When Play Grounds Go Bad

What ever happened to simple and innocent school recess? As a child we could not wait to dart out of Mr. Robbins class as he was not only boring us to tears, he was boring us to tears. Recess, was a child’s right of passage to hang out on the play ground to play a game of ‘cream the carrier,’ jump of the swings to see who can go farther and higher, and release all energy so that you are not put on Riddlin for having a case of the wiggles in class. (I’ve just dated myself).

Now we have new rules that playgrounds must abide by.

Sexist insults are to be banned from the playground.

Teachers are warned today that words such as “slag” and “slut” lead to boys feeling superior to girls and make domestic violence seem more acceptable

The NUT lists unacceptable insults including “lezzie”, “pro” and “your mum’s a whore”.

My how times have changed. Trust me, back in the day if someone had made the comment, “your mum’s a whore”, it would have been settled and taken care of on the playground out of view of adult supervision. Or is some cases one quick and swift swing. What’s funny from what I can remember there were some girls that I grew up with that I think the boys feared more than some of the other boys. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but Jill & Jenny would have knocked any boy into next week if any disparaging comment was ever made toward them or their mother. That was when we boys were not trying to defend their honor However, both of these girls later went on to star on the USA Junior Olympic Ski Team so they usually took care of business themselves.

Yes, times seemed to have changed. Next thing they’re going to tell us the Dodge ball is banned.