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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.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:51PM (1 child)
We used to play a variety of "rough" games on my elementary school playground. "Kill the Guy with the Ball" (chase the guy with the ball until someone tackled him, then everyone piled on until someone wrestled the ball away or the ball carrier heaved the ball up in the air for a free for all). "Keep Away", essentially "Kill the Guy with the Ball" only with teams. The object was to get the ball to the school door when recess ended. Things got pretty brutal at times. We got banned from playing football, not because anyone got hurt (parents shrugged that stuff off in those days, Dad was probably proud), but because one kid had his shirt ripped and told his parents it was playing football at school.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:27AM
Yeah, Gary Wise ripped my shirt really badly that one time, but I was the one who got in trouble, not him.
Mothers just don't understand, I mean we weren't fighting or anything, it just happens sometimes, OK?
My boys went to a boys only school, and that sort of physical play was encouraged. Mothers who complained to the school were (politely) told to mind their own business.
My younger boy finished school last year, so it's not a long time ago either.