
Sure; it’s all fun and games till someone pokes an eye out, or gets sick from eating undercooked meat. Seriously, these things are raw! (Image from seriouseats dot com)
Sometime back, I wrote a post poking fun at the government’s campaign to ban bullying. Both of my loyal readers at the time must have tolerated my political incorrectness, because a full week after posting it, I didn’t receive one scrap of hate mail. The fact that my loyal readers then, as now, tend to be website owners from the Sudan with limited mastery of the English language may or may not have been a factor.
In that post, I predicted correctly that the war on bullying would fade and be replaced by a new scandalous threat. I also predicted, incorrectly this time, that this new menace would be the government’s discovery of roach spray as a secret ingredient in a variety of hair products.
It appears that government officials aren’t the only ones who are eager to identify new threats to the safety of our youngsters. Some of the sharpest school administrators have stepped up to lend a hand defining the most evil enemies of the well-being of our children. The scourges they’ve targeted aren’t nearly as benign as poisoned hair gel. No my friends, these perils are far more insidious.
“Balls!” said the Queen
A school in Long Island has decided to ban balls during recess. The administration cited student safety as their main concern. The students in recess at Weber Middle School will be safe from footballs, baseballs, lacrosse balls and presumably matzo balls. In addition, that life-threatening staple of school yards known as “tag” has also been banned. The disappointed students were told they were still allowed to play kick the can, though they would be using a Nerf brand can and wouldn’t actually be allowed to kick it. When recess ends, each student will get the same sized trophy and a certificate of participation.
8th grader Billy Snednicki described his emotions about the ban. “The new rules say I’m not allowed to bring a lacrosse ball, but it don’t say nothin’ about bringin’ my stick. So I’m bringin’ it. It aint much fun without a ball to throw, but it’s the principle, ya know?”
The school’s principal, Irvin Sukk, could not be reached for comment as he was presumably busy drafting an addendum to the rules, adding lacrosse sticks, field hockey sticks, pointed sticks, glue sticks and pick-up-sticks to the list of banned items. In an ironic twist, the administrators who were responsible for the ban, appear to have no shortage of balls themselves.
Can we shake on that?
Another school, this one in Kentucky, has identified a different scary risk to their students. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner issued a directive which forbids high school athletes from sharing post-game handshakes with their opponents. This would be understandable if one’s opponents were known to have MRSA or insisted on kissing one another on the cheek like those sketchy Europeans. Instead, the ban is due to several incidents of fights breaking out during post game handshakes. Apparently the traditional penalty of getting kicked off the team for fighting during handshakes was not working. The upside is that now students are no longer required to say “Nice game” when they don’t really mean it.
We’re not BFF’s, we’re just F’s
For those among you who believe that restricting school children from basic life experiences is an American phenomenon, I bring you the case of the several schools in England. These schools have outlawed children’s rights to choose a best friend. Educational psychologists felt that the move was needed to spare the children the pain of dealing with the torn emotions when those sweet young relationships turn sour. There was also an effort made to forbid the parents of school children from divorcing to avoid the same trauma in greater depth, but the parents weren’t typically enrolled in the schools, and as such, the rule would not apply to them.
I supply all the answers, for a handsome fee
Considering the discovery of these frightening elements in so many of our schools, it’s difficult to argue that the face of education and childhood itself must change. Ever vigilant to stay ahead of the curve, I’ve developed my very own curriculum, which I hope to sell to school districts around the world for a tidy sum. I call it Virtual Environment Analytical Learning, or VEAL for short. In this groundbreaking model, students will be kept in small padded cubicles, and exposed to non-offensive, culturally neutral educational materials in small, easy to digest parcels. They’ll then be left unchallenged to ponder what they’ve seen.

“Student 505, please open your browser to today’s math lesson, unless you don’t like math – we don’t want to put undue stress on you. If you don’t like math, you can just watch SpongeBob.” (Image from vosineias dot com)
There will be no tests or quizzes, to avoid the social stigma of their getting anything but an “A”. In the safety of their individual pods, they’ll be safe from all sorts of dangers, including racquet balls, ping pong balls and being “it”. Further. we will limit all social interaction to quick sidelong glances at classmates as they are herded guided into their pens cubicles.
My plan to sell administrators on the notion of educating our children as VEAL is fool-proof. First, I’ll need to build a sales force. All I need is a group of bright young people who will work hard and not take “no” for an answer. They’ll need to be persistent and resilient. They’ll need to…oh wait…ah shit…I think I see a problem with my business model.
[…] loyal readers know, I’m a field reporter for The Nudge Wink Report. This Saturday’s post is all mine, baby. I nailed it! It’s such a great post that I’m pissed that I […]
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It’s Saturday, and I’m up and enraged before it’s even 9am. Now this is what I call an EXCELLENT way to start the day!
I don’t believe you should stop your research. I think if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find a school administrator somewhere is working with fertility doctors to come up with a way for mothers to give birth to virtual reality children. If a ball, or a stick, or an original thought is brought to school by one of these children, teachers can hit the “off” button.
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Kids today, huh?!
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I am a loss for sufficiently glowing words to describe your wit and whimsy!
I know this is in humor and I appreciate it for that. It does seem ludicrous. However, on a serious note, I’ve been out of the classroom for over a decade, but even then, the violence that is pervasive in our society was manifesting itself on the playground. Sticks and stones could break your bones and balls could sometimes hurt you…very badly.
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It’s a thin line between protection and insulation to the point of sensory deprivation. In any case, its a strange world.
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Masterful job of highlighting this recent absurdity with humor, because a sense of humor is exactly what’s needed to avoid upchucking over the ridiculousness of these bans. No balls? Really? We tell kids to get more exercise and shut off their video games, but we take away the tools to let them do so. Senseless.
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Let them partake in jazzercise.
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There you go. I bet the boys would jump right on that.
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You take away their balls, and they’re just badly dressed girls.
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Haha, yes, though given my current attire, some may be better dressed than me. 😉
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I remember playing “Kick the Can.” Except it was with a can of Spam, which had squared off corners. It couldn’t roll as far or as fast as a round can and was thus deemed more safe for kids. Until one kid filled it with rocks and left it in the yard…where it sat until a Dad couldn’t resist and kicked it. Those were the days.
— Wink (innocent until proven guilty)
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Reblogged this on bl0gdramedy and commented:
A kid without a ball is like me without ice cream. Cranky and will get up to no good. Read all about it over at The Nudge Wink Report — Saturday morning silly written by Dave of 1 Point Perspective. He TOTALLY nailed this post!
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Reblogged this on bl0gdramedy and commented:
A kid without a ball is like me without ice cream. Cranky and will get up to no good. Read all about it over at The Nudge Wink Report — Saturday morning silly written by Dave of 1 Point Perspective. He TOTALLY nailed this post!
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Yep, Duh’Merica wins again.
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Britain took the silver medal by banning BFF’s
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Fun post! But the story about the school in New York was very poorly reported by CNN earlier this week. The way I understand it is that the school’s administration limited playground activities while space was restricted during a construction project at the school. There simply wasn’t room for children to safely play these games on school grounds and this was a short-term solution. CNN’s poorly-phrased headline and badly-written article fueled the fires of controversy and took the twisted story viral.
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CNN mislead me?! Taking lessons from Foxnews?
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This is crazy! First dodgeball and now all balls????? Pretty soon kids will just sit outside on the playground and text.
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They already do; that was the problem – all those balls were endangering the texters and Nintendo players
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They could put an eye out…
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Ha! You have to protect those with their eyes firmly glued on their phones – they’re probably not watching for danger.
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Can’t they just wear headgear while they text?
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We’re the crew from Good Intentions Construction Contractors, Inc. We’re here to pave your driveway one brick at a time.
“Both” of your loyal readers, eh? You beat me as I have only one. That participant ribbon is well earned.
Is Idiocracy the most prophetic movie of all time or what? We’re literally doing everything we possibly can to make it come true. To elucidate let me just add this: Brawndo!
Great topic and perfectly executed. Well done.
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You’re too kind…really.
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It’s a tough time to be a kid. Certainly, there is no fun involved and as for building character…forget about it! Tupperware should do a roaring business as kids become more and more like jello sitting in front of the TV/computer. You can put them in a tupperware container and store them in one of your cubicles overnight.
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Actually, its an incredibly easy time to be a kid, but in a few short years, its gonna be a really tough time to be an adult!
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This is such a witty and hilarious take on the insanity behind these rules created to dumb us down one generation at a time. Unbelievable!
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Let’s hope that in the future, wit and hilarity are not as rare as matzo balls at recess.
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Don’t know whether to laugh or cry, Dave…so I’ll laugh. Brilliant, as always.
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Aw shucks Peg-O! You know it’s just me being all curmugdeonly and stuff.
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I am actually grateful to the owner of this site who has shared this great piece of writing at at
this time.
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Like I’m glad you do, even.
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