Last week a little boy in America was suspended from school for allegedly pointing a pencil at other students and making gun noises. He is seven years old.
I remember my mum banning gun and sword toys in our house: my little brother would duly create a weapon out of sticks, or Lego pieces. He would rat-ta-tat-tat them at inanimate objects, at our dogs, his sister. Boys will be boys.
I’ve no doubt teachers are edgy in the USA after the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook late last year, but punishing a small child for playing seems over the top.
This sounds like an “only in America” story, but it’s not just gun noises that get children in trouble at school these days.
In Western Australia, a young girl received detention after hugging her friend goodbye — her school in Bunbury had banned all cuddling between children for fear of injury.
I spent part of my childhood in Cairns. Hot, sticky summers were the norm and we didn’t have to wear shoes to school. There was no air conditioning in our classrooms, and on especially oppressive days the teacher would allow us to sit in our undies — a simple attempt to keep us cool while learning.
Shoeless kids sitting in their knickers certainly wouldn’t pass muster today.
It was at that same primary school that we played bullrush (red rover/British bulldog) at lunch … rushing across the playground shrieking with equal parts fear and delight as we escaped being tagged.
That game has largely been banned too — deemed too dangerous for modern playgrounds.
It joins cartwheels and monkey bars in being excluded from the 2013 playground: playgrounds that also variously forbid soccer, handstands, and anything classified as “rough play”.
Things have changed. While I’m all for keeping our kids safe, isn’t part of growing up having scabby knees and a sense of danger?
This not a lament for the good old days, as some things has changed for the better. We now understand the strength of the Australian sun, and school kids are largely kept indoors or in the shade during the hottest parts of the day.
But with our childhood obesity levels soaring to 25 per cent, when is it ok just to let our kids play?
I don’t like guns in any form, pencils or otherwise. But for a seven-year-old to be suspended from school for play-acting with a writing implement? Please.
Children need to be allowed their innocence for a little longer, and the playground is just for that: play.
Your say: What’s changed since your days at school? Do your kids and grandkids play differently than you did?
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