It looks as though it's becoming universal; tag and other games are being banned on playgrounds around the world. The headmistress at Bracebridge Heath Primary School, near London, England has parents in a dither after banning tag at recess.
Parents are noting that children have been playing these games for centuries, making the ban barmy (daft). Children are not allowed to participate in kiss chase either and can only touch each other if one has fallen over and needs help up. Most parents would probably be alright with that particular variation of tag being left out of the play day, but these parents understand the social value of playground games, such as tag, so they aren't happy with the ban.
Headmistress Susan Tuck has mandated that the 400 children attending this school must keep their distance from each other after a small group of children had been repeat offenders on the playground. She then hopes to slowly reintroduce appropriate and supervised physical contact between the students. Her reasoning is that she can't tell the boys they can't play certain games and then allow the girls to link arms when they play. It sounds like Red Rover would be out too. She notes a calmer playground and says that children are playing games such as trying to jump on each other's shadow instead of pushing each other around, and the number of bumped heads has gone down.
This ban comes after several playground games including conkers and football have been stopped for safety reasons. Conkers is a game where children swing horse chestnuts on a sting to try to break that of another player. It will be interesting to see what is banned next around the globe.
Photos by Kort Duce
