Superhero games banned in US pre-school after children's imaginations become 'dangerously overacti

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
What the!

I am really scared to have my child grow up in today's school system. The more I see the more I want to homeschool him.

This is just beyond stupid and ridiculous. So now having an imagination is dangerous?! Wow..

When I was a kid we played ALL kinds of games. I remember playing Freddy Krueger for heaven's sake!! We played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers and so on. I was not scared nor did I become a violent and dangerous member of society as a result.

Having an imagination is a good thing!!

I'm speaking as a teacher in the public school system.....

....home school him.

This boils down to a liability issue. If children are injured at this preschool, then the preschool is liable for the injuries. If liability claims are filed against the preschool, then the preschool may have their insurance cancelled. No insurance means they have to shut down.

If these kids want to play dangerous games, then they need to do it at home with liability falling on the parents, where it belongs.

Originally posted by another_lurker
These schools are getting crazy. My son's elementary school decided to ban dodgeball from recess about 2 weeks ago. My son would play every day. They have been dodging my phone calls about it since he is quite unhappy about the situation.

They have told me that it's "being reviewed" as to whether it will be brought back next year; but weren't clear on what the reasons were for why they suspended the dodgeball play to begin with.

A_L

PC actions are getting a bit over the top here.

OMG no dodgeball?! What is a childhood without dodgeball! I LOVED and looked forward to dodgeball in school. I remember getting nailed pretty bad one time it broke my necklace that I loved and gave me a bruise on my face BUT it was so worth it! I had a blast!!

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Well, its not a ban, its a school telling parents to be active and tell your kids they can't fly and such.

I will say this..parents, do let your kids know wrestling is all fake (fun to watch though), but the moves done are done by specially trained people.

-nearly got his neck broken playing wrestling and doing actual wrestling moves when 7 years old...also nearly broke his back-

Seriously...that stuff is dangerous if you think its not fake and no big consequences come from it.

If I had kids, I would tell them that they CAN fly. I would tell them that they can do anything they can IMAGINE. I would tell them they are not to fly in public and nobody can know of their secret power.

Every child should be enroled in a style of martial arts. it teaches respect and
shows them they are not made of glass.

if children are play fighting (which every child does and has every right to do)
and a kid gets his nose popped by accident.... to bad. first of many to come.
next lesson.... dont be a tattle tail.

My 6 yr ild son is in MMA. Im very happy with the results and so is his teacher.

Dangerously overactive imaginations. Children. Does not compute. Error. Error. Critical system failure. Danger Will Robinson. Danger. Danger. Unable to process data. Resorting to auxiliary power source. Data overflow still excessive. Terminating thought process.

Peace.

Originally posted by Recouper
Actually..... I can imagine that there might actually be a legitimate problem which the pre-school is trying to deal with.

Kids sometimes play a bit rough, of course. But exposure to media can make a difference between a bit rough and a bit dangerous.

When a 3 year old boy I know saw Kungfu Panda, he was Kungfu-ing all over the place for about 3 to 4 weeks after. Also, I know a lot of pre-school age kids who get to watch things which really aren't appropriate for their age.

Look at it this way, if the kids are playing wrestling, where did they learn that from? Is watching wrestling appropriate for pre-school age children?

I happen to know that this is something which stands out as very obvious to teachers. It's highlighted. Kids bringing what they see on TV into their reality, internalizing it and living it. Because it's what kids do, it's how they learn and how they will continue to learn right into their mid 20's. It's called imitation and it's the most powerful and effective learning force there is.

Kids learn by imitating and they automatically imitate everything they see. If they're imitating realistic depictions of violence, that's going to be a problem.

your post reminded me of part of my time in the marine corps. hell imagination in a child can run into their teens, and early adulthood.

part of the duty i had required us to be on duty 48hrs. on 48hrs off, with shifts 4hrs. on 8hrs off. during those eight hours you had to eat, sleep, shower, or relax, but were always on standby.

there was a tv room and on saturday night they had a show called kung fu theater, show all those low budget chinese made kung fu movies. ya know the ones where they fly through the air and do superhuman moves.

now if you want to see something try going into a room of 15 to 20, 17 to 20 yr old something marines, after watching kung fu theater. you would see tiger style, dragon style swan style, trying to fly through the air, death grips, removeale of people heart, you name it.

some of the finest play i ever had.

reply to post by hounddoghowlie


I can imagine that!

I have five brothers, and they love low budget 70's/80's kung fu movies!

There was a lot of that in my house growing up, and the bruises to show for it

There was never any serious harm done tho.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

I don't understand this. In order to get a teaching license, you have to take developmental psychology. These teachers KNOW this is developmentally appropriate for young kids. So why are they trying to stop it?

I dont know where you are from but in many places you dont have to have a teaching license or take any courses to get the job. My wife worked as a substitute teacher and I can tell you she has never taken such a course nor was it required. many times subs become regular teachers if the school thinks they do a better job than the regular teacher.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix

Originally posted by smyleegrl

I don't understand this. In order to get a teaching license, you have to take developmental psychology. These teachers KNOW this is developmentally appropriate for young kids. So why are they trying to stop it?

I dont know where you are from but in many places you dont have to have a teaching license or take any courses to get the job. My wife worked as a substitute teacher and I can tell you she has never taken such a course nor was it required. many times subs become regular teachers if the school thinks they do a better job than the regular teacher.

I teach in NC.

Under the No Child Left Behind law, teachers must be highly qualified. This means they must have a master's degree or pass a licensure test. However, this is for k-12. I'm not sure about private daycare (I think this is a daycare)

I can certainly understand why they would ban imitating WWE-type wrestling. The one time I wrestled with my friends' kids, it ended very quickly with the first attempted karate chop across my throat. Not quite the same type of play wrestling I had done with my Dad when I was a little boy.

Dodgeball can be a terrible game as it can bring out some pretty sadistic traits in people and, if you aren't very athletic or coordinated, it can be hell.

My sister actually complained to the phys ed teacher about playing the game. My sister was pretty tough, having been in a couple of fights of the throwing punches kind, and she was very athletic, playing ice hockey, box lacrosse, and soccer. It just really bothered her how terrified some of the other girls were when they played dodgeball.

Great so now we are encouraged to have our children grow into unimaginative adults.

Adults that won't dream big, or think outside the box. Just people that go to work, come home, and watch tv until the day they die.

Obedient slaves more like it.

Can't have the peons dreaming of being free to do whatever they wish, or imagining a better world, gotta keep the status quo.

Originally posted by groingrinder

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Well, its not a ban, its a school telling parents to be active and tell your kids they can't fly and such.

I will say this..parents, do let your kids know wrestling is all fake (fun to watch though), but the moves done are done by specially trained people.

-nearly got his neck broken playing wrestling and doing actual wrestling moves when 7 years old...also nearly broke his back-

Seriously...that stuff is dangerous if you think its not fake and no big consequences come from it.

If I had kids, I would tell them that they CAN fly. I would tell them that they can do anything they can IMAGINE. I would tell them they are not to fly in public and nobody can know of their secret power.

-Darwin smiles-

Originally posted by Lady_Tuatha
I think that this is just ridiculous!

A ban on Super hero play at a pre-school.

A school flyer has emerged online warning of the dangers of superhero antics. ''The imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive causing injuries within our pre-k community,'' the flyer says. It then spells out a ban on imaginary play: ''Wrestling, Super Hero (sic) play, and Monster games will not be permitted here.''

Here is a picture of the flyer -

Banning pre-school kids from 'Super hero' play? What are they going to do? chastise a child for pretending to be superman or spiderman? How can they say they encourage creative thinking and imaginary play when they enforce this?

ridonkilous.

link.

edit on 23-5-2013 by Lady_Tuatha because: to add link.

It is banning "boy behavior" and one of the reasons why feminist and "not a feminist but" type individuals should not be allowed near children. It is in line with other feminist rhetoric of making masculine type behavior "bad".

The whole child rearing and educational systems have become too feminized to the point that they are institutions of outright bigotry.

i found this to be amusing in a way. the first thing i HAD to do was check the article and thread dates.

i first recall hearing about this type of action in both daycare/preschool and elementary schools OVER TWENTY YEARS AGO from my sister who worked at one at that time and was complaining about the idiotic rule they had brought out. of course at that time the main culprit they were imitating was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. not only did they ban "acting out" the show but any toy piece of clothing or anything else to do with the show, citing an increase of violence that could result in injury, and of course uncontrollable mayhem once they started playing TMNT.

within a couple years i had my own friends in both Ontario and Michigan go and work within daycare/preschool and elementary schools. and THEY had the same complaints tho by then the culprit show was becoming Power Rangers, yet another "violent" tv show. so this is definitely nothing new, it just appears to run in cycles i guess. schools have been pulling this type of crap forever. heck i even got in trouble over an obviously plastic toy "pocket knife" i brought to school and that was over THIRTY YEARS ago.

even better was reading about the banning of dodge-ball, as if this was a new idiocy. back when i was in elementary school it was floor hockey they got rid of due to injury and possible injury. (liability is a bi***)

you know i had to give myself a big facepalm for even thinking about checking the dates.
if ATS had even existed back then it would have been an old dial up BBS. heck the world wide web was just in it's infancy and a 80486 computer with a 40Mb hard drive was a good computer lol (man do i feel OLD)

reply to post by generik


My school has banned the kids from playing imaginary guns.

So the kids now play "tasers." When the principal called me on it, I just shrugged and said tasers were non-lethal, right?

reply to post by hounddoghowlie


LOL! Brilliant! I can imagine it very well.

But of course, when it's older teens and 20 somethings, it's different from pre-schoolers. Young adults are influenced but are massively more wise than pre-schoolers about reality vs media entertainment.


My daughter did go to Karate class for a couple of years from 4 to 6. She was the sort of girl that got scared by other kids playing noisy and rough. I saw Karate as sort of being opposite to her nature and decided that it might give her some balance. Now she is a very girly girl who likes pretty things, ballet and doll play. But she can charge into the middle of rough play and join in, no problems. She's been knocked over enough times learning Karate, surrounded by noisy and boisterous kids that she has no problem with that, as long as it's not malicious. She has the physical strength and awareness to play with the rough kids and her own nature to play soft and gentle with other girls who like what she likes.

But rough play wont naturally include flying kicks, choker holds and various weapons. Not unless that's the sort of stuff they've seen somewhere else.

Look at the last sentence of the first paragraph on the flyer for the typo.

You can't play Superman but we'll let you type for us.

Originally posted by Lady_Tuatha
I think that this is just ridiculous!

A ban on Super hero play at a pre-school.

A school flyer has emerged online warning of the dangers of superhero antics. ''The imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive causing injuries within our pre-k community,'' the flyer says. It then spells out a ban on imaginary play: ''Wrestling, Super Hero (sic) play, and Monster games will not be permitted here.''

Here is a picture of the flyer -

Banning pre-school kids from 'Super hero' play? What are they going to do? chastise a child for pretending to be superman or spiderman? How can they say they encourage creative thinking and imaginary play when they enforce this?

ridonkilous.

link.

edit on 23-5-2013 by Lady_Tuatha because: to add link.

where can i find a ban in that image?
i see no banning of anything, it looks more like an attempt to get the parents to help the school by being more aware of what their children are watching.

where in the world does the crap people are posting come from? they want to ban superheroes? where? the school doesn't want creativity or imagination? when they said they want such things, but because kids can go too far they want parents to be aware of the issue it's suddenly trying to kill off these kids childhood?

come on.

there is imagination and then there is going too far by being reckless, and if you are going to tell me that "kids will be kids" well then i would say that parents who think that are crap parents.
i know parents who have taught their kids not to be reckless and still have imagination and fun, so it's not being a kid or being a lobotomized robot who looks like a kid.

reply to post by demongoat


It is probably the following sentence that leads people to think there is a ban on certain activities.

"Wrestling, Super Hero play, and Monster games will not be permitted at ..."

That is certainly a ban of some play activities.