Another ridiculous case of coddling children

A few blogs ago, I ranted about a school in Victoria and their preposterous rule that prevents students from touching each other. Whether it's a hand shake, high five, friendly hug or inadvertently brushing against a fellow student, physical contact of any kind between students was prohibited.
Well, just when I thought school rules couldn't get any siller, a newspaper article today proved me wrong. A school in Sydney (I'll be nice and keep their identity a secret) has banned its students from doing cartwheels and handstands on the playground unless - get this - they are under direct supervision from a trained gymnastics teacher.
According to the school's website, they consulted with the Education Department and agreed that the ban would prevent playground injuries. Predictably, parents were up in arms over the ban, claiming it is extreme and stops children from having fun during recess and lunchtimes. A parent from the school in focus began a petition demanding for the rule to be overturned and said that she accumulated more than 250 signatures.

These parents have every right to be outraged. Seriously, this is another case of people coddling children too much. At the risk of sounding like an old man, I remember back in my day kids did cartwheels and handstands when handball, the hopscotch, the jump rope, sports and other outside activities became boring (or if they wanted to show off) and not once did I hear reports of a kid seriously hurting themselves. Sure, there may have been a few instances when a kid lost their balance and fell over but the worse that they got out of it was a scrape or a bruise and they usually fell to the ground laughing or blushing out of sheer humiliation while their friends ripped them to shreds for their futile attempt at trying out for the circus. I certainly didn't hear teachers calling for these activities to be banned. They may have told children attempting them to be careful but that's about it.
 
But hey, perhaps something has happened in other schools and the possibility of suffering a bad injury is always there but you know, it doesn't take a trained gymnastics teacher to know when a kid is biting off more than they can chew in terms of performing stunts to impress their friends. Teachers patrol the playground during recess and lunchtime for a reason - to make sure that kids are behaving themselves and are not doing anything dangerous. Again, back in my day, if a teacher saw children fighting or attempting a stunt that could be unsafe, they would march over to the kids and put them in their place - or in terms of the latter, warn them to be careful and then watch over them, ready to intervene if things got out of hand. We certainly didn't need someone like Lauren Mitchell to watch over us.

An interesting point in the article is the inclusion of NSW Primary Principals Association president Jim Cooper's statement that if children had an accident at their school, they would hold the school responsible. Well, isn't that something!? Perhaps schools are putting this rule up not just for the safety of the kids, but primarily to cover their backsides in the event that something bad were to happen? Yeah, I know what you all are going to say - 'Well DUH, Bernd!!!! It's pretty obvious!!!' Yeah yeah, spare me your gloating I reached the same conclusion.  

School principals, please do not insult your students' intelligence with silly rules like this. Kids do push the boundaries at times but for the most part, and unless they were raised by irresponsible parents who couldn't be bothered teaching them the difference between right and wrong, they are well aware of what they can and cannot do. Sure, kids do get into accidents now and then and walk away with bruises, scuffs, cuts and scrapes for their troubles, but that's just a part of being a kid. It's all part of the learning experience that we all go through growing up.

Let kids be kids, people. No need to coddle them too much.