Play ball

In Port Washington, N.Y., is a school administration as ball-less as the school they now run.

Weber Middle School in Port Washington recently banned some items from recess.

No, they weren’t reasonable items to ban like gaming devices or cell phones. They weren’t things that are excessively inappropriate, like sexual rap music or episodes of Jersey Shore. So, what did they ban?

Balls.

Weber Middle School has officially banned “footballs, baseballs, soccer balls, lacrosse balls and other hardballs” they claim could injure a child. Students also can’t play tag or do cartwheels unless they are being supervised.

Though the ban is temporary in the case of Weber Middle School due to construction zoning, it’s become alarmingly common for schools to ban the use of “hardballs” at recess.

Examples are Earl Beatty Public School in Toronto banning hardballs, the Sacramento City Unified School District in California banning hardballs and rough play, and even a school district in New Hampshire banning dodgeball.

The Editorial Board thinks this type of helicopter parenting is taking the point out of being a kid. Back in the days of the 1990s, who didn’t get hurt playing at recess? A black eye or scratch was considered a badge of honor in those days.

Now, it’s not that kids are becoming pacified by their own will and choice. Rather, it’s become a nanny state of epic proportions as parents, politicians and preachers rush to protect the innocent, darling children from any harm.

Now, the Editorial Board isn’t advocating for recess to resemble the Hunger Games. Nor are we saying kids should aim to get hurt. However, there is something to be said about kids who never experience getting smacked in the chest with a dodgeball or getting tripped in a game of tag.

Quite simply, they won’t be prepared for the bigger injuries of life.
In a world where children are even blocked from the emotional distress of losing, no kid knows what it is like to not win. Every kid nowadays is given a participation ribbon and told there are no winners and losers.

Life is full of winners and losers. And if you don’t learn at a young age what it feels to not get what you want, high school and college are going to knock you on your ass.
Overprotection of children causes a variety of problems later in life. Many scientists and doctors, for example, hypothesize that the reason autoimmune diseases exist in the United States but not in Africa is because we’re too clean.

That’s right. The fact that Little Timmy isn’t allowed to go outside, get scraped up playing football, make mud pies and generally just be the nasty little kid he’s supposed to be leads to adverse health effects.

If your body doesn’t experience the routine bits of disease and trauma it’s designed to experience, it freaks out and attacks everything, causing diseases such as lupus. And this general theory can be applied to everything from emotional distress to physical pain.

Children need to know they can have fun without downloading an app, and that’s under attack. The Editorial Board believes children should be allowed to play freely at recess. Children should enjoy childhood while they can.

It’ll help them later in life, just as it helped us.

­— opinion@idsnews.com
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