Sunday, October 15, 2006

TAG! No One's IT.

Last week, Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, Mass., became one of four schools nationwide to ban the playground game of "tag".

Last week, Willet Elementary School also became one of four schools nationwide to showcase their collective stupidity to the world.

Let's see, what possible reason could this school, or any others of the Anti Tag Collective have for the banning of this rite of childhood? Well, here's a list:

1. It's physically dangerous
2. It's psychologically dangerous.

That's a pretty short list, but obviously that's enough to not only ban "tag" but "dodge ball" as well.

You know, kids are pretty resilient. They fall down, they get scraped knees, they get back up and play some more. You can't learn to get up unless you fall first, you know.

But kids will trip over their own shoelaces while sitting still, they don't need to run around chasing each out to fall down, so the "physically dangerous" excuse is bull.

Heck, you wanna play what's dangerous in the schoolyard? How about football?  Football is physically dangerous.

Tag is running. Football is running and hitting.

Running=good. Hitting=ouch.

And the stigma of being "It" is psychologically detrimental? Maybe it's just me, but I enjoyed being "It." You hunted down your classmates, and tagged them, hard! That's fun. But seriously, you want to talk about what is psychologically dangerous? How about a quarterback picking on a nerd everyday? Then that nerd comes back with a gun and shoots up the school.

THAT is psychologically AND physically dangerous wouldn't you say?

You want to ban dangerous school activities?

Ban FOOTBALL, not tag.

Then we can all learn to speak French and salute a white flag.