Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the masculinity-is-not-toxic dept.

A school in Québec has created a zone where kids can be turbulent and throw each other to the ground:

Some Quebec elementary schools experiment with letting kids play rough

[...] Bernier believes that, rather than encouraging violence, the project actually prevents it by showing kids how to expend their energy in an appropriate way.

“We’re not seeing (violence), because we ban violence,” she said. “The kids who are there to hit are immediately taken out,” she said.

Lenore Skenazy, a New York-based author and speaker who founded the website Free Range Kids, said humans and almost every animal species, have been play-fighting since the dawn of time.

“To act like that is automatically aggressive and evil and cruel is to misinterpret a basic stage of childhood,” she said in a phone interview.

For safety reasons they forbid kicks, punches and they teach kids how to fall.

I feel that this measure has the possibility to be of immense help to the young boys that are struggling in schools. I don't know about the situation in the states but here in Québec boys are less successful than girls at getting a high school diploma, and it only gets worse from there.

Article in French.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:29AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:29AM (#806858)

    I was in grade school not too long ago and this sounds like what would happen every lunch break. Usually it involved chasing a ball of some kind (eg, smear the queer). Has that game been banned or something?

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @12:45PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @12:45PM (#806884)

    (eg, smear the queer). Has that game been banned or something?

    Yes, but I believe that "bait the straight" and "dis the cis" are actively encouraged. :-)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43AM (#807453)

      I think any name would work just as well. I don't think anyone knew or cared what it meant. Like playing tag you needed to get to ghoul, or was it goal, or glue? Didn't matter.

  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:44AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:44AM (#807380) Homepage

    Oh fuck yeah, smear-the-queer rocked. We had a game called bombardo that was part dodgeball, part basketball and played on a full basketball court, and all violence. Plenty of skinned knees and bloody noses and even if we got injured we jumped back in.

    Let me write the rules so I have a reference. The two most alpha dudes on the field were always chosen as the captains of the 2 teams. Players line up and are hand-chosen by the captains in an alternating fashion depending on the mood and availability of the crowd, each team could be as small as 5 people or as large as 10-15. Each team has their own side of the court, and if they cross the center line, they are "out." When a player is "out," they still play the game but have to hang right outside the court -- on the other team's side -- to allow them to take potshots at the opposing team up close and personal. This made the game super fucking interesting and with the added bonus that "out" players can still be useful. A player is usually "out" as a result of being hit by the ball when thrown by a member of the opposing team -- though if you manage to catch and hold the ball, you are not out and are able to quickly retaliate by a shot at the opposing team, usually after running close to the center line to gain momentum. The ball is a typical red rubber dodgeball (which stung like a motherfucker).

    Ahhh, those were the days.