelly,
Speaking of Glenn Beck. Did you happen to catch his War Room? And if so, what did you think of his worst case scenarios for 2014?
Tina
Tina,
My dad called me while it was on and asked if I could watch it via the Internet (we don’t have television coverage).
He briefed me about it, so without knowing all the details, I’ll say I’ve been thinking worse case scenario for a while, and do not think anything is very far-fetched right now.
I certainly hope and pray we don’t have to endure such extreme possibilities, but our community is organizing a meeting soon to discuss practical ways we can prepare for what may be the most difficult times we’ve ever faced.
I’m still planning to catch his show on-line if they make it available.
Your thoughts?
Thanks for the info, WW and Kim.
I have read similar problems with ‘overdiagnosis’, but parents need to remember that they ultimately decide whether or not to drug their children. Nobody can make you do that.
There are children who are extremely violent, compulsive, impulsive; this behavior puts other children at risk. Those behaviors need to be dealt with, and I believe that 99% of it, in my experience, boils down to parenting decisions more than chemical imbalances in a child. Furthermore, those children are *such a tiny percentage* of the kids who are diagnosed at all. Most kids have very normal energy levels (which, apparently, can’t get ‘burned up’ on the playground playing chase or throwing snow balls) and so please don’t medicate your child.
I’m feeling very blessed to live and work where I do, as I don’t know any teachers who advocate to medicate a child, and I don’t know any parents who are doing it (including my brother, whose daughter was ‘diagnosed’ with ADD and never considered medicating her).
AM makes a good point…I do know plenty of adults who are taking mood stabilizers.
The scenarios were not anything that my husband had not discussed with us previously. I think what was most alarming were the credentials of those who were proposing them. Glenn’s guests were not unknown conspiracy theorists. His guests were Gerald Celente (Trends Research Institute), Stephen Moore (senior Wall Street Journal economics writer and editor), Bob Baer (former CIA case officer), and Michael Scheuer (former head analyst of the CIA Bin Laden Unit). Coming from them, the scenarios felt much more realistic. I’m just glad to live in a rural area of a conservative state.
To my knowledge, this isn’t the first school to do so, but remembering my childhood, yes, all we did was run around and chase each other. Except our games involved bases, and capturing each other physically and in my case, pretending we were the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. 🙂
Have you heard about the schools that have banned the use of red ink because is gives children esteem issues?
This is one reason why, if children are in the plan for me, I will homeschool if at all possible. That way my kids can run around and chase each other to their hearts’ content.
-Miss H.
They’ll ban the game tag, but not Harry Potter or evolution! Oh, Lord, please help us!
Jessica in Peru
Hello there, intriguing post. I’ve been thinking about this matter,so thanks for posting. I will call at your site once again
Late again, but– ugh. Good grief.
I was one of those “weaker and slower kids.” I was slow, couldn’t run without tripping over my own feet, and half the time couldn’t process the chaos fast enough to be really sure of who was “It” now.
I didn’t like tag. And being excluded really did damage my self-esteem.
So you know what I did?? This is really revolutionary. I just know that soon it’s going to be suggested by therapists across the country.
I FOUND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO.
Brought a book. Hung around and listened to the teachers talk. Got a stick and drew in the dirt. Hung out with other kids who weren’t very good at running and chasing either.
I found other things to be good at. I studied hard and made good grades. I learned to be proud of having perfect marks in academics and deportment. I practiced empathy for other “loser children” and became a good listener (another great source of self-esteem in my adult life, one which does not revolve around winning or ‘not losing’).
Don’t we hire therapists to teach empathy to autistic kids nowadays?? I must have been living somewhere other than on Earth, to have learned it by spending time talking to other excluded children.
There is no game at which every child can win every time.
The solution to that is to teach the children that Tag (or Dodgeball, or Red Rover, or Jumprope, or Mathletics, or the Drama Club) ain’t the only game in town.
The solution IS NOT to remove the competition. That’s the antithesis of a solution. I’m an extremely non-competitive person. But the very idea is just ridiculous, and destructive too.
I learned a lot, developed a lot of maturity, by being at the short end of the playground stick. I wonder how kids like me are supposed to figure it out nowadays?? I guess in a bubble in a therapist’s office, for $150 an hour, billable to Medicaid??