{"id":182418,"date":"2015-09-26T18:27:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/09\/26\/because-we-know-that-eliminating-human-physical-contact-improves-the-development-of-children\/"},"modified":"2015-09-26T18:27:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T23:27:00","slug":"because-we-know-that-eliminating-human-physical-contact-improves-the-development-of-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/09\/26\/because-we-know-that-eliminating-human-physical-contact-improves-the-development-of-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Because We Know that Eliminating Human Physical Contact Improves the Development of Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Out on Mercer Island, Washington, the school district has banned the game of tag as a sweeping ban of all forms of physical contact between students<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Webster\u2019s defines \u201ctag\u201d as \u201ca game in which the player who is it chases others and tries to touch one of them who then becomes it.\u201d Wikipedia explains that the game, also known in Britain as \u201cit, tip you\u2019re it\u201d is \u201ca playground game that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to \u2018tag\u2019 or touch them, usually with their hands.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>So is the game of \u201ctag\u201d still \u201ctag\u201d if tagging is banned?<\/span>

<\/span>That is the question for the Mercer County School District in Washington state and for some unhappy parents.<\/span>

<\/span>It all started with a social media report earlier this week when a group of parents, responding to what they had heard was a ban on the game of tag in elementary schools, formed a group called \u201cSupport \u2018tag\u2019 at Recess.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>It was their impression that there was indeed a ban and the word soon spread to the news media.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>A spokesman for the school district seemed to reinforce the impression with a statement:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mercer Island School District and school teams have recently revisited expectations for student behavior to address student safety. This means while at play, especially during recess and unstructured time, students are expected to keep their hands to themselves. The rationale behind this is to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all students.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cSchool staffs are working with students in the classroom to ensure that there are many alternative games available at recess and during unsupervised play, so that our kids can still have fun, be with their friends, move their bodies and give their brains a break.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cGood grief, our kids need some unstructured playtime,\u201d mom Kelsey Joyce told the TV station. \u201cIt\u2019s a game that practically everyone has played \u2013 but if you go to public school on Mercer Island, keep your hands to yourself.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cI totally survived tag,\u201d said Joyce. \u201cI even survived red rover, believe it or not.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More significantly, the school board ignored the fact that physical touching is an necessity, particularly for developing children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reason that children play touching games is because children need touching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out on Mercer Island, Washington, the school district has banned the game of tag as a sweeping ban of all forms of physical contact between students: Webster\u2019s defines \u201ctag\u201d as \u201ca game in which the player who is it chases others and tries to touch one of them who then becomes it.\u201d Wikipedia explains that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[968,1065,987,1104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-entertainment","category-fail","category-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}