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Should the game of tag be banned on school grounds?
Results so far:
| No | 89% | 1178 votes | Total: 1317 votes | |
| Yes | 11% | 139 votes |
No
by Lawrence George
Created on: November 29, 2009 Last Updated: September 14, 2010
Tag is an excellent, harmless game. It makes absolutely no sense to ban it on school grounds.
It requires no money, no special clothing and there are no complex rules. Almost everyone can join in - it must be the most inclusive of playground games. For that reason alone, its ability to join children together in play, it should be encouraged. Why on earth would a school want to ban something so inclusive?
Tag is also a very healthy game to play. Children are often accused of being couch potatoes or spending too long on computer games. Tag gives children access to exercise and fresh air, for considerably less expense than swimming or joining a gym or a judo class. Again, in an age of obesity, why would a school want to ban exercise like this?
Tag also enables children to learn the principles of victory and defeat in a safe way. You get tagged, you are it, you chase people. You will do it with more or less success, and because it is such a fast-moving game (in all senses of the phrase), your time will soon come again. Playing tag allows children to develop their responses to success and failure in a highly adaptive way. It is a perfect educational experience.
The only way tag might be banned is if it contravened health and safety. But tag is a very good way for children to learn basic safety - sometimes you will fall over and graze yourself, but the injuries that result from tag are slight, though maybe painful at the time. Children learn to balance the risks of being hurt with the possibility of having lots of fun - a key skill for any human to learn! They will, for example, learn to play away from walls or to clear objects from the playground, as well as looking out for other children. Through this process they develop negotiation skills, learn when to apologise, and learn to take care of themselves and others.
We are inclined to say that any injury to a child is unnecessary, but this is not true: a little pain teaches a child about risk and danger, and it does allow them to develop a toughness which can serve them well in later life. We are not talking about broken bones here. Any physical game carries a risk of this, more serious type of injury - and if you were concerned about it, you would want to ban all sports.
Some people dislike physical games on the basis of gender equality - there is a movement within education that seeks to pretend that boys don't need physical activity, that they can sit still and be quiet for hours at a time, because after all, girls do. But that is nonsense. Boys have masses of physical energy and tag is an excellent and socially useful way of exploring it. Besides, many girls love tag as well. A game of tag is one of the main ways boys and girls learn how to play together in school.
Some people - usually the same people who think boys racing around is bad - will argue that tag encourages division or competitiveness, as if this were a bad thing. To test yourself against others is not always satisfying or pleasing but it is essential in the growth of a person. You do not live in a bubble, and you should never be encouraged to think you do. You need to learn about yourself realistically, and you need to do it safely. Tag does this perfectly.
To ban tag on school grounds would be simply to promote ideology over children's education and friendships. It would be short-sighted and stupid. Any serious principal or Headteacher would not even consider it.
Learn more about this author, Lawrence George.
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Yes
by Tim Peters
Created on: September 28, 2009
The problem with the game of tag is not the children who play it. Tag has been played more or less the same way for generations, and it doesn't look like that's about to change. Instead, the problem with tag is the parents of children who play it. Because of their insistence that any consequences of tag from inappropriate touching to personal injury demand compensation from someone, banning the game of tag on school grounds is a necessary safeguard against litigation and harassment.
Tag isn't as innocent a game as you would think. Consider the primary rule of tag: whoever is It must tag someone else, who then becomes It. There are a number of problems with this rule. The biggest problem is the psychology behind tag. The fastest children generally do best at tag for obvious reasons. Conversely, the children who end up It the longest are the slowest ones. All things being equal, every child would in theory have a chance to be It. But more often than not, there's at least one child who always ends up It longer than others, probably the reason why one principal from California cited the game as potentially damaging to self-esteem.
Even if you don't buy into the psychological impact of tag, the physical impact is the primary reason why schools ban the game. A tag can be anything from a light touch to a shove. In the case of the California school, children have even been run into who weren't even playing the game at the time. In some cases, such as in one Arizona school, children have gone much further, seriously injuring other children during a game. Even in the best cases, adults supervising children during games of tag can make mistakes that incite disgruntled parents to seek forms of recourse that could easily be avoided by simply banning the game of tag.
Of course, even if tag is banned, it won't be detrimental to a child physically or even socially. Children are by their very nature creative and inventive, especially when challenged by an adult. If an adult tells them, "You can't play tag here," two things can happen. Most likely, they'll try to find a way to play tag in a way that they won't be asked to stop. Or they could find any number of other games to play instead. Banning tag won't stop children from having fun. If anything, it will only make them more determined to find new games to play.
It's unfortunate that a game as timeless as tag should have to be banned on school grounds because of parents. Not children, who have been playing the same way - aggression and all - for the countless years the game has existed. Instead, adults unable to properly raise their children or accept responsibility for their own mistakes have left school officials with few alternatives. If tag isn't banned on school grounds, schools will be more vulnerable to lawsuits and legislation that would further hamstring an educational system already suffering from financial problems. Perhaps then children won't take the game of tag to the extremes that their parents did.
Learn more about this author, Tim Peters.
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