If At All Possible, Involve a Cow

[red-beard]

And Bring a Lawyer...

From the WSJ this morning:

Adult Supervision

By CHARLES SYKES
November 8, 2007; Page A23

One of the classic books on college pranks is memorably titled, "If At All Possible, Involve a Cow." These days we probably need to add, "And Bring a Lawyer."
The Christian Science Monitor reports that colleges across the country now require permits or permission slips for undergraduate pranks. This was perhaps inevitable: First they came for dodgeball. Then tag. How long could something as spontaneous and fun as the prank escape?
Educational administrators justify the new prank rules by invoking 9/11, though most college pranks have as much to do with terrorism as a greased pig in the hallway has to do with the invasion of Poland. But the war on spontaneity continues.
In Cincinnati, the nannies who run the Little League have decided to ban chatter on the diamond. The league president explained: "If you're saying, 'Swing, batter,' and this poor little kid is swinging at everything, he feels bad and maybe he turns to the catcher and gets mad. Honest to gosh, I didn't have any trouble doing this."
A Colorado Springs elementary school is one of the latest to ban tag on its playground. Running will still be allowed as long as there is no chasing. The ban wasn't the idea of overprotective educrats -- it was the result rather of children and their parents who "complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will." Other schools have already banned swings, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, crawl tubes, sandboxes and even hugs.
At Mascoutah Middle School in Illinois, 13-year-old Megan Coulter was recently given detention for hugging two friends goodbye before the weekend -- a violation of the school's ban on "public displays of affection." One California school district worried about "bullying, violence, self-esteem and lawsuits" also banned tag, cops and robbers, touch football and every other activity that involved "bodily contact."
In some schools free play has been replaced by organized relay races and adult-supervised activities, in order to protect children from spontaneous outbreaks of creativity. This makes sense to the sort of person who thinks children must at all costs be protected from the scrapes of life and insulated from the prospect of having to deal with social interactions or disappointment.
Childhood -- or at least the fun part -- is falling victim to a potent stew of psychobabble, litigation and over-wrought over protectiveness. In North Carolina principals in at least eight schools, worried about how school children will cope with scorching summer heat, want to raise thousands of dollars to erect large canopies and shelters over playgrounds."
If that's not enough reason to keep kids inside, ABC News recently reported that there are actually germs in playgrounds where (God help us) . . . children play. Out of 60 playgrounds tests, ABC's exposé discovered, "59.had evidence of bacteria or mold that could make children sick, tests showed."
News flash for ABC: Check out your own lunch room; or any place kids play. Where there are children, there are germs. That's why our moms made us wash our hands before dinner.
But if we are already setting up canopies on playgrounds and swabbing jungle-gyms for bacteria, can actual bubble-wrap be far behind?
We're already paying the price for the epidemic of overprotectiveness. Congress has appropriated more than $600 million to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. An entire generation of kids now rides in minivans to schools where they aren't allowed to chase one another, swing on swings or play dodgeball. And we wonder why we have an obesity problem.
The Duke of Wellington once said (perhaps apocryphally) that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" -- reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation's character. At this point we had better hope that's not true about America, unless we plan on going to war against an enemy who also values non-competitive, risk-free, self-esteem-building play activities for its young.
Mr. Sykes is the author, most recently, of "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" (St. Martins, 2007).

[Mo_Gearhead]

Recess in the 1950's:
We (boys and girls mixed teams) played kick-ball, softball, dodge-ball, basketball, etc. Even in cold weather (if it was raining or snowy we did have a indoor gym) otherwise it was ...EVERYONE OUTSIDE! We bundled up in coats/gloves/caps and played something.

Exercise avoidance was NOT possible. Skinned knees/elbows, girls hit in the head during dodge ball (crying), fat kids who couldn't run fast (picked last for the team)....God I miss the smell of napalm in the morning!

[legion]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

Recess in the 1950's:
We (boys and girls mixed teams) played kick-ball, softball, dodge-ball, basketball, etc. Even in cold weather (if it was raining or snowy we did have a indoor gym) otherwise it was ...EVERYONE OUTSIDE! We bundled up in coats/gloves/caps and played something.

Exercise avoidance was NOT possible. Skinned knees/elbows, girls hit in the head during dodge ball (crying), fat kids who couldn't run fast (picked last for the team)....God I miss the smell of napalm in the morning!

Sounds a lot like recess in the 1980's...minus the bundling up part as I went to grade school in SoCal. (Allen Avenue Elementary School in San Dimas.)

[MRM]

That was grade school in the 70s in Wisconsin, too. We bundled up about four months of the year. We were kept in for rain, when it snowed so hard you couldn't see through it, or when it got colder than -20. The unwritten rule was that everyone had to be picked but the people picking the teams took turns picking them in order. The number of boys and girls on each side evened out, so did the number of kids who were good at the game. Since the good kids cancelled each other out there was usually some opening for all the kids to get the ball if they tried.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by legion

.... recess in the 1980's...I went to grade school

This explains a LOT.

[sammyg2]

I remember snow ball fights at recess and making snow forts.

I think that's illegal now. Kids should never be allowed to throw anything, and snow is too cold for kids to safely touch.

[The Gaijin]

Don't laugh. My nephews are 12 and 10 living in a very rural area - and these are the rules. These are not urban legend. No tag even - as it can be misconstrued as "inappropriate touching".

[Rick Lee]

We actually had a clause in the student handbook at my prep school that "Students have an unalienable right to throw snowballs".

I think as late as the 8th grade (1984 for me), we had throwing stars and lobbed them at tree stumps along the edge of the playground.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

This explains a LOT.

[gprsh924]

That was grade school in Illinois in the late 90's. We played soccer every single day, full slide tackling encouraged. I can't even count how many fights I got into or how many times I had to go to the principals office and have my parents called. I even got suspended from recess for a week one time. Today I probably would've been kicked out of school and sent somewhere else the first time i tackled someone from behind while playing soccer.

[Dave L]

Snowball fights were the norm, I also remember sliding down hills made of sheer ice.

In the fall crab apples fell from the trees, throwing them was fine but stuck onto the end of a 3 foot stick you could get a lot more leverage and much more speed.

In the spring hockey card were folded multiple times over to create "V"s that could be shot with elastic bands like a slingshot. The hockey cards were made harder by taping with electrical tape and longer thicker elastic bands were used. It eventually led up to paperclips being embedded within the hockey card projectiles and being hit meant getting a decent sized welt. I think that it was at this point that the teachers got involved and put a stop to it. No suspensions, no expulsions, no police. just kids having fun.

Spit balls through McDonalds straws were always a hit as well.

[nostatic]

what is this "snow" thing you speak of? It sounds dangerously fun...

[red-beard]

My elementary school "Hillside" was built in a hill. You could walk in on the top floor, and then walk out to the playground on the bottom floor. Right next to the entrance, was a perfect sliding hill, from top floor to bottom floor, about 20 ft of vertical, but about 30 degree angle. It made a perfect winter slide. We used lunch boxes, plastic trays, what ever we could. No one said a thing. If a kid got hurt, take 'em to the nurse's office, fortunately very close by.

I fell off the horizontal bars and knocked myself out (I know, explains a lot). Did my parent sue? no. Did they pull the bars out of the ground? Not because of me. Kids play, and kids get hurt. And then they will be more careful next time.

[legion]

Hillside, IL?

[MRM]

If I had fallen off the monkey bars and gotten knocked out I would have gotten in trouble for not being careful. We were sledding maniacs too. Snow forts were routine. Then we would go "Over the top" and attack the oposing fort. Snowball throwing on school grounds was forbidden but hard to enforce. Across the street off school property all rules were off. "Facewashing" in the snow was illegal but even harder to enforce than snowballs.

I brought my pocket knife to show and tell in 4th and 5th grades. Throwing stars were common all the way through high school (1983) but were more common with the smokers. It was almost a class thing.

[futuresoptions]

...For the land of the P*SSIES and the home of the brave........ Sad but true.....

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by legion

Hillside, IL?

Upstate New York, Niskayuna.

And MRM, it sounds like we are the same age. I had a scout knife. We had to actually pass a class so we could carry it! With those folding type, non-locking, knives, you'd be more likely to get hurt if you tried to use it.

SOMEWHERE upstairs, in a box, is my old belt knife, that I carried camping. It was about 4" blade, non folding. Probably illegal now.

[widgeon13]

I don't think kids are any safer today than they were 40 years ago while on the playground. If you haven't broken a bone or had a bloody lip by the time you are 16 well then you haven't lived.

No wonder kids are fat and lazy, we tell them they can't do any fun things. What ever happened to volley balls in the face and slippery slides with splinters.

[304065]

Wellington was wrong, he didn't win Waterloo, Napoleon lost it.

[sammyg2]

Remember jumping off the swing set to see who could get the most distance?
That was good fun even though someone occasionally broke a wrist or something.