If you looked at me in school, you wouldn't think Gym was something I would have liked. I was nerdy and, uh, big boned. But I don't regret it at all.

I could run the mile (alost complete it, actually) in 22 and 1/2 minutes, doing my best. (One important factor in that time is that I wasn't allowed to use my inhaler until I finished.) I couldn't shoot better than 1 in 10 even on the lower (7 foot?) hoops.

But dodgeball was my turf. I did very little running and almost always won. Strategy, accuracy, team play.

Soccer was the same. Most everyone was an idiot, following the ball like the tail of a comet bouncing off the gym walls. My friends and I would take positions and dedicated jobs, work as a team, quickly coordinate strategies, etc. Almost always won, ran very little.

I AM ABOVE YOU PEOPLE! I AM YOUR SUPERIOR!

My God...I remember playing full-tackle football on concrete in 6th grade (which was only 8 years ago! In a CATHOLIC SCHOOL!) This, is rediculous...dodgeball teaches you the game of life: to dodge obstacles in your way, to take control when you can, and to prey on the weaker, slower individuals.

/Is afraid for America's Youth

My days of playing "Tackle the Cheerleader" are sadly over...

I weep for this generation...

Anyone notice that this school district is the same one sued in the Pledge of Allegiance lawsuit?

Guy In Guy Incognito

At least as of 2002 there was one of these at a city park at a town I visited in Ohio. Granville, I think.

So, you libs want a trial lawyer in the White House? From the looks of this, I'd say that they've farked enough stuff up.

OK, I have to add a "I remember when..." to this thread. When I was a kid in elementary school every boy had a pocket knife with him at all times. It was just expected. No one stabbed anyone and no one even cut their finger. And yes, I really am talking about elementary school.

Remember, the loss of America's backbone happened on our watch. It is up to us to put it back. If your kid comes home with a black eye, don't call the cops and threaten the school with a lawsuit. When you hear of someone threatening to yank another vertebra out of our national backbone stand up to them and stop them.

This isn't just for kids on the playground either. This is for all of us, all the time. The next time you see something that's not entirely fair and you start to think "there ought to be a law!", remember that is how it all starts.

gorfie, Lava Monster was the best game on the playground.

Honestly, the worst injuries I remember from elementary school were not the result of contact sports. Sure, I fell in the mud playing touch football, but the time I needed stitches was because I screwed up doing the Deadman's Drop off the bars. And one girl broke a leg falling off the bars, but nobody sued and it didn't stop us from trying crazy, stupid stuff on those bars.

I bet the bars will be outlawed soon.

And I just love that kids are no longer allowed to have conflicts. Yelling at each other is not a crime. Unless it comes to blows, leave the kids alone.

I'm going to build a time machine just so I can raise kids in a better generation.

Oh yeah, forgot to add...

The idea of suing wasn't even an issue. I fell off the monkey rings, broke my leg, and my parents didn't even once consider suing. I was trying to be a little bad-ass, and I got hurt. No one's fault but mine.

Kushtaka, scdog

That playground was in Ohio--Cleveland area, from what I could gather from the containing page. Dunno if it was that specifically that town. Maybe Ohio still allows those to stand, but everywhere else I've been, they were demolished and replaced by simple metal ones.

Wait... COMMUNISTS! Our elementary schools are cranking out namby-pamby communists. Jeez, my kids are going to be home schooled, and I'll allow them to beat the shiat out each other all they want. Life isn't going to hold their hand as someone disregards their feelings in the board room.

Ha, elementary school was some good times. Even in grade 8, we had a huge snowball fight with some grade 4s, but we only got talked to and we told them that they started it (which was true) and got a lesson on how we were supposed to be mature. But, that's about it. Nowadays, I suppose throwing a snowball would get you a 3 day suspension. We also had these great wrestling matches in the snow, trying WWF moves on each other. Another time, we played "touch" football, and of course someone ended up breaking their leg after a tackle, but we all pretended that he tripped. Playing dodgeball against younger grades was great too! Man, elementary school was fun!!!!

But anyways, things I've noticed about changing.

Before my principal in elementary school came in (the year before I came), the last principals had always allowed snowball fighting, as long as it was in a designated area.

In high school, they were leaning more and more toward banning floor hockey during lunch period, becasue of the minor injuries people were getting (balls in the eye). No more bringing your own sticks, use soft balls, etc etc etc.... ugh... I say students can play if they want, it's their own responsiblity if they injure someone or get hurt themselves!!!

The principals I've had were only worried about thier own ass getting sued or fired, and thought nothing of letting kids be kids....

Outsourced_to_India

something to remember is that now that your older you know not to do that stuff. why? cause you did it before when you were young and bendable and didn't get hurt too badly.

Ever watch a kitten fall off a table or miss a jump? They're supposed to at that age- it's called learning from experience.
Better to learn when your 10 and have rubber bones than when your 27 and end up in therapy for a year.

When I was younger, I burned, climbed, smashed, hit, dug, built and clobbered everything. You know what happened? I learned not to do that or something worse could happen. It's normal and natural.

I remember racing bikes around the bank in the small town I lived in (1 gas station, store, bakery, bank, factory, post office, pizza place, and two churches). One day my friend Errol got a little too close to a cement curb and launched himself in the air. I don't know how he quite managed it, but when I saw him, he flew about 20 to 30 feet from his bike, spinning like a helocopter blade. It was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. To this day I still remember it.
The Lesson learned? watch where your going when barreling around corners on a bike.

SharkUW

I really don't care. This stuff will just cycle through like hair dos and clothing styles.

I wish you were right but if there is a cycle to this it is awfully long because it has been headed steadily downwards for 50 years.

Personally, I think this sort of thing has to be stopped and reversed at every available opportunity. Vigilence is essential. Red flags that should spur you to action are phrases like "for the children" or "unfair" or "even playingfield". In addition to the movies I mentioned earlier, also encourage your kids to read anything by Robert A. Heinlein.

Finally, always vote to take power away from the government, even if you think the government perhaps should have that power. Power corrupts.

I always tell my kids that they have it lucky today,
with 100 cable channels, computers and any kind of
organized sport league they want to play.
But now I realize that I was the lucky one.
No smear-the-queer? No Johnny-on-the-pony?
Snowball fights? Tree Climbing? Tackle football?

I was suprised in the mid 80's when I asked a kid for
directions and he ran into his house like he was on fire.
I asked someone about it later and they told me that it was because the kids in that area had been given so many "don't
talk to strangers" speeches.

bds4348,

Life isn't going to hold their hand as someone disregards their feelings in the board room.

If your children find themselves working in a board room, you have failed as a parent.

I'd rather see my kids do something slightly more ethical, such as telemarketing or selling ice to Eskimos.

Remeber when playgrounds were just made of concrete and steel? Then they were all wood. Now all the new ones are plastic. Styrofoam next?

Guy In Guy Incognito - Is that the Imagination Station in Grand Haven, MI?

John Edwards and his Trial Lawyer Crew are making all things like this possible.

Coffee that is TOO hot. Lawsuit
Stick your finger in a fan. Lawsuit
Slip in a grocery store. Lawsuit
Girl sues for right to play high school football, gets hurt during game-sues school district.

Liberals and Trials Lawyers are gonna eventually f*ck everything up so bad you won't be able to take a crap with out the government and a trial lawyer being in the bathroom with you.

Ah...In the world where we live now, kids can't play because of lawsuits. How did our parents turn into normal people with all that pushing and shoving on the playground? Parents now complain about how their kids are getting fat, etc, by playing video games, yet they can't play during recess? It's sick, and it's moronic.

rsm,

Liberals and Trials Lawyers are gonna eventually f*ck everything up so bad you won't be able to take a crap with out the government and a trial lawyer being in the bathroom with you.

Excellent!!!

When I'm taking a piss, the government can hold my wang and the lawyer can cup my balls.

Luxury city, here I come :)

Damn baby boomers!

When I was in middle school, we played this game--possibly invented by our gym teacher--called Capture The Island. Essentially, the teacher would set up all sorts of gymnastic and wrestling mats, and then he'd divide our gym class (about sixty strong, give or take) into two teams. We were given about a gross of nerf footballs. If you were pegged by a football, you were out. If you, for whatever reason, left the mats and touched the gym floor, you were out. The goal was to wipe the other team out--whichever team was completely vanquished first lost. I don't want to oversell this game, but...

IT WAS PROBABLY THE GREATEST COMPETITIVE ACTIVITY EVER INVENTED.

Granted, this teacher is long since retired. I and a good friend had him for behind the wheel (Driver's ed), which these playground fascists will probably ban next. If you tried to play this game now, you'd probably have your teaching license revoked by a secret tribunal of very concerned activists who, naturally, are just 'concerned for the children.'

Idiocy at its finest.

/When I was a kid, we had sharp metal playground equipment, pavement, rusty chain swings, and pointy mulch. AND WE LIKED IT!

I wonder, when OUR playsets were getting installed, was the older generation saying "Steel poles and slides and monkey bars and gravel? What garbage, these kids will never learn from experiance and have fun, I remeber when they put claymores in the sandbox just to keep you on your toes...."

This is really sad. Based on the opinions pretty much every farker here has shown, I hope the trend starts swinging back the other way real soon now.

As a backup, I hope my future children are smart enough to think up creative new idiotic ways to hurt themselves.

Rubber playgrounds... what the hell...

I live up in Quebec (the province, not the city) and I'm incredibly glad I haven't seen this happening over here. yet. I remember play rugby in HS gym class. One day, the ground was wet and muddy, I clearly remember running into another student at top speed, in a face to face collision. My face and shirt were soaked with blood. As u can imagine, I didn't participate in the rest of the game, but did the school, school board, or teacher get sued? no.

Down with modern society

This is truly one of the saddest things to happen to the Western world.

A couple of years ago, I worked at a primary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. The school had just built this brand-new but lame-ass "Adventure Playground" which was basically as dangerous and exciting as a mattress.

I recall thinking about how lame it was when someone told me that the school board had just voted to introduce new playground standards that required the tearing down of aforementioned lame-ass playground so as to build a newer and even lamer version.

/knows that we're digging our own graves

In my school we played(actually friends school) 'Sandman ball" Similar to dodgeball, but only 1 ball, you got hit and you were outr, palyed in a small enclosded room, last one left wins. They were also scheduelded to go to an amuesment park. My friend and someone else were the last ones left, the other guy had the ball, threw, my friend leaped out of danger... and into a wall. Bleeding all over the place, he put pressure on it, got a huge bandaid, and was on the rollercoaster an hour later with blood still leaking from his head

ottawaboy

...the minor injuries people were getting (balls in the eye)...

I always hated when the bullies put their balls in my eye.

Every time I drive by my childhood elementary school, I get pissed. Gone are the really cool steel and wood driven into concrete...only plastic remains.

And this isn't a lib v. con argument. I blame none other than the parents, right and left leaning, who think scraped knees are a death sentence.

Concerned Mom: Hey it's the 21st century! You should have an open mind and blah blah blah....

This is dumb and I'm sure not all the kids abide by these rules.

Guy In Guy Incognito

Those things are all over the place in Ohio. The biggest one I've seen was in Boardman Park. Absolutley massive wooden thing made mostly out of recycled materials, donations, and volunteer work a few years ago. It's like 2 and a half of the thing you pictured hooked together.

Sidi: Thank you for interjecting some non-partisan thought. It's not just liberals - though there are some who think no conflict is good. IT's conservitives who opine these losses, then do nothing. THe school boards are full of no-tax conservitives who are afraid to fight something due to the costs. THey're equally to blame.

I remember back in grade school we played a game called Red-Ass.

Someone would bring a tennis ball and a group of us would bounce it off a wall. If you fumbled the ball you had to run like hell to touch the wall before your fellow peers whipped the ball as hard as they could at you. Man those were good times.

/17 years old

I played the same game, but a in a different way. If you fumbled the ball you had to touch the wall before somebody hit the wall with the ball you just fumbled. If you didn't get there in time you had to stand against the wall as if you were about to get frisked. Each kid took their turn throwing the ball at your butt. We called it Butts Up.

Of course somebody always angled their throw against the wall and nailed you in the nuts!

Giant metal slides.
Huge metal Monkey Bars
Wood chips with splinters
Gutted, rusted out train to play on.
I'm 22.

Our kids are going to grow up to be pussies.

Overboard! Way overboard. Wow.

Another grad of '02 here.
When I was in fifth grade, we played a game at recess called WallBall, where all the kids lined up against a brick wall and had a rubber ball chucked at them by THE TEACHER (a large middle-aged man, also the high-school varsity baseball coach). Kids were always getting beaned in the head hard and laughed at, some walked off crying, but we kept coming back! EVERYONE wanted to play!

All this fear of getting hurt is bullshiat. The only two major recess incidents I can remember were a kid falling down and breaking a tooth IN THE CORRIDOR on the way back to class, and a girl getting her boot stuck in the deep mud of the kickball field and needing two teachers to pull her foot out, leaving the boot there.

A moment of silence for The Tire Teepee, an old wood-and-tire behemoth of playground equipment, also the location where, in first grade, my friend Marcia was forcibly french-kissed before a crowd of onlookers by a boy named Nicky. It met the dreaded fate of being torn down and replaced by some plastic monstrosity.

One word, people, and a very, very powerful word that is the most likely reason for al lthis bullshiat:

LAWSUIT

Well live in such a farking letigiuos society, that school districts are "Disneyfieng" everything by taking all of the sharp edges and narrow points off of everything out of fear of being sued. Children are becoming so goddamned sheltered, it's no wonder that they are becoming fat, lazy farks that only watch MtV, and are afraid to think for themselves anymore.

Look, we learn by doing. I learned NOT ot touch the hot, cool-looking glowy htings o nthe stove becasue, well, IT farkING HURT! I wasn't gonna do that again. In any case, Idigress. Am I the only one here that sees this?

I remember playing co-ed dodgeball in 6th grade P.E. class, I played tackle football starting in 5th grade. Playground equipment was made of huge metal chains and very splintered wood with lots of moving parts that you could easily fall off of. Big Thunderdome-esque cages that you could sit on top of and fall off of that were close to 8 feet high at 1st grade, Large merry-go-rounds that went extremely fast when your a 1st grader and you have 4th graders pushing you on it.

I actually fell off that merry-go-round once. Some older kids had it going awfully fast for my little 1st grader muscles to hold onto very well. I didn't want to let go because I thought I'd fly off at horribly fast speeds, but my legs ended up flying off as I still held on. They got caught underneath the merry-go-round and large metal strips of somekind that were part of the base of the thing ended up tearing apart one of my legs. My pants were destroyed, blood everywhere, and I remember crying not because it hurt, but because I thought my parents were going to kill me for ruining my pants.
That was at noon recess. I stayed the whole rest of the day with torn bloody pants afraid to go home.

Now those were fun times.

this is pathetic. it really is.
i remember playing capture the flag in elementry, got the crap kicked out of me to when 20 kids come running at me cause i had the flag.
then there was that time when boomerangs where all the rage, school banned them after a year because we started throwing them at each other. split too many lips open.
when i left elementry school, they where just starting to ban dodge ball, but they brough it back with foam balls.
when kids start getting hurt playing games, when are we gonna ban all sports? is football, soccer, baseball, and basketball all now considerd "safe" sports? i remember absolutly drilling a couple of kids when we played football in gym. i never got any letter from there parents biatching at me for injuring there child.
then there was gym baseball. i just about broke some girls arm at first base when i was up to bat. i ended up hitting a grounder towards first that popped up and hit her real hard in the arm, she could barely use her arm for about a week. again, no letter from her parents biatching at me for injuring her.... although there was alot of biatching comeing from her directly, go figure.
i just want to know one thing, THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? i graduated from highschool in '04 and it was starting to get bad then, but now? the hell has happend to the good ol days...

While everyone is recalling their old games they used to play, it makes me remember back to my childhood. I was sort of a loner at school, so most of the fun occurred when you got back home. I remember me and my cousin would always play "submarine" in his pool. See, we figured out that if you would fill a garbage bag with air and hold it shut, then squeeze it tight, this bubble would pop out on it. Then you put the bag around yourself and jump in the pool, and the garbage bag fills with air. By holding the ends of the bag underwater, all of the air will stay inside of the bag. Now you could even take those damn things all the way down underwater and still have it filled with air. It was so Awesome...

I also remember one time when we found a dead bird and was throwing it out in the street trying to get cars to run over it... this one dude saw us and hopped out and gave us a good cussing at.

fromunda... DUCK DUCK GOOSE PWNS

You mean they outlawed the recess game, Smack the Sack? Wow, I remember vividly all the jocks running around playing that, smacking each other in the nuts. Then when they'd get tired of smacking each other they'd find another victim/contestant. Even at a tender age I knew that was a little odd. Oh that and Shower Grabass. That was popular amongst the jocks too.

well everyone here has summed up my feelings, so I wont even start. I am pretty mad, but then I listened to George Carlin and his "fark the children" rant, and it made me feel extremely better. I grew up in a small town (grad 2002) and when i was in school, I lost a SHIATLOAD of blood. we played so many cool games I can't even list all them off...we had this game called "rumble" and it was basically a huge fight. yes people got hurt, and if you got hurt and cried to a teacher you got it worse at the next recess. I feel really bad for all you city people and how shiatty your kids are gonna be.

I'm 20. I have seen first hand the Pussification of America.

When I was a kid we had hard metal and wooden playground equipment.

We had monkey bars, which we could climb across. Below these monkey bars... gravel and dirt.

We had a piece of equipment called the King's Crown. Roughly two stories tall and made of solid metal. You had to really stretch to get from one of the metal bars to another and climb higher, but kids still did it.

Then one day, a kid fell from the top of the king's crown, I was in 4th grade... the last of the recess years. The kid broke a bunch of ribs, both arms and legs, and was knocked out cold.

That thing was torn out of the playground that very same year. The next year the school spent a lot of money on new rubber playground equipment and they tore down the old Jungle Gym... a wood and metal behemoth.

They spent all that money and actually dramatically shortened the amount of time the kids had to play outside, roughly cutting it in half.

When I was in high school, school shootings became pretty popular, so we shifted to using mesh backpacks. We could still bring in large menila envelopes and of course brown paper lunch bags, each of which could conceal a pistol.

Besides, the first person who notices I have a gun in school is the first one getting shot.

Good God I'm tired, I could go on and on about stupid safety guidlines and Pussifying an entire generation, but I need sleep.

Oh, one other thing. My High School was evacuated because of an unmarked can of Spaghetti Ohs in the computer lab. They brought in the bomb squad for that one. No seriously.

Parents Guide to Child Rearing in the 21st Century:
-Do not allow your kid to have access to the arts. Art is for liberal pussies.
-Do not allow your kid to engage in any competitive activity. Competition is for war-hungry killers.
-When you kid becomes and hyper as a result of being a bored kid, drug the ever living crap out of him. Kids with energy and lack of focus are abnormal and should be fed cocaine-equivalent pharmeceuticals.
-Be sure to work 60+ hours per week. The most important thing is to make lots of money so you can drop your kid off at school in a Mercedes SUV.
-Raise your child in the suburbs where he/she can't get into any trouble. How can they when there is nothing around but golf courses and a Pier 1?
-If you have a girl, put lots of money aside for abortions.
-If you have a boy, purchase an expensive house in Florida. You'll need it to protect your financial assets when you're sued because your kid blew away his classmates. OOPS!