Roy Exum: Don’t Ruin Children

  • Friday, August 31, 2018
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Over half a decade ago, when I was growing up as a child of the South, there was not a day that went by when we kids weren’t playing a game of some kind. Whether in the neighborhood, at school recess, in gym class or whatever, choosing up sides and everybody taking part was part of the deal. Nothing is more American than children -- all of us wanting to know who can run the fastest from birth -- enjoying the freedom to play together. So it is with deep sorrow I inform you that the State of Alabama has just taken a blundering step in ruining the lives of its children.

It seems the Alabama State Department of Education has what its deep thinkers call the “Alabama Physical Education Instruction Guide.” While nobody dares claim authorship after the rage and outcry it caused in the Heart of Dixie this week, if ever there was proof that the very essence of America’s children is endangered look no further than around page 200.

As AL.com reported, “In general, it advises avoiding activities that could be potentially embarrass or single out a student; focuses on eliminating students from participation; or over-emphasizing fun with no purpose or objective, among other factors.”

The document goes on to include "specific student games or activities to avoid" and while most people my age can still tell you how each game is played, and a bunch of us still remember the rules, the times we or our pals were driven to the doctor for stitches, and the incomparable comradery of afternoons were well spent.

To start, the Alabama PE Guide says “Tag” is a definite non-no and other games that are now “socially incorrect,” include:

* -- Crack the whip

* --Dodge ball

* -- Doggy, doggy, where's your bone?

* -- Duck, duck, goose

* -- Four corners

* -- Heads Up, Seven up

* -- Line soccer

* -- Kickball

* -- Messy backyard

* -- Musical chairs

* -- Pinball

* -- Red light, green light

* -- Red Rover

* -- All types of relay races

* -- Simon says

* -- Spud

* -- and, Steal the bacon.

The bozos at the State Department of Education say if modifications are made to “Tag” where making sure all students have learned how to ‘chase, flee and dodge,’ and providing ‘skill-enhancing stations’ for children who are eliminated from the game, maybe that’s okay.

Schools in the state should avoid any exercises “that could be potentially embarrass or single out a student; focuses on eliminating students from participation; or over-emphasizing fun with no purpose or objective, among other factors.”

Other activities to be avoided include:

* -- Withholding physical education class or recess time for students to complete unfinished school work or as a consequence for misbehavior;

* -- Forcing students to run laps or perform push-ups because of behavioral infractions such as arriving late to class, talking without permission, or other disruptive behavior;

* -- Warning students, due to poor behavior, of having no recess of game time then removing warning because of good behavior;

* -- Having student run for losing a game or for poor performance such as missing a foul shot or dropping a football;

* -- Permitting students to make negative comments about other classmates;

* -- Allowing students, rather than the teacher, to select teams or groups.

After a splendid lifetime spent watching children become athletes, I can absolutely verify that innocent childhood games – first learned in kindergarten – are the very bedrock of sports as we know it.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey was visibly embarrassed by what he called “a document developed some years ago... It was last updated about six superintendents ago. Somehow it got re-released this week," Mackey said.

In Montgomery to meet with district superintendents, Mackey told the group, "It is completely up to you which games you play. There is no directive about which games you can and cannot play," Mackey said.  "Go back, tell your principals to take care of their own P.E. problems, please." “

He quickly assured parents across Alabama that there would be no way his office would enforce such idiocy (my word, not his) and said the list would not be made public again “as long as I am state superintendent.”

* * *

In 1993 the Alabama Board of Education Administrative Code was changed to include, “The State Board of Education specifically prohibits the use of hypnosis and dissociative mental states. School personnel shall be prohibited from using any techniques that involve the induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, meditation or yoga."

Yep. Yoga.

You see, the school board believes that yoga, according to ALSDE documents, is a "Hindu philosophy and method of religious training in which eastern meditation and contemplation are joined with physical exercises, allegedly to facilitate the development of body, mind, spirit."

This is why, in a 2006 letter from former State Superintendent Dr. Joseph Morton, it is plainly dictated that "yoga is not to be offered during regular school hours or after school hours to public school students on a public school campus in Alabama."

This is why yoga remains banned in Alabama public schools until this day.

royexum@aol.com

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