I remember when I was in elementary school and the memories of playing in the school yard with friends and fellow class mates. Games we often played was basketball, soccer, screen Ball, and some odd school yard game called Red Ass. What do all these games have in common? Well… You would be an idiot if you didn’t guess balls where all used in these games. All activities are played in school yards around the world and thats grate. It’s fast paced games that keep kids active and hopefully keeps them out of trouble.
But as it turns out, there is one school that forbids it’s students to play with balls. Sadly, that school is here in Toronto! Why would such a school ban such a common item seen, and played with in school yards everyday you might ask? Because apparently, the school’s principle says there dangerous! (I wish I could make up stories like these.)
Earl Beatty Public School’s Principle, Alicia Fernandez, felt that balls are dangerous after a mother was hit by a ball, and suffered a concussion. After the accident, she felt that safety trumps common sense and notified her students and issued a ban on all hard balls two weeks ago. That includes footballs, soccer balls, basketballs, softballs, and even tennis balls. Kids however are aloud to being sponge balls but lets face it, they are kind of pointless.
I seriously can not comprehend the serious amount of ridiculousness that flows from this whole ordeal. The idea that balls used to play common school yard games becomes such a safety issue just makes me wonder if common sense is a skill thats dyeing off from people with authority these days such as this school principle. The idea that someone getting hurt with a ball is this awful thing that must be prevented to protect the children is just complete nonsense.
One of the facts of childhood and going up is that you will get hurt! You will fall down and scrape your elbow and knees from time to time! You will fall off something and cut your self! You may even get a few broken bones or a few knocked teeth along the way as well! Kids will get hurt! Thats just a fact of playing.
I myself can attest to that! I remember many times playing in the school yard, only to get hurt with cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Usually that means getting sent to the office to get the wounds cleaned up and patched with a bandaid or something. One day I was playing soccer and I was the goal keeper. I was to jump and try to make a dramatic save by catching the ball, only to land badly on my arm and broke it. My parents where called to the school and they then drove me to the hospital to get a cast. Heaven forbid if this Principle was in charge of the school I was in at the time! Because of my accident, not only would she ban the use of ball’s in the school, she would do something dramatic like put rubber or foam all over the school yard’s grounds.
But seriously! Is that the next thing? Is some school going to go to extreme lengths to protect children by padding the hell out of the school grounds? Are they going to pad the walls of the school yard with foam? Already there is a long list of things kids are not allowed to bring to school. Kids aren’t allowed to bring sandwiches to school for lunch because of other kids having food allergies. Kids can’t bring toys to school, can’t throw snowballs in the winter, some schools have already banned tag or other chasing games, bloody hell??? What the hell can kids play these days in school yards? It will eventually come to a point when they just stand around and do nothing but use there mobile phones to SMS each other. Oh wait… Schools already banned that to.
It’s extremely ironic that we have health experts begging parents to get there kids away from the X-box or from the Facebook and be active by running around with friends, or play some sports. Schools even teach children the importance of a healthy lifestyle by being active. But when schools impose such bans, what the hell els do you expect the kids to do to occupy that time? Completely ridiculous!
Kids will get hurt! Sometimes minor, sometimes serious. It’s just a fact of life It’s the same for adults as well. Shit happens! Let kids be kids by letting them play. Give them a ball and let the have fun. If a kid gets hurt, well thats why we have those who know how to apply first aid. If a kid really gets hurt, well thats why we have hospitals.
