PsychoPhil

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

To whom it may concern,

Look… I understand completely that ‘green’ is the new in thing. I also understand that schools like to be trendy and appear to keep up to date by riding whatever train is loading up and leaving the station. Seriously… I get it. This is why I simply grin and bear it every night at the dinner table listing to my kids tell me how I should adjust our lives…. with small, easy to obtain ‘green’ goals. Goals such as:

Dad, we should install solar panels on the roof.
Dad, we should install a windmill in the back yard.
Dad, you should mow the lawn with a hand mower. (this is probably my favorite)
Dad, you should buy electric cars. You mean Hybrid? No, electric. Hybrids use gas.

Yes…. I know… such small, easily obtainable and most of all, cheap ways to help in the environment and save the planet (never mind the fact it will be incinerated when the sun goes supernova).

Seriously though… have you heard the term ‘baby steps’? Just a suggestion, but how about a class where you teach kids that a light switch does in fact have TWO positions. On and OFF. Actually, you could go just a bit further in that class and cover the OFF switch capability of all electronics including (but not limited to) stereos, radios, televisions, printers and computers. Then again, I’ve walked through your schools during parent conference nights and judging by the number of lights blazing in empty classrooms and unused computers running screensavers with no users around or power saving features enabled, you might not actually be aware of the invention of OFF yourself.

Here’s another idea… a class for the girls (and my wife) where they are informed that showers do not have to last 45 minutes and use nothing but scalding hot water. (the boy seems to have this down already. He’s usually in and out in 5 seconds flat).

Ah hell… while we’re at it, why don’t we go with a CRAZY idea for a class. How about one where the kids are taught that outside doors can CLOSE as well as open. Yeah, I know… I’m reaching here but its worth a shot. Extra credit can be given if they can explain WHY this is particularly important in winter when the heat is on or summer when the A/C is on.

I’m just sayin’…..

Last year I detailed a fight I had with the kids school (see the entries:Here we go again and I win for details). A teacher had sent the oldest daughter home with some computer homework that was Microsoft centric. You couldn’t do the assignment properly without using Microsoft Office software. Well is looks like I’m in a bit of a OS fight yet again.

Last night oldest daughter informed me that she had to do some violin homework on the computer. Turns out the lessons she is now expected to do at home are all on a DVD. A DVD that is, you guessed it, Mac and Windows only. I guess it never occurred to the people who made the lesson DVD to make is an actual DVD. That way it would work not on in any DVD player, but any computer or even game console that can play DVDs. Presently the only windows based system I have at home is my gaming box… and at the moment that system is spread all over my basement workbench. I had to write a note to her music teacher stating that she couldn’t do the practice sessions since she doesn’t not have access to a windows/mac computer at home. We’ll see where this latest problems goes.

I don’t quite grasp how a public elementary school can just assume that every student has access to a computer at home. Over the past year my kids have brought home various assignments that have required Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, a DVD drive, Color inkjet printer, and internet access. They’re making a lot of assumptions about what their kids have access to at home.

Did I happen to mention the new school cafeteria software? The ones where the parent can log in and see how much money is left in their kids account, what they’ve been buying, and select what they are and are not allowed to buy? Did I mention that it only works in Internet Explorer? I called the schools admin on that and he suggested using the firefox plugin ‘ie tab’. Well thats great… except that IE tab only works on MS Windows system that already have Internet Explorer. Whats the point? Our tax dollars at work.

Artificial turf at Susquehannock to cost Southern $1.8M

Now here’s the funny part. If you read my previous entry, you’ll see that the cost was originaly presented at around 1.7 million. I predicted that easily climb to well over 2 million. What I didn’t predict was how FAST that number would climb.

Did you catch the title of today’s article? Suddenly the price is presented at 1.8 million. But wait…. just a little bit into the article there’s this:

The cost of adding artificial turf to two fields would be a total of $1,958,661 over 10 years.

And just like that we’re a hairs breath away from 2 million. Funny how that works isn’t it? Ever time the number is mentioned it gets bumped up just a little bit more. Anyone want to lay odds on how fast we’ll get to 2.5 million?

Related:
And if there was any doubt it would happen…

LATE MEETING

Sep 21, 2007 — The Southern School Board voted 6-3 Thursday to spend $1,729,833 to install synthetic turf on both the multipurpose stadium and field hockey fields at Susquehannock High School. The work is expected to be completed by fall 2008.

Teachers? No. Books? No. 1.7 MILLION DOLLARS for synthetic turf? Hell yeah!

And don’t forget… property taxes are going up because the schools don’t have enough money.

Pathetic.

(And its $1.7 million now. How much do you want to bet the final price will be well over $2 million after ‘unexpected problems’).

side note: Yes, I’m no longer censoring the School District’s name.

Related:

Looks like I missed something in my latest school rant
Just one week into the school year

What ELSE does the school system seem to have money for? Books? No. Teachers? No. Astro-Turf for the athletic field? Looks like it.

Previous: Just one week into the school year

And I’m already pissed off.

The School District had enough money for another computer lab upgrade.
The School District had enough money for a television studio upgrade (Yes. A television studio. In an elementary school).
The School District had enough money to replace their previous email system with a Microsoft Exchange/Outlook email system.
The School District had enough money to redo their website (complete with streaming video from the television studio no less).

So what didn’t the school system have money for?

Textbooks. A school supply ‘addendum’ was sent home during the first week. We now have to pick up a World Atlas. Of course the one the school recommended costs nearly $50.
Teachers. Last year my oldest daughters class size was 28 students. The teachers were complaining then that they needed more staff. The response was ‘there’s not enough money’. Daughters class size this year? 33 students. But hey, the school got a kickin’ web site and TV network.

What else does the school district plan to have money for? Well lets just take a quick look at some images I grabbed from the executive summary of the budget:

Looks like they’ve got enough money for some pretty serious technology upgrades. Too bad they don’t consider books ‘technology’. Note even more planned Television and Website upgrades. And I’m REALLY hoping that 2-1 Computer/Student ratio is a typo because I’m reading that as two computers for every student (You’d think a little more attention to detail would go into a multi-million dollar budget summary).

Well thats interesting. They only have the money for ONE additional full time teacher. Apparently they have enough money for a full time Television Station Manager though. Nice priorities.

Did I mention that a tax increase notice was sent out? Property taxes are going up (again) nearly 5%. (property taxes in PA go entirely to the school systems). They say they don’t have enough money. Does anyone reading this think any school system will EVER say it has enough money?

Previous Posts:

Back to school night (start of 2006 school year)

Looks like the story I mentioned yesterday is starting to spill out into the MSM.

On the Scales: Pounds Add Up on Summer Break, Study Says

Summer. The perfect time for children to play outside, swim — and get fatter?

That is the finding of a new study that tracked the physical condition of 5,000 children as they made their way through kindergarten and first grade. Their biggest gain in body mass index, the researchers found, came during the summer.

Why children would become less fit over the summer is not clear. It may be, the study said, that outside the limits of a school setting, children are even less physical and eat even worse.

Not clear? Well yeah… I guess if you just ignore everything I talked about previously then you could just shrug your shoulders and wonder at the complete mystery. The mystery of why an ever increasing humber of drugged up ADD/ADHD kids lay around watching TV all day and parents terrified of ‘stranger danger’ keep their kids inside protected from the army of child molesters hiding in the bushes.

But then we get to the end of the story and this quote which gives me chills:

If so, the researchers said, health officials who want to reduce obesity may need to broaden their approach: “Perhaps the most productive interventions will be those that target children’s behavior not only during school hours but also, and most important, after the bell rings.”

Thats it. Thats the camel’s nose in the tent. I’ll go on record right now and say this is the excuse they’ve been waiting for to push for longer school days, longer school years (even year round), banning bagged lunches so the school can control the lunch, and possibly even breakfast, diet. Actually, I wouldn’t be suprised to see a school dinner program be introduced to go along with a longer school day. They’re coming for your kids… and the sad thing is, a lot of people will be more than happy to just go along with it.

Whoops. Forgot to post the update to the entry on the F my daughter received in computer lab.

After a second meeting with various school administrators (Including the teacher who wasn’t even close to acting like an ass this time. Actually, he was quite civil), daughter’s F has been vacated and she has been allowed to complete the assignment in lab. In fact, all computer lab students were given a ‘do-over’ on that particular lab assignment.

Future assignments are to be based on concepts and not specific computer software packages and if a homework assignment is given, students must be able to complete this assignment either on local library system computers or given access to the computer lab outside of their regular lab hours. Works for me.

After the meeting I continued my ‘open source hippy’ (thanks ACW) evangelism and offered the computer teacher a copy of Open Office 2.0 burned on CD. He declined stating he had already downloaded a copy and was ‘quite impressed’. I couldn’t read if he was blowing smoke or not, but whatever. I win regardless. Neener-neener. (my kids taught me well).

More than normal (and thats saying something). I’ve bitched about this before but I’ve never been able to get a straight answer from anyone.

Its Thanksgiving week. The kids go to school today (Monday) and have off the rest of the week. They ALSO have off next Monday. Now how in the hell does that make any sense? Would it be too convenient to give familes the entire Thanksgiving week off? I mean think of it! Some families might actually take advantage of an entire week off and go on a vacation! If I was a paranoid man, I’d start thinking the school district was doing crap like this just becasue they can and they want to mess with people. If I was paranoid.

Is it a union thing? Does the school/teachers get more money by bringing the kids in for even a day during any week? It just makes no sense at all to me. I know there’s at least a couple teachers who check in here from time to time… maybe they can help shed some light on this?

I’m to the point were I’d like to have just one week were I don’t find myself involved in some kind of fight with the kid’s school.

The oldest came home with her computer lab homework yesterday. She received an F. Needless to say, as a Systems Analyst, I wasn’t overly pleased that my daughter received an F on her computer homework. Much less computer homework I helped her with.

The assignment on the paper was to start up a Word Processor, describe the layout of the menu system, locate certain key functions in the menu system as well as draw the corresponding icons related to those functions. We sat down at one of my Linux systems, fired up Open Office and got to work. Apparently the teacher wanted students to use Microsoft Office only. Since the Open Office menu structure is not identical to the one in MS Office, many of the daughter’s answers were marked wrong (even though I fired up the laptop and showed that the answers were correct for the OO program). When I asked the lab teacher if daughter could have completed this assignment in school, I got the amazingly snappish answer ‘It’s called homework and not schoolwork for a reason!’ (and yes, I amazed even myself with my incredible restraint at this point).

Can you see where I’m going with this? Lets ignore for a moment that this homework assignment requires the fifth grade student to have access to a computer outside of school. This assignment requires access to a damn expensive piece of software. Even the MS Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 Costs over $100. When I asked how students who do not have computers at home are supposed to complete this assignment, we had the following exchange:

‘You mean to tell us you don’t have a computer at home?’
‘Actually, I currently have five working computers at home. All but one are running Linux. The fifth one is a Windows box but that is strictly used for gaming.
‘Don’t you mean UNIX?’ (with attitude on the Unix)
‘No. I mean LINUX. You are a computer teacher right?’

Needless to say, that is yet another meeting at the school that didn’t go very well.

If nothing else, this have given me an inroad to start hammering the local school district on just why they are pissing away taxpayer money on Microsoft software licenses when perfectly good software that serves the same exact function is available to them for free.

This is a bit of a followup to my entry Schools, cupcakes and peanuts. Thats where I called our local school district out as hypocrites because of their new ‘competitive foods’ policy. To recap: cupcakes, candy, chips and other foods are banned because they’re baaaaaad yet the school has no problem having the kids sell those very same items for school fundraisers.

Yesterday we received word of yet more ‘competitive food’ restrictions. Each year the student government runs several fundraisers. Lollipops (blowpops) for quarter is one of their more popular ones. There’s also ‘send someone a kiss’ where you can have a Hershey’s Kiss delivered to someone. They also do the same thing with candy canes around christmas. Or I should say, they did. Because of the new ‘competitive foods’ policy, these fundraisers have now been banned.

So where’s the hypocrisy? Mondays are ‘homemade muffin’ day in the school Cafeteria. By ‘homemade muffin’ what they really mean is ‘shrinkwrapped Otis Spunkmeyer muffin’. The wife happened to pick one up off the tray and took a quick look at it. Care to see the nutritional label?

So lets make sure I understand this. Its perfectly acceptable for the school to sell a 460 calorie muffin which has sugar as its number one ingredient and also delivers 38% of your daily fat and 28% of your daily cholesterol but the student government can’t sell a lollipop or a Hershey’s Kiss? Yeah, that makes a hell of a lot of sense.

(side note: I’ve got a bit of a backlog on posts that were started but never quite finished and published for whatever reason (mainly beer). I’m trying to get most of them pushed out. A few (like this one) are going to be a bit dated… like anyone really cares.)

I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that there is no amount of money in the world that would make teachers/educators happy. No matter what, its never enough and they always want more.

Back to school night (where the parents visit the school, met the teachers and see their kids classrooms) gave me a perfect example. My kids are currently attending a K-6 public elementary school in PA. This school is flush with money. In fact, a case could be made that the money it pulls in through property taxes is extreme and the school is actually over funded.

While the teacher for the oldest kid’s class was speaking about the upcoming year, she focused on the fact that it was going to be very difficult because there are 28 students in the class. Just 28? I remember distinctly (through my junior and high school years at least) that my class sizes averaged about 33-34 students.

In any case… while she’s talking about this apparently major problem I’m looking around the classroom (and all the other classrooms I was in, both that night and in previous years). There is no shortage of materials for these classrooms. They are chock full of every supply you can possibly imagine. In fact they verge on overflowing. Every classroom in this school has at least four computers and an inkjet printer. One on the teachers desk, three for the students. Some classrooms have even more. This doesn’t include the computers (and inkjets) setup in the hallways on library tables (left on 24×7 running screensavers I might add. Electric bills be damned). This also doesn’t include the brand new 35 station computer lab with 2 massive workgroup quality laserprinters. You know, the type of laser printers where the replacement toner cartridges cost $350+? Mounted on the wall on every classroom is a 20″ color television and VCR. They are connected via closed circuit to the schools TELEVISION STUDIO. Yes, you heard me. This K-6 school has its own television studio which broadcasts the morning announcements anchor desk style.

Yet this teacher claims there was no money in the budget to hire another teacher for this grade to shrink the class size. She also urged parents to ‘pressure’ the school board to allocate money for another teacher for this grade level (even though that won’t happen until next year when the kids are in the next grade).

Did I mention that they’ve published a request for a tech budget increase of just under a MILLION so they can outfit teachers and staff with blackberrys? Why the hell does a teacher need a blackberry?

Did I mention they run all Microsoft software (big licensing costs) while completely ignoring Linux?

Did I mention that every classroom has its own bathroom?

Did I mention our property taxes are going up?

28 students? I know a teacher in Baltimore who’d love to have your problem.

Well that didn’t take long. One day of school and I’ve already been hit with two letters. No, not those kinds of letter, the kind of letter where the school annouces yet more control they’re exerting over you and your kids an how there isn’t a damn thing you can do about because, say it with me, ‘its for the children‘.

Remember this entry back in May? Its where I bitched about how the schools now required parents to provide a ‘healthy alternative’ to whatever snacks you let your kid bring in for their classmates on their birthday. Well, in the true nature of Government, they’ve taken even more control. Now cupcakes (and all foods of ‘minimal nutritional value’) are banned completely. The school system goes as far as to coin the term Competitive Foods. They define those as ‘foods offered at school other than through the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs). i.e.: stuff you give your kid.

How long before you’re no longer allowed to pack your kid a lunch and they must eat the school food?
How long before your kid must eat breakfast at school?
How long before your kid must consume all their meals at the school?

Of course they do now provide an alternative, They’ll allow us to buy, from the school systems food services contractor of course (I’d like to get the minutes from that kickback meeting), ‘healthy party packages’. These packages have names like (and I’m not making this up):

Veggie-licious Party
Fruitabulous Party
Nutritious Friendly Snack Party

DId you catch that last one? Nutritious Friendly Snack Party. Are you kidding me? Can you imagine if you sent out invitations to all your kids friends inviting them to a ‘Nutritious Friendly Snack Party’? Even your kid would skip their own birthday party.

And now the peanut allergy people have swooped down upon one of my daughters classrooms.

< Bill Lumbergh >
Um yeah, hi…. look… our child has pretty severe reactions to peanuts. Yeah…. and um, strawberries… Yeah… and soy. So could you possibly modify the entire diet of your kids and um… yeah, yourselves if possible and remove those things from your snacks? And lunches? And, oh what the hell, your entire diet? Yeah, that’d be great . Thanks….
< /Bill Lumbergh >

Great. Don’t give us advanced notice or anything. Just wait util after we’ve been to Sam’s Club and have stocked up on a couple months worth of snack/lunch items. As for changing what we eat at home? How does ‘no’ sound?

Just like the ‘no cupcakes’ rule, how long do you think it’ll be before they ban all peanut products from the entire school system?

And for the grand finale: The first day a school and the fundraiser packets are already on their way home. And just what could those fundraisers POSSIBLY be?

Pizzas. Cookies. Chips. Candy. I’d venture a good 50% of the cookies and candies contained peanuts.

Damned hypocrites.

USATODAY.com – ‘Not it!’ More schools ban games at recess

Some traditional childhood games are disappearing from school playgrounds because educators say they’re dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., banned tag at recess this year. Others, including a suburban Charleston, S.C., school, dumped contact sports such as soccer and touch football.

So soccer and touch football are contact sports now? What are they supposed to play? Proximity football? ‘Hey! I got within 3 feet of you! You’re down!’

“They learn to change and to problem-solve,” says Rhonda Clements, an education professor at Manhattanville College.

Joe Frost, emeritus professor of early childhood education at the University of Texas-Austin, sees playground restrictions as harmful.

“You’re taking away the physical development of the children,” he says. “Having time for play is essential for children to keep their weight under control.”

emphasis mine. How long have I been saying this now?

Educrat1: ‘Kids are getting fatter.’
Educrat2: ‘Really? Huh. I know, lets limit sports and activity.’
Educrat1: ‘Sounds good!’
Educrat2: ‘What do want to do now?’
Educrat1: ‘I dunno. Wanna raise taxes?’
Educrat2: ‘Sounds good! Um, what for?’
Educrat1: ‘We need to fund our new Lardass Awareness program.’
Educate2: ‘Do we make them sit still and do nothing for hours in the program?’
Educate1: ‘Absolutely!’
Educate2: Sounds good! Um, what if they move.’
Educate1: ‘Drug them!’
Educate2: ‘Sounds good!’

All praise the Nanny Government! Without it surely we’d all be Jabba the Hut looking monstrosities who would only be able to roll from place to place (nobody would be able to fit in their cars).

Can this spread be stopped?
Lawmaker wants schools to put a lid on Fluff

Outraged that his son was served peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff sandwiches at a Cambridge elementary school, state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios , a Democrat, said he will offer an amendment to a junk-food bill this week that would severely limit the serving of marshmallow spreads in school lunch programs statewide.

“A Fluff sandwich as the main course of a nutritious lunch just doesn’t fly in 2006,” Barrios said. “It seems a little silly to have an amendment on Fluff, but it’s called for by the silliness of schools offering this as a healthy alternative in the first place.”

Mr. Barrios, if you’re so damned outraged that your kid bought a fluff sandwich at school, why don’t you pack his lunch yourself and STAY OUT OF OURS! A Fluff sandwich as the main course of a nutritious lunch just doesn’t fly in 2006. Huh? So it was ok before just not now? Why? Whats next ? PB&J? Jelly is just one step above Fluff in terms of sugar, why aren’t you going after that? You also seem to be skipping the fact the Peanut Butter is a damn near perfect way to deliver high quality protein in a diet. Especially to a kid.

Spurred by skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, many states are considering legislating sweets out of schools. Already this year, Iowa, Indiana, and Mississippi have passed bills regulating school nutrition. An additional 28 states, including Massachusetts, are debating similar measures. And last month the nation’s soft-drink makers agreed to remove non-diet sodas from elementary and middle schools.

skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. Ok, skyrocketing rates. Has anybody bothered to really ask why? I seem to remember plenty of snack and soda machines when I was in grade school. Not to mention pizza, ice cream and even fried chicken in the lunch lines. Yet NOW we suddenly have skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes? Sorry, try again. Something else is going on. Someting like actual playing and running no longer being allowed on playgrounds. Something like phys ed classes and recess being cut more and more every year. Something like our kids being drugged into submission instead of being allowed to release their natural energy.

Mr. Barrios, instead of banning foods and telling us what we can eat, why don’t you follow West Virginia’s lead and promote activity and exercise by installing DDR video games in the schools?

said 12-year-old Simone Rivard , a sixth-grader . She isn’t a big fan of the marshmallow spread herself, but doesn’t think it should be restricted either. “There shouldn’t be laws saying what you can and can’t eat,”

The 12 year old kids get it, why don’t the lawmakers?

[tags]Peanut Butter, Marshmallow Fluff, school lunch, Senator Jarrett Barrios[/tags]

as long as its the right religion.

A while ago I had a discussion on another Baltimore bloggers site (I can’t remember who) about teaching creationism in school. This was back during the whole ‘intelligent design’ controversy. I wasn’t advocating teaching creationism as a science, but I did (and still do) think its a valid subject for sociology classes. Religion is a large part of this nations culture. In any case, I asked why it was ok to teach our kids about islam, in some cases having them roleplay the religion and its practices, but Judeo-Christian beliefs were taboo. The response was, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘I don’t believe schools are teaching kids Islam.’

Ok then…

Teaching Johnny About Islam

In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it’s OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . .”

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: “Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger.”

Chanting “Praise be to Allah” in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as “true” the Muslim belief that “The Holy Quran is God’s word.”

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially “becoming a Muslim” for two full weeks.

Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic lessons as part of California’s world history curriculum, sued under the First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably, that the government was promoting Islam.

In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented equally. It’s covered in just two days and doesn’t involve kids in any role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is presented as an “internal personal struggle to do one’s best to resist temptation,” and not holy war.

I wonder if the kids recite the Lord’s Prayer during the two days on Christianity?

Do as we say, not as we do!

The youngest came home from school with a note yesterday. The school allows each kid, on their birthday, to bring in a treat for the class. Usually its cupcakes or some other ‘sweet’. As we all now know, sweets are bad, evil and nasty. They rank right up there with playgrounds and running. I mean come on, we all know that there’s an ‘obeisity epidemic’ rampaging through our kids right now… the media tells us so… every damn day. Nevermind the fact that the teachers look far more out of shape than a majority of the kids in the school; but I digress….

As I was saying, the youngest brought a note home from school. From now on, if a child brings a treat in on their birthday, it has to be a healthy treat or they have to bring in a ‘healthy alternative’ to go along with the bad, evil, nasty, kid killing cupcakes. (side note: Cupcakes for a class of 25 kids? Cheap. Healthy crap for a class of 25 kids? Not cheap).

Bonus Round: All three kids came home with the latest round of ‘fundraisers’ for the schools. Joe Corby pizza’s, cheescakes and ‘gourmet’ cookies. Ok public school people… where are the ‘healthy alternatives’? I guess the bad, evil, nasty, kid killing treats are just fine as long as you make some money from ‘em. Hypocrites.

Is litigation taking the ‘play’ out of kids’ playgrounds?

Today, kids find themselves grounded, victims of a culture of fear and injury litigation.

A growing number of school districts are going so far as to ban the game of tag and are even posting signs that read “no running on the playground.”

Is there real danger on the modern playground?

Safety advocates say yes and want to eliminate it.

Their first target: swing sets.

They’ve convinced Portland Public Schools to remove all swings from elementary schools playgrounds.

I’ve mentioned before that people annoy me right? Right.

But the safety advocates don’t stop there.

Portland Public Schools have also rejected merry go rounds, tube slides, track rides, arch climbers, and teeter totters.

Break out the bubble wrap!

Our lawsuit happy culture has schools and parks installing low-to-the-ground play structures that some have derided as “dumbed down.”

Now, it seems, anything with moving parts is a lawsuit liability, and in some places, that even means moving legs.

In Broward County, Florida, there’s a new rule on the playground: no running.

Frikkin’ hell people! They’re KIDS. Let them be KIDS. This may sound shocking to some, but as a father of three I can tell you, they’re pretty damn durable. The article mentions that there were 17 deaths from playground injuries. Excuse for sounding cold-hearted but… thats it? Thats right about on par with the number of toddlers who drown in 5 gallon buckets. Shall we go into the number of kids who are killed in pools, car accidents, bike and skateboard accidents per year? I’m guessing its a bit more that 17. We gonna ban them as well?

Crap like this also explains why the tiny, useless and completely non-fun new playground at my kids elementary school cost over $25K. A good amount of that for the 6 inch thick ‘rubberized’ surface. Useless.

This article was also mentioned on Fark.com. A good series of comments there. This one in particular made me laugh out loud because, yeah, done that (both actually):

Slappy Kincaid: how about good old fashioned rock fights? now that was a good time in the alley where i grew up.

Okay, but if you’ve never played tag with Roman candles, you suck at life.

Come on people, let kids play. Otherwise they’ll go insane sitting in chairs inside all day and we’ll see a epidemic rise in kids being drugged because they’re ‘hyperactive’ and have ‘ADD/ADHD’… oh wait…

Our Government run Schools have jumped the shark and have just lost all touch with reality and rational thought. We have two stories for your entertainment today.

Teachers swing into action over kiddie hug

Someone call the campaign for “Hugs Not Drugs.”

Parents of a kindergarten student in Maynard are outraged that their daughter and her classmate were disciplined for hugging each other on the playground.

Michael Marino and Brenda Brier told WCVB-TV that their 5-year-old daughter, Savannah, who attends Greenwood Elementary School, was forced to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, claiming she didn’t like the hug.

Boy suspended for carrying knife into school

A middle school principal suspended an eighth-grader for 10 days and recommended he be expelled for carrying a pocket knife, even though the boy said he had forgotten the weapon was in his coat pocket and turned it over to school officials as soon as he entered the building.

An expulsion hearing is scheduled for April 10.

Elliot Voge, 14, told Stoneybrook Middle School principal Jimmy Meadows he forgot that he had left the Swiss Army knife in his pocket after using it to whittle wood on March 2. The next day, just after he was dropped off at school by a classmate’s mother, he said he discovered the knife in his coat.

“I went straight to the office right inside (the front door),” the boy said.

He said he handed the knife to Teri Donahue, the treasurer at the far east side school and told her he had brought it to the school by mistake. Nevertheless, Meadows suspended him and recommended expulsion.

Lessons learned? Don’t hug your friend when they get hurt, just point and laugh. Also, don’t do the right thing, lie and conceil. The punishment’s the same either way but when you lie, you just might get away with it.

I can home from work tonight to find a note from the boys teacher. She stated how concerned she was that the boy wasn’t paying attention in class anymore and had to constantly be reminded to ‘stay on task’ (‘stay on task’ seems to be the buzzphrase for ALL teachers nowadays and it drives me insane. Many times its followed by references to ADD/ADHD and drugs). She finished the note saying how they’ve made ‘such good progress’ this year and didn’t want him to ‘start sliping[sic]‘.

On my desk right underneath this note were two papers the boy brought home as well. One a test from yesterday, one a quiz from today. Both from the same teacher who wrote the note, both with perfect scores.

Bad timing there teach… color me not overly concerned right now.