I did a bit of research on the internet to figure out where the idea of banning tag in schools came from. It seems as if it originate in the state of Washington from the Mercer County School District who wanted to implement a hands off during recess. Their intention is to ensure physical and emotional safety for all the students, and they feel that in order to do that students should not touch each other. The school board believes that students will not be able to work properly in the class room if they do not feel safe. Some other reasons for the banning of almost everyone’s childhood game, is that certain students may always be the one who is ‘it’ and if they cannot tag someone else, then they could begin to develop a complex. Or if certain students are always the one who is ‘out’ all the time, by sitting on the side lines that could be hurtful on their self-esteem. In instances, I remember a few students ‘tagging’ or hitting pretty hard when they wanted to get someone out. I believe the way the last group restructured the game of tag last Tuesday was a great idea. Everyone was pair up and the person who was ‘it’ was switched constantly. It established an inclusive environment for the game. Here is the link I found for the article.
