- Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School, has told students they may no longer play tag during recess after determining that the game of chasing, dodging and yelling "You're it!" had gotten out of hand. Hooker explained to parents in a letter this month that tag had become a game "of intense aggression."
The principal said that her goal is to keep students safe and that she hopes to restore tag (as well as touch football, also now on hold) after teachers and administrators review recess policies.
The decision has touched off a debate among parents. Some call the restriction an example of overzealous rulemaking that fails to address root problems and undermines children's development; others say it's best to err on the side of caution.
"We are regulating the fun out of normal childhood activity," said Jan van Tol, father of a Kent Gardens sixth-grader. "In our effort to be so overprotective, we are not letting children be children."
Whenever my daughter and the neighborhood kids play "tag", it never becomes overly agressive; it becomes overly bureaucratic. For every one minute of playing the game, there is five minutes spent debating the finer points of time-in, time-out, home base locations, and all the other rules they try to invent to their own advantage as they go along. So, it's really a great game, because it prepares them to understand both politics and NFL football.
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