Kids need to be active and with recent changes to certain schools in Canada, I'm not entirely sure if they can be.
First an elementary school in Toronto bans all types of balls that aren't foam, followed by a school in B.C. introducing a no-touch policy for kindergartens during recess.
These new rules both seem completely ridiculous to me. I understand they have been put in place to try and protect children, but really? For example a soccer ball kicked at someone can hurt, no one is denying that, but is it really dangerous enough to ban balls?
In addition the school in B.C. that banned touching at recess for kindergarten students. Now I honestly don't remember all that much about kindergarten activities at recess, but I do know we played tag and all different kinds of tag at that. This was expected because we were elementary students looking to play a game. What else are you going to play? The swings are fun for a bit, the play structures are good for a little while, but the game of tag was what most kids looked forward to in my school.
We would rush out at recess and the last one to climb onto the play structure was it. We all learned this early and it was so much fun.
In elementary school if we weren't playing tag then we would be laying out jackets to create a makeshift soccer net.
To be honest I'm not entirely sure what we would have done every recess or lunch hour if we weren't allowed to play tag or a game of soccer. Sitting on a swing for 15 minutes loses its novelty.
Injuries happen and that's what it is to be a kid. To scrape your knee, get up, and learn how to pick yourself back up even if you got hurt. It's not really a wonder people are saying children today are sissies, they're being made into that to be honest through these, in my opinion, ridiculous rules.
Children obviously need rules, but in my opinion these rules go a little too far. These rules seem to prevent them from being what they are, kids.
You hear many people now-a-days complain of youth playing video games, but if they're not allowed to play with balls or touch each other for a game of tag it would make sense that they would occupy themselves with something else. The problem is that something else has them sitting on their butts doing nothing.
Youth need to be involved and active, but I think it would be hard to do when active, fun games can't be played. Yes they make nerf footballs and soccer balls, but again, what makes kids today so vulnerable that they can't play?
Now I do not have kids, but what happened to "shake it off" or "walk it off" which are both things I was told when I was a youth. Don't get me wrong, my parents would check to make sure I wasn't hurt badly, but after cleaning up a scraped knee and getting a bandage I'd be sent on my way.
Essentially, "Why do we fall...? So, we can pick ourselves back up." Whether this is in the literal sense of falling and needing to learn how to pick yourself up without moping or the figurative sense of a poor grade and needing to work harder in school, it is a lesson that needs to be learnt by youth.
Through the "no child left behind policy," which I've written on before and do not agree with, as it doesn't prepare youth for entering high school where they can fail, the struggles of university, or entering the workforce. As I've said, I understand what they were trying to do; but, I personally don't believe it has worked. That policy now coupled with these new no touching at recess and no sports with balls that aren't foam or nerf are creating youth who will grow up to be privileged, unable to deal with challenges, and who are not self reliant.
