By Colleen Stone Monday, October 30, 2006

That, in two words, was how most people posting comments at MaineToday.com felt about the prospect of banning tag at school. You remember tag: Someone is "it," meaning they're in charge of chasing people until they succeed in touching someone, who then becomes "it." And so on. It's a sort of physical version of passing the buck. Sometimes, it can get a bit too physical and injuries can result, which is why some schools across the country - most recently some in Massachusetts - have banned it. Actually, the injuries are just part of the ban; fear of lawsuits is largely fueling the bans.

Tag is still alive and kicking (running?) in Maine, but the very idea of such child's play being kicked to the playground curb had a lot of users fuming. Many, like Carin, saw it as evidence of the sissification of kids. She had this to say about it:

"Should we just start sending our children in bubbles with warning notices of what may or may not hurt their feelings or their extremities? It's bad enough that we live in a world where we can no longer send our children outside to play with the neighborhood children until dinner time, let's not take away their chance to be young on the playground too."

If I were a business-minded person, I might start marketing KidBubblzª (hypoallergenic, kills 99 percent of germs and childhood angst!) because there probably is a market for it. For whatever reason, a lot of today's parents seem especially inclined to coddle, to hover and to darn near smother. Call if living viciously vicariously. And that behavior trickles down to schools. Rhonda says she's seen it firsthand during her 30 years of teaching:

"Every year, something else was prohibited at recess, along with the mantra 'look out for strangers!' Now, many kids walk around in social groups comparing outfits and the latest hand-held computer games. They complain if someone bumps into them or if they get dirty or if someone hurts their feelings - minor things that just a few years before kids were taught to shrug off and move on."

As some of you pointed out, shielding kids from all the world's dangers isn't doing them any favors. After all, one day (that is, if they can find some bolt-cutters to chop the apron strings), they'll be on their own. And unless they're living in an alternate universe free from danger and hurt, they're likely to encounter it. Nan was someone who thought we were setting kids up to fail: "Will they ever learn to handle the jerks that enter their lives? How about handling rejection (which they surely will encounter in their personal and professional lives)? Protecting them from all this, and now from things like skinned knees and whatnot, does not prepare them for life." So what's the answer? Do we push kids off of their bikes to teach them a lesson and make them stronger? Encourage games of full-tackle tag, complete with brass knuckles? No, but there is a reasonable middle ground: One that protects children from the big dangers while letting them fall - literally and figuratively - every once in a while.

After all, as Jim said, it's life's bumps and bruises that make us stronger:

"I was not a gifted athlete but I played, got beat up, scraped up, and a tossed over the handle bars a few dozen times. It is part of learning your limitations."

I, for example, learned the limitations of the skinny tires on 10-speed bikes when I tried to ride one over a sewer grate. Turns out those tires fit perfectly in between the metal bars and when they do, it's painful. I now have a mortal fear of sewer grates.

OK, bad example.

One educator, Gloria, didn't see the need for such painful lessons on the playground. She shared her own tag horror stories (teeth to the forehead for her, a broken collarbone for another child) and her own philosophy on playground play:

"As an educator, my rule is: You may run all you like - many great games (racing) have a great deal of exercise built in - just no tagging (which often escalates to pushing) or tackling. As a result, there is a lot of fun on our playground, and no tears."

It's natural to want to protect children. They're vulnerable, and, if you watch enough broadcast news ("What scary thing is lurking under your fridge this week? We'll tell you after the break!"), living in an incredibly scary world. But part of equipping them to navigate that world is, well, letting them navigate it - even if that means splitting a lip playing tag.

As Sarah indicated, the alternative isn't very pretty:

"I would much rather have a kid with a few scrapes on her knee than have an 8-year-old with carpal tunnel from too many video games."

Don't forget to swab those video game controllers. You wouldnÕt believe the bacteria that can hide out in those things!