Futher dumbification of the next generation.

PORTLAND, Ore - Most adults can remember the carefree days of childhood, climbing trees and jumping from swings, often on schoolyard playgrounds.

Climbing, swinging and sliding was once a rite of passage during recess, a time for adventure, to see how high, how far and how fast we could go as a kid.

Today, kids find themselves grounded, victims of a culture of fear and injury litigation.

A growing number of school districts are going so far as to ban the game of tag and are even posting signs that read "no running on the playground."

Is there real danger on the modern playground?

Safety advocates say yes and want to eliminate it.

Their first target: swing sets.

They've convinced Portland Public Schools to remove all swings from elementary schools playgrounds.

But even a playground inspector finds the removal of swing sets a little over the top.

He says that swinging creates motion and is an important part of childhood development.

But the safety advocates don't stop there.

Portland Public Schools have also rejected merry go rounds, tube slides, track rides, arch climbers, and teeter totters.

At Grant Park in Northeast Portland, some parents embrace a new plastic enclosed play area, noting that the construction of the play equipment does not have sharp corners, and soft surfaces are used in many areas.

As for the disappearing swings at school playgrounds, some parents say the kids won't miss them, while others decry the move as overprotective.

And it's not just Portland that is seeing playground equipment disappear.

Our lawsuit happy culture has schools and parks installing low-to-the-ground play structures that some have derided as "dumbed down."

Now, it seems, anything with moving parts is a lawsuit liability, and in some places, that even means moving legs.

In Broward County, Florida, there's a new rule on the playground: no running.

A parent there commented that "no running on the playground, that's kind of like no playing on the playground" and another called for a review of what exactly was "safe" or unsafe.

So what can kids still play?

Not dodge ball or tether ball, that's still too dangerous. And in Beaverton, at Barnes Elementary School, rules there forbid the game of tag.

In Salem, an elementary education director says "we don't encourage the game of tag because it encourages fights."

But at Catlin Gabel, a private school, there's an entirely different philosophy at work on the playground. One where monkey bars, slides and other playground favorites are used daily by a roiling mass of youngsters, some who come away with skinned knees or other minor boo-boos.

Kids there are taking chances, even jumping from swings, and it's all encouraged.

An adult watching the students play says it's really the nature of childhood to take small risks and find out what they can do and what they can't do.

One child psychologist points to the rising trend of childhood obesity in defense of letting kids play like kids.

National statistics indicate 34 percent of kids are overweight, with obesity projected to be nearly 50 percent in the year 2010.

But safety advocates point to different numbers, saying playground accidents cause 200,000 injuries nationwide each year, and 17 deaths.

It's a debate that is sure to continue, as some say kids can never be safe enough, and others feel that if kids can't jump from the swing set and maybe skin a knee, they are not learning valuable life lessons.

I had this friend in 1st grade, we were playing tag, and i came up behind him and surprised the crap outta him, he turned to run but sprained his ankle, he was sent home and missed the next day of school. It was the ONLY time he was absent from school his entire life. No joke. hahahha.

wow, im glad kaden is going to a private school, i didnt know oregon was doing that, but it doesnt really suprise me...

sounds about right. let's get rid of everything that encourages kids to be kids and just skip them ahead right into working at a mcdonald's drivethru.

i remember when i was in like 4th grade and iw as forced to play dodge ball (the only time iw as forced to) i was the last person in the game and i got hit in the face with the ball and i caught it somehow and won the game.

few years later suddenly dodge ball is no longer allowed.

stupid.
only good thing about school as a kid was the playground. me and my friends still make our way over to the swingsets & swing sometimes & think back on our younger years. its great

holy shit man where i'm from we have a damn game called pocking ..where you fucking through rocks at each other i am so glad i don't plan on having kids shit like this just makes me want to knock some damn sense into these stupid ass people like this. then when their kids grow up and go crazy they wonder why. children are meant to get skinned knees and take little risks

now they'll just try jumping off your roof more.

hahaa my stoner friends have this game they call pong... they whip an empty pop bottle at your head... (and btw... youre WILLING at this point... god knows why...) and if it hits your head just right it makes this huge "PONGGG" noise... WHAT THE FUCK...
ive probably talked about this before on the boards, but... yeah. i stll dont understand it no matter how many times i watch it. and the pong HURTS too... sad.

this is what happends when people give in to public opinion or sues the hell out of someone.
but come on if you're not going to let the kidslearn the dangers of life, how the hell do you expect him to keep his fingers clear of the lawnmover?

One guy I knew, working on a Tech degree at my college had never used a tablesaw before he went to college. Someone a long time ago, at his old school had cut themselves on a tablesaw, so they removed it forever more. Imagine a shop class without a tablesaw, might as well not have the class.

what are they suposed to use to cut stuff in that shop class if they needed the table saw? scissors? what the hell.
argh i hate people.

haha the one thing they will NEVER mess with at my school is the shop. its the only class most of the guys in my school are any good at.

man I remmeber after being locked up with those idiot teachers all freakin day there was nothing better than running around on the playground like a bunch of hairy monkeys, which comes to my next question what the fuck do these people have against dodgeball?:confused: Dodgeballs the freakin right of passge in America yo! :thumb:

getting in a fight used to be a right of passage too

HAHAHA hairy monkeys.. that made me laugh heh... plus its a perfect description of all the maniac kids on the playground haha!!

my shop class was the highlight of my highschool days. we used to throw shit into the table saw while it was on so that it would fling it across the room.

my shop teacher was also this crazy guy from alaska that lived in a van, and he told us how to make use of hallucinegenic wild plants. at my school they had this dumb policy fo dividing up the grading content, so something like 20% of your grade was based on daily activities that were done in the class room and then you received a pass or a fail for the day and it counted towards your total score. Well one day he didn't assign us anything so everyone just sat their and halfway through the class he said "how come you guys aren't doing any work? i'm failing you all for the day."

One time a kid pissed him off so he hit him with a 2 x 4 and the kid told the prinicpal and the teacher said "don't listen to him. he's failing the class, you can't believe what he says." another student that pissed him off and never did anything he had build a dog house and he told him if he just stayed inside of it during class for the whole year than he'd pass him.

he eventually got fired because he killed a deer and brought it in and used the woodshop tools and table to gut and clean it.

What is it with shop teachers being crazy.

The old shop teacher at my school his name was Doc, why I do not know but yeah . . . the man was crazy

He called EVERY boy queer. Had the worst Hick accent known to man and let the kids do whatever they wanted. But the man was good with wood.
He also always ranted on about drawing things in "peeeeeeeeerspective" and if you didnt draw it in perspective "thats an f"
kids would fart in class "thats an f"

it waas the oddest class i'd ever had. haha
since I was quiet he left me alone. thank god.

the man seriously gave/gives me nightmares.

He retired last year though. Everyone misses him.


now our shop teacher is a coach. most teachers at my school are coaches.

then again you ever check out the stupid shit these kids do on like youtube? you'd think they're making up for lost time

i can maybe understand this being done in schoolyard playgrounds. we are a litagation happy society. parents will take action if anything bad happens to their kids while under someone else's care. but i think that turning "recess" into something akin to "go outside and breathe the air" is too much. banning some games makes sense, like tag, dodgeball or "kill the guy with the ball." they are dangerous and kids do get hurt. but its usually minor injuries. its fun and a part of being a kid/growing up.

most of the injuries that can occur on a playground are no different from those that can happen during gym class. are they to cancel that class next?

and what about playgrounds outside of a school setting, in the neighborhoods? will they tear down all the swing sets and other things? if you take away a designated 'play area' from kids, they will only go and create their own. "hey timmy, let's go play hide and seek in that supermarket parking lot!"