You’ve heard the Alice Cooper lyrics “no more pencils, no more books ... .”
For kindergarten kids at Coghlan Fundamental Elementary School, tucked away in a remote rural area of Aldergrove, it’s no more tag, no holding hands, or you’ll get teacher’s dirty looks.
A letter went out to Coghlan kindergarten students’ parents on Friday, one of those types that often sit in backpack over a weekend or are put aside to be read later and somehow never are. Julie Chen found the letter, explaining a new no-touch policy for kindergarten students, on Monday morning as she was packing lunch for her five-year-old daughter.
It reads, in part: “We have unfortunately had to ban all forms of hands-on play for the immediate future ... we will have a zero-tolerance policy.”
“I read the letter, it said there had been quite a few injuries, I said, ‘OK,’ and kept reading,” Chen said. “When I saw no hands-on would be allowed, I just got mad, I got so upset.
“What is happening in our society when our kids aren’t even allowed to be kids any more? “Kids get hurt all the time. What are we going to do next, put them in a bubble to go to school?”
“I’m not going to tell my daughter she can’t push her friends on the swing,” Chen said. “Do we expect our kids to be robots? How can they possibly do this? “They’re five-year-olds — you can’t stop them from running around and having physical contact.”
School employee Arthur Bourke drove up in his van and was happy to defend the policy. “I don’t know how anyone would be against this,” Bourke said. “They’re trying to make it safe for everybody.
Specifically banned are imaginary Star Wars light-sabre duels, tag, holding hands — and simply touching someone. The letter asked parents to tell their children to keep their hands to themselves and to come up with imaginary games that aren’t “fighting” games.
but it reminded me of a great tune....
__________________ "...and there goes Finger up the middle on Luongo!" - Jim Hughson, Av's vs. 'Nucks
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I would heavily question the kindergarten teachers ability at what they do. Extreme and very broad measures like this are to me a strong hint of their inability to control the children or teach them anything.
Also, banning normal human contact, especially from kids, is such a sick idea that I have very little desire in understanding the kind of people who would come up with it.
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Sweet Jesus Christ, what the #### is going on here. For Christ's sake, let kids be kids. Let them play tag, wrestle.....#### are you saying kids can no longer play the time honoured game of Sleeping Bag?
So I wonder how long till an out of touch teacher bans all bathroom use at school.
"Effective immediately we have banned all bathroom use during school hours, including lunch & recess breaks. Students may use the washrooms up to 5 minutes before first bell and 10 minutes after last bell. The washrooms will be locked all other times."
So I think that all kids should be in uniform, don't want individual clothes that could offend. I think that at recess cause they can't talk, they might as well march up and down the parade square.
Oh and some of these books, to kill a mockingbird, one angry man, of mice and men,moby dick, (its got dick in the name_ and anything by Shakespeare are too full of controversy, sex and violence. We need those out of our school. We need books that our kids can enjoy that aren't controversial and hit the omg factor like Twilight, the whole series.
For lunch, nothing that has sharp edges should be served, like square pizzas. French Fries and red meat. Let design our meals to be safe, I recommend sugar free pudding, oatmeal and a nice mid temperature glass of water with a straw because glass is dangerous.
Oh and some of these books, to kill a mockingbird, one angry man, of mice and men,moby dick, (its got dick in the name_ and anything by Shakespeare are too full of controversy, sex and violence. We need those out of our school. We need books that our kids can enjoy that aren't controversial and hit the omg factor like Twilight, the whole series.
.
Those heavy books can be used in the application of corporal punishment.
Most of my childhood school based injuries were accomplished without the aid of touching by another student.
Showing off for a girl and falling head first off of the jungle gym to the concrete pad below (explains my stupidity at times). Running really fast and hitting a patch of ice of gravel and ripping my leg up. Slamming my head into a locker on a bet.
Lighting a burner on fire and putting my hand into the flame to show how tough I was. Showing off to a girl by ripping the heart out of a dead frog in biology and eating it (sick for two weeks, plus she never talked to me again, what a snob)
We need to ban jungle gyms, gravel, winter, and any chemistry experiments based on heat and biology.
Getting hurt is part of play. That's just the way it is, and a scraped knee, or a busted leg is not the end of the world or an oh my god moment.
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So I think that all kids should be in uniform, don't want individual clothes that could offend. I think that at recess cause they can't talk, they might as well march up and down the parade square.
Oh and some of these books, to kill a mockingbird, one angry man, of mice and men,moby dick, (its got dick in the name_ and anything by Shakespeare are too full of controversy, sex and violence. We need those out of our school. We need books that our kids can enjoy that aren't controversial and hit the omg factor like Twilight, the whole series.
For lunch, nothing that has sharp edges should be served, like square pizzas. French Fries and red meat. Let design our meals to be safe, I recommend sugar free pudding, oatmeal and a nice mid temperature glass of water with a straw because glass is dangerous.
Oh and no touching anything.
Sheesh man, you go to all that trouble to keep them safe, and then you are going to give the little delinquent-to-be's straws to choke on!
This reminds me of the schools in the States with their weird, OTT rules like this. No thanks. I hope the parents at that school are protesting the hell out of this and demanding change.
I think this exercise will fail because it can only increase the cases of justified beat downs associated with cases of 'I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!'
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I think this exercise will fail because it can only increase the cases of justified beat downs associated with cases of 'I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!'
We all know that kids with the ability to use the force are going to become the dominant bully class in school with screams like "Quit hitting yourself" as they use the force to make kids self pummel themselves.
Aldergrove school tells kindergarten kids, "keep your hands to yourself!"
