[C8]

A school has attempted to reduce physical contact among students by discouraging the game of tag among students. Apparently, this is in dispute and facing a parent backlash of sorts

School district stops kids from playing Tag to 'minimize negative physical interactions' among students

Mercer Island School District in Washington announced 'hands off' policy

Parents created STAR MI - 'Support Tag At Recess in MI' - Facebook group

Group gained attention and caused district to address the alleged ban

District said it wants kids to focus on other games but there is no outright ban on tag

Said 'well-intentioned desire to help protect kids has taken a life of its own'

read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tions.html

Jevon's Paradox
I remember reading of Jevon's paradox:

In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ˈdʒɛvənz/; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises because of increasing demand.

wiki

The idea of this came to mind while reading the tag story:

Does reducing potential physical contact really lead to less negative physical interactions?

Maybe not

By reducing contact (via policy) we may be teaching kids that physical contact is something that SHOULD be objected to. This may lead to an INCREASED sensitivity to all physical contact and an INCREASED offensive reaction to any contact. Thus, by producing hyper-sensitive kids, we may may increase the amount of perceived negative contact as they object more to things they didn't previously.

I am not explaining my ideas as well as I understand them so I hope you are willing to re-read this if what i am saying doesn't make sense.

This is really all in a long line of decisions to increase safety and remove all risk from childhood- and I wonder if it doesn't lead to more fear, not less.

[dissident]

You are quite clear and quite correct. This PC insanity is taking on greater and greater dimensions and transforming society into a disfunctional state just when it needs it least.

We are headed for the perfect storm of exogenous and endogenous shocks this century. I don't see any happy utopia in 2100.

[Tanada]

Thinking about this it seems like an outgrowth of the whole helicopter parent thing. We no longer let kids face any level of adversity, cushioning them from the real world and its consequences. We treat them like the Easter Lillis that used to be so popular for Greenhouses to grow over the winter months in an artificial hothouse. They look beautiful and strong, but when exposed to the outside weather on Easter Sunday they soon start wilting and dieing back, because they can not handle the conditions of the outside world.

Just like an artificially grown Lilly this generation of kids has no idea how rough and brutal the world is away from mom/dad/school sheltering them from every negative experience. Rough housing on the playground, getting into stupid fights for stupid childish reasons, learning how to deal with bullies...All of these things are valuable life experience for children that teach them how to deal with adversity when they grow up. Psychologically we are crippling a whole generation, taking away the growth they need to protect themselves from the real world.

[dolanbaker]

[tinfoil hat] It sounds like the grand master plan to create a totally docile and compliant generation that doesn't question anything that the authorities do or tell them to do as they lack the skills to "stand up!".
Possibly an early step back to serfdom.
[/tinfoil hat]
Children need to learn that the real world is not safe & padded, the other issue is that children need to learn self preservation, without that skill they are more at risk of injury or death as they don't see the danger.

[Outcast_Searcher]

School district stops kids from playing Tag to 'minimize negative physical interactions' among students

...

Said 'well-intentioned desire to help protect kids has taken a life of its own'

Kind of ironic. If school districts want to "protect kids", then mandating vaccinations for various diseases like measles, etc. to protect kids from the spread of (real and dangerous) diseases would be a FAR more rational course to take.

Of course, this would require taking on the science denial crowd, which uses FUD and their intuition instead of evidence and reason.

[Ibon]

There are stories of my childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania, long summers where my friends and I were left to wander forests and meadows, unsupervised, our own private world full of rough and tumble play and battles, activities that would have horrified our parents who were blissfully ignorant of what we were doing, caught up in their own stories and dramas. We lived a life apart from our parents, no helicopters in sight. As it should be.

[dinopello]

There are stories of my childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania, long summers where my friends and I were left to wander forests and meadows, unsupervised, our own private world full of rough and tumble play and battles, activities that would have horrified our parents who were blissfully ignorant of what we were doing, caught up in their own stories and dramas. We lived a life apart from our parents, no helicopters in sight. As it should be.

I had more of a dual life - After school or in the summer I roamed free with friends in the woods and on the river doing stuff that would horrify modern parents in its danger. But, come dinner time (meaning before dinner to help set up) I had to be back, cleaned up and ready to spend time with the family or else my ass was grass. I still remember that panic feeling when I realized I lost track of time and only had 5 minutes to get home for dinner (or horror - already late) and sprinting all the way home to accept my punishment.

[Ibon]

There are stories of my childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania, long summers where my friends and I were left to wander forests and meadows, unsupervised, our own private world full of rough and tumble play and battles, activities that would have horrified our parents who were blissfully ignorant of what we were doing, caught up in their own stories and dramas. We lived a life apart from our parents, no helicopters in sight. As it should be.

I had more of a dual life - After school or in the summer I roamed free with friends in the woods and on the river doing stuff that would horrify modern parents in its danger. But, come dinner time (meaning before dinner to help set up) I had to be back, cleaned up and ready to spend time with the family or else my ass was grass. I still remember that panic feeling when I realized I lost track of time and only had 5 minutes to get home for dinner (or horror - already late) and sprinting all the way home to accept my punishment.

Yes, similar actually. well said

[PrestonSturges]

Reading some classic psychology books, psychologists of the '60's were worried that kids time was too structured what with baseball and Boy Scouts. If they could see how kids' time is booked weeks in advance today, they would have thrown up their hands despair.

I heard some college administrator interviewed and they were talking about how they are getting 19 year old freshman who are basically still larva and barely capable of going a week without melting down.

[C8]

I don't get this thread. Jevon's Paradox is about energy, not dodge ball.

It was a little late that night and I was tired but had an idea that this whole tag ban idea might produce the opposite effect. I cast about my sleepy brain for a type of paradox that would be quickly recognizable by those versed in the Peak Oil literature and "Jevon's" came to mind for some reason. As I was falling asleep I realized it wasn't directly related and thought of editing but the computer was off and I was seeing unreal things (a sure sign dreams are coming). The next day I had to take my son to football in the morning and forgot about it.

Now that I think about it, there was a reason my tired brain choose Jevon's in the loose sense that it is one of those paradox types where, due to efficiency gains, you would expect less of something (consumption) but get more of it instead. So the restriction of touch (LESS), as in the tag ban, might produce MORE complaints and issues with touch.

yeah.... that it !

Regarding Freshmen in college- it seems like we have a deep fear of challenging them. Students have a great power these days to really make a teacher or professors life miserable. As a result, it seems as though that course materials are being designed to be the least offensive and least controversial. The whole goal of college is to not challenge a person to look at their biases.

I wonder to if this will have an opposite effect of causing people to lash out at each other and try to deliberately offend others on non-college hours and as adults. In other words, is it better to have a supervised debate on controversial subjects so we can get to know differing views? If we don't, do we just see those we disagree with as alien and become more aggressive with them in non-supervised settings? Maybe making college safer is making society more explosive?