Oh give me a fucking break

[Soreali]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_ ... nd_tag_ban

[Sylvus]

Wow.

Yeah, the world is officially fucked now. Who didn't get hurt as a kid playing tag, king of the mountain, smear the queer (ahh, the world was so much less PC back then), capture the flag, etc. No reason to sue anybody, take your licks as it's a part of growing up.

I wish the world (our country?) weren't so litigious these days.

[Boogahz]

...next, kids won't be allowed to walk in the halls for fear of them tripping and hitting their head on the ground. They will be carried around on the moving walkways while encased in foam that has breathing and feeding tubes installed.

[Arborealus]

coming soon: Bubble Wrap Scool Uniforms

[Dregor Thule]

Can't blame the school for covering its ass in the lawsuit happy times we live in.

[Drinsic Darkwood]

That's pathetic. Smear the Queer was always a recess favorite.

[masteen]

America is raising the biggest pussies on the face of the earth.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

political correctness and lawyers have ruined this country in ways that Bush could only fantasize about.

[Leonaerd]

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

Wow, I can't even tell that that's not straight from The Onion.

[Markulas]

accidents

??

[Marbus]

What is sad is that the school system, which has no money anyway, has to do this to keep stupid "it's not my fault people" from suing them.

LOL, smear the queer, that was a great one!

Marb

[masteen]

I refuse to even call it a school system anymore. I'm calling it the Free Nanny System now.

"We raise your kids, because you're too stupid to!"

[miir]

Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. "I've witnessed enough near collisions,"

Yeah beacuse those NEAR COLLISIONS are responsible for so fucking many schoolyard injuries.

idiots.

[Zamtuk]

I can maybe see smear the queer or king of the hill being banned, as great fun as they were. But tag? Really? There is more physical activity doing that presidential test in the fifth grade than there is in tag. Furthermore, who could sue the school and/or win for such a frivolous lawsuit?

[kyoukan]

I remember when I was a kid, my school playground's centerpiece had this big 'ship' made out of utility poles that the power company rejected because they were too flawed. It was basically a bunc of logs put together in the shape of a big boat with a stern platform and a bow with big fucking galvinizsed steel chains around the edge you had to hold on to when you were climbing from the back to the front. It was build on gravel and had big goddam 'telescopes' mounted on the sides that were actually just heavy gauge steel pipes on ball sockets so they could swivel around 360 degrees and if a kid wasn't paying attention around one you could swivel it around at mach 3 and smoke him one in the side of the head. There was also a fire pole down the highest deck.

The goddam thing was a safety hazard. Kids would swing the chains around super hard so other kids would fall off, or they'd get inch long splinters from the flawed utility pole logs or they'd fall off the side trying to climb down because there were no ladders; you had to climb up the logs. Not to mention kids like myself who liked to play 'smoke the kid in the head with the huge metal pole'

The countless injuries sustained by this contraption was horrifying. Once, sometimes twice per lunch someone would be going to the playground supervisor with head injuries or vicious chunks of wood imbedded in their hands. It was quite a glorious piece of equipment and I was sad to see it replaced with an unfun-looking multicolored plastic piece of crap the last time I was back home and drove past my school's playground.

I remember very few life threatening tag related injuries from my childhood. As educators, I'm sure the school could care less if a kid hurts himself once in awhile. Kids are going to hurt themselves. Unfortunately the majority of americans equate personal injury with huge payoff.

[Soreali]

And they wonder why we have so many kids over weight.. You cant even run around and burn off that fatty food you just ate inside! Basketball will be banned next and the only thing kids will be allowed to do is draw with chalk...

[kyoukan]

I should add that I am not surprised they are banning dodgeball. Dodgeball is fucking rough on a lot of kids. I was a muderous little shit during dodgeball and I would peg off all the fat/nerdy kids in the most heisnously embarrasing ways, I'm shocked that I haven't been invited to be confronted by any of them on Maury Povich yet. I feel rotten about it now, and I suppose I got my comeuppance when I stopped growing in grade 7 but man, I am probably responsible for a lot of therapy bills!

[Cartalas]

I should add that I am not surprised they are banning dodgeball. Dodgeball is fucking rough on a lot of kids. I was a muderous little shit during dodgeball and I would peg off all the fat/nerdy kids in the most heisnously embarrasing ways, I'm shocked that I haven't been invited to be confronted by any of them on Maury Povich yet. I feel rotten about it now, and I suppose I got my comeuppance when I stopped growing in grade 7 but man, I am probably responsible for a lot of therapy bills!

Excuse me why are you talking in the past tense?

[Pherr the Dorf]

your need for therapy predates kooky

[Lalanae]

Dodgeball days were awesome. I always hated gym, so the chance to get hit early on and spend most of class along the sidelines talking with friends was great. I never recall getting hit hard enough for it to hurt. Nothing compared to the fights my sister and I had on a daily basis.

[masteen]

I've watched what passes for PE at the elementary school closest to my house. They don't play games like kickball or have races. The coach just herds them around the edge of the field for about 30 minutes; it's like watching a dog herding sheep.

[vn_Tanc]

America is raising the biggest pussies on the face of the earth.

"Has raised" ;p

[Truant]

America is raising the biggest pussies on the face of the earth.

"Has raised" ;p

If you want to get technical sir, human children are reared. Barnyard animals are raised. You won't find but a couple of people (my 11th grade english teacher for one) that actually use that.



(or at least it used to be the correct usage, it seems that grammar and spelling constantly adapt to include common errors of the masses...I'm too lazy to actually go look up to see if it is still proper, or retired).

[Vaemas]

Mr. Redphone, my office, STAT!

[Tyek]

America is raising the biggest pussies on the face of the earth.

They are also raising the most mindless. I swear they are trying to become the military and remove any trace of individuality. Last year I mentioned a kid threatened to rape my son's sister and my wife and kill me. He got no suspension and a mild reprimand. This year my son's friend was given detention and was told he would be suspended for wearing a plain white t-shirt.

I am now being told that I have to buy my son dark green sweat bottoms and a grey sweat top with no logo visible for PE otherwise he has to wear his shorts and t-shirt and get cold on the colder days (yes I know in So Cal chilly is 60 degrees, boo hoo). Since no stores have green sweat bottoms in the area I am now having to find them on the internet or he will go cold, because apparently grey sweat bottoms are offensive or something?

He also wrote a story for his class on a trip to the center of the earth. I was amazed when I read it, it was funny, clever and well written. We even called my parents and had him read it to them. It sounded like an adult had written it and he got a C on the paper. Did the teacher write anything positive? Nope, anything constructive? Nope. She said he did not follow the standard writing form they are doing in class. Apparently he is several steps ahead of the others and she wants him to show he can follow some of the rules the rest of the class is doing. I have no fucking clue what that means, but apparently it is more important to dumb down a paper to the level of the underachievers than to exhibit creativity, individuality and to outdo others.

They are worried that if someone "shines" they might make fun of the others, hence the need for bland, boring and nonlabeled clothing and uniform school work.

I work with engineers everyday and we talked about this the other day, we are dumbing down and destroying the creativity inside our children. The US is falling behind in the number of engineers and scientist we are producing and the quality of the ones we are producing is substandard. I just met an electrical engineer who did not know how to wire a light switch!

It makes me sad, and like Kyou and others said, we survived fine with things like tag and wobbly school equipment. Somehow I survived the mental scarring of not having the newest Lightning Bolt shirt in the early 80's. I had LeTigre instead of Izod and I lived, but today we need to shield kids from these things. The funny thing is, kids today are meaner, less respective and have a larger sense of entitlement. They also seem lazier and less responsive to hard work.

Sorry for venting, but I find myself in a fight with the school district on a weekly basis anymore.

[Animale]

I completely agree about the dumbing down of our schools, i.e. teaching to the test and destroying the will of the truly creative/smart. While we take funding away from gifted kids programs, stuff like Direct Instruction (a reading tool which works great for kids who can't read well, but is an intellectual wasteland for those who can) is now the "way to teach" because it results in higher average test scores for the schools.

Not saying that this is a new thing, when I was in middle school (7th grade?) I got in trouble in Reading class because I had already finished the entire textbook by about a month into the class so had started reading my own books during the "quiet reading time." I think my parents told that bitch to back off during the teacher conference about it, because she basically didn't talk to me the entire rest of the year.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that, in many instances, we are no longer teaching people how to think, but instead how to do well on standardized tests. The results, at least in my field of chemistry, are amazing in that the quality (and number) of qualified undergraduate students who are even interested in doing research has dropped significantly. We are having to rely more and more upon foreign born students, which in the long run in a good thing for the country (we "brain drain" other places when the best and brightest come here to study) but is a disturbing trend for our domestic ingenuity. Hopefully something changes soon, or we will lose our technological edge when those who come here to study begin to return home in larger numbers - in part due to a failure to educate THEIR children appropriately.

What a mess, we have stopped rewarding success in education.

Animale, Ph.D.- Inorganic Chemistry

[Winnow]

Last year I mentioned a kid threatened to rape my son's sister

Wouldn't that be your daughter or step-daughter? Just sounded funny, like referring to yourself as "my wife's husband".

[Lalanae]

A friend of mine teaches 1st grade in a poor school district. The things she tells me is pretty depressing.

She says that most of her kids have the skills of 2 year olds according to her child-development books. In first grade they don't know how to blow their noses, clean their faces after lunch, etc. Their parents don't take the time to teach them the most basic life skills.

Her school provides free breakfast in the mornings but she still has students who go without breakfast because their parents can't seem to get their children to school early enough. These poor little kids have to sit hungry until lunch. She says it breaks her heart to hear them complain about being hungry, but there isn't anything she can do.

This isn't one or two kids either. This is most of her class.

Pisses me off. I can't imagine having to see that everyday. I'd get fired I'm sure, because I'd be up the asses of all of those loser parents.

[Sheryl]

Not saying that this is a new thing, when I was in middle school (7th grade?) I got in trouble in Reading class because I had already finished the entire textbook by about a month into the class so had started reading my own books during the "quiet reading time."

i used to get in trouble for something similar in grade school. we would spend class time reading aloud from our textbooks and i was so bored i would hide my own book inside the text and read it instead. the teacher got onto my parents about it, not because i was doing poorly, but because i was one of the only students who would read aloud well and she needed me to help her read to the class. my mom about had a stroke.

I just met an electrical engineer who did not know how to wire a light switch!

i'm finishing an EE degree in december and i couldn't tell you how to wire a light switch. they don't teach us that kind of shit, we learn a lot of theory and math but very little practical application. it really sucks now that i'm shopping for a job, the only practical knowledge i have is what i learned during my internship. students who didn't intern are pretty much up the creek. then again, unlv is not exactly renowned for its engineering programs.

[Marbus]

I went to a fantastic public school system in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I was encouraged to learn in every school I attended there. In High School we had more AP classes than anyone else in the State and many, many students were National Merit etc... My wife and I have stayed in a mid-size town because when we moved here it was one of the best school system in the state aside from FS, where I grew up.

However, as I said in another thread, my son is currently going to Catholic school and all of my kids probably will, at least through elementary because of this very issue. It's truly ironic how the Catholic Church has, throughout the ages, not encourgaed it's masses to think for themselves, yet that is what they are doing - at least in this school. They definitely don't let you think at the Fundie School and the Public School has changed so much since "No Child Left Behind" that many people are opting for private... they teach for the test to keep funding, not for the kids to actually learn anything.

Not to turn this political but it's just amazing to me how much Bush has screwed up the public school system in regards to actually learning AND it's also amazing to me how much the pussy ultra left-wing freaks have screwed up the social and athletic portions. Until we get someone strong enough to tell both freako sides to STFU, I feel our public schools are doomed.

Marb