Try to remember those days in September when schools were full of learning children.
It may be a stretch, but it was once like that in our education system. Today, however, if a kid learns to read by the time he's in sixth grade it's more by accident than anything else.-á All over the country, touchy-feely administrators are allowing kids to believe that 2 plus 2 equals 5 because they don't want to "emotionally harm" the child through criticism.-á
So now, America ranks near the bottom of the world in most educational categories, and what's the solution? Teach them and fail those that don't learn? No, we're worried more about teaching children about alternative lifestyles and how mommy and daddy's SUV is going to destroy the world.
And now there's this:-á A Santa Monica , California elementary school has banned the game of tag (as in "tag, you're it") because it "creates self-esteem issues among weaker and slower students."-á
According to Franklin Elem. School Principal Pat Samarge, "[The] children weren't feeling good about it."
(I'll give you a second to recover your breath.)-á
Okay, now, think back to your playground days. There was the school bully and his cronies, the group playing kickball or tag and the girls by the jungle gym deciding who was going to marry whom.-á
And it was common, almost inevitable, for at least one kid to skin a knee or get a bruise crashing into a classmate.-á
Equally common would be a non-athletic student getting stuck being "it" for several minutes, and either pull out of the game when he was out of breath or, for more obese children, threaten to sit on someone if they didn't let him tag them.
And you know something, each and every one of those kids turned out fine (gasp).-á
Playground experiences teach children about the world and ways to stand up for yourself in it. If kids would simply be allowed to learn these things on a playground though minor bodily injury and losing a kickball match, then maybe the stresses of the real world wouldn't cause them to go on a shooting rampage in their high school some random April day.
The world is a dangerous place. Sept. 11th should have taught us that.
But we need to teach that to our children as well. There WILL be another Hitler, there WILL be another great war, and when those monsters come again, to whom are we going to look to protect this land?-á Those boys skinning their knees on the playground, grown up into men.
If we allow those kids to learn some lessons of life as youths on the playground, then we can be confident those kids will show the grit and determination that has made America what it is. However, if we "protect" children from the world, then we'll be looking at more "Vietnams" and a severely weaker country as a result.
While childhood is a time of, well, being a kid, to shelter a child from skinned knees or emotional stress is to prevent him from learning about the world he will become a part of all too quickly.
If you would like to access the articles or other information regarding this topic, please go to my website at http://www.bsu.edu/web/gpheck/opinions.htm .//2+;-¦?>GordonHeck6.24.06DNEditorial//2SORT+â-ä2AUDT
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