Tag Creates Inequality – My father’s previous post reminded me of an ancient (June 20th) Fox News article that didn’t seem to get much attention on the Blogosphere: a Santa Monica elementary school banned the game of tag because, as Franklin Elementary School Principal Pat Samarge says, “Little kids were coming in and saying ‘I don’t like it.’ [The] children weren’t feeling good about it.”
Really. Well, if the kids don’t like it, they don’t have to play it. But that’s no reason to ban the game for the kids who do like it. Some kids realize that you can lose a game and still be a good person. Some kids realize that, especially in a game of tag, if you lose you can try again, and do better the next time. Some adults even think that these are good lessons to learn.
Another gem from the same principal: “We had some children who were not playing ‘it’ appropriately. How do you differentiate between those that are playing correctly and those that aren’t?” Anyone have any idea what that means? As far as I know, tag is a very fluid game; there is no “correct” way. I’m also sure that kids would not appreciate adults coming in and telling them who’s playing right and who is wrong. If someone is not playing correctly, you go and play with someone else. Kids have grasped this long ago. Why can’t some adults seem to?
If schools ban tag because it hurts self-esteem, what will they ban next? Soccer? School dances? Tests? If children don’t learn when they’re young that everyone is not equal in everything, when will they learn it? If showing that everyone is equal requires banning everything, you’d think egalitarians would check their premises. Children do not need to be protected from inequality, because if they are protected from inequality, they are protected from everything. A child’s self-esteem is sturdier than that.
Update – Here’s a really old article from NRO about banning dodgeball.
