Heard of this?

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.html

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be kids?

--
Lina
Alena born July 1st, 2003
www.maternalinstinctscanada.com

Lina wrote:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.htm
l

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be
kids?

It's political correctness gone mad, imo. We've been hearing about this on
talkback radio this week and I was amused to see in th article that one of
the centres which have banned superhero costumes is within 2 or 3 km of
where I live. My 2.5 yo son does attend another childcare centre in the area
one day each week and I must remember to ask them their policy on superhero
costumes!

Quite frankly I can see far more reason for banning frou frou fairy princess
costumes just on the basis of the greater likelihood of them being damaged
during the normal rough-and-tumble-paint-and-water-play day, with the
resulting distress to child, parents and carers *that* would cause.

I never bothered buying a toy gun for my children but they managed very well
on sticks, plastic pipes and anything else their imagination chose for them.
I'd be more sympathetic to reasons based on some children feeling as if
they've missed out if particularly children regularly wore their costumes to
daycare or kindergarten (means preschool here). Anyway, most kinders and
child care centres have dress-up bags full of costumes, anyway!

Daft. lol

Tai

"Lina" wrote in message
able.rogers.com...

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.htm
l

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be
kids?

Not heard of it. Interesting. I didn't know that kids wore costumes
to such places.

Anyway, I suppose that most people will jump on this as a bad idea,
and it might be, especially on the face of it. But without knowing the
extent of the violence/bullying problems that they were experiencing,
and how much this has helped (or not), I can't say if it's a bad idea.

The mayor stated, "While the policy hasn't eliminated rough play
altogether, it has certainly made a significant difference reducing
injuries and bullying at the centre." But, someone else disputed
that evidence. The truth is somewhere in the details.

Another interesting quote, "Ashburton Child Care Centre director
Madeleine Kellaway said her "no superhero" stance encouraged kids
to be more creative. "Superheroes tend to develop stereotypical
behaviour in children," she said." An idea worth some thought.



P. Tierney

Lina wrote:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.html

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be kids?

--
Lina
------------
Being a kid is fine, but bullies should be beaten.
Steve

In article tiZ0b.214212$uu5.39817@sccrnsc04,
"P. Tierney" wrote:

Another interesting quote, "Ashburton Child Care Centre director
Madeleine Kellaway said her "no superhero" stance encouraged kids
to be more creative. "Superheroes tend to develop stereotypical
behaviour in children," she said." An idea worth some thought.

Some friends of ours had to send the TV on a holiday after their kids ended up
watching a frightening amount of it. They noticed that without TV, the
children's play was far more imaginative than previously.

I don't think it's a bad idea, really. If a kid wears a superhero costume, he
concentrates on that one role whenever he looks at it (and let's face it, most
superheroes spend some time going pow! kerblam! or chasing after danger -- not
things that a day care particularly wants to deal with). A child in ordinary
clothes can be Batman, Superman and Puff the Magic Dragon, if he wishes, all
in one day. They aren't banning role-play, just the costumes, AFAICT.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990

On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 02:51:33 GMT, "Lina"
wrote:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.html

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be kids?

Some childcare centers here ban superhero play as well. It's not
because they think the play isn't ok, but because in a childcare
setting, this kind of play tends to get out of hand unless it is
closely supervised - too many children and not enough adults
especially for children younger than 4 or 5.

In some centers, the emphasis is on allowing it, but trying to keep
it from causing injuries which is better, but it's not easy. If you
have 20 three year olds with two teachers and they try to play
superheroes in a small classroom, it's often a problem because
threes don't have enough control of their bodies yet to keep from
actually hitting the other child or kicking him.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

toto wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 02:51:33 GMT, "Lina"
wrote:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6995255^661,00.html

What are your thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. What happened to letting kids be kids?

Some childcare centers here ban superhero play as well. It's not
because they think the play isn't ok, but because in a childcare
setting, this kind of play tends to get out of hand unless it is
closely supervised - too many children and not enough adults
especially for children younger than 4 or 5.

My stepson's Montesorri in Plainsboro NJ banned costumes like these,
as well as anything scary during Halloween, on the idea that it
encourages violent behavior. He wasn't even allowed to wear his
Pokemon shoes there, or his Star Wars T-shirts or anything.

I thought it was ridiculous. They "let" him dress as Harry Potter,
because he was a "literary character", not realizing that HP can be
just as violent as a superhero story. You cannot say
superhero=bullying. Bullying happens regardless of whether someone is
playing batman or superman.

And honestly, what's wrong with rough play outdoors? There's nothing
wrong with it as long as no one is being victimized. Encourage the
children to act out heroics and not try to supress their creativity.
All their rules in this regard did was to make the boys devious at an
earlier age. From my stepson's descriptions, they still played with
sticks and rocks and wood chips, they just learned not to get caught.

Channeling their energy into positive directions rather than trying to
enforce pointless, useless rules would have been much smarter.

I have always thought a "non-violence" policy should be a "no being
mean to each other" policy, because running, chasing and wrestling,
and pretending to catch bad guys which imo are normal parts of being a
kid shouldn't be discouraged.

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01

"Cathy Weeks" wrote:

And honestly, what's wrong with rough play outdoors? There's nothing
wrong with it as long as no one is being victimized.

As the article stated, the rough play was regularly led to
people being victimized via violence. Nothing in the article,
I believe, stated that the ban was only due to "rough play".

Channeling their energy into positive directions rather than trying to
enforce pointless, useless rules would have been much smarter.

One, I agree with Dorothy that what you say is smarter, but that
the numbers at childcare places sometimes make such "channeling"
difficult, if not impossible, to effectively enforce.

And two, *if* this policy really redcued the violence at these
places significantly, then I would consider it a "pointless, useless"
policy.

I have always thought a "non-violence" policy should be a "no being
mean to each other" policy, because running, chasing and wrestling,
and pretending to catch bad guys which imo are normal parts of being a
kid shouldn't be discouraged.

If it's happening at a place where it is frequently leading to violence
and bullying, then it should be discouraged. Kids can still run and
chase and be creative without doing such things.


P. Tierney

On 21 Aug 2003 09:35:42 -0700, (Cathy Weeks)
wrote:

I have always thought a "non-violence" policy should be a "no being
mean to each other" policy, because running, chasing and wrestling,
and pretending to catch bad guys which imo are normal parts of being a
kid shouldn't be discouraged.

I agree with this certainly. In a childcare setting though it will
depend on the layout of the turf. I have seen playgrounds where
this is unsafe also because the playground itself is small and
full of equipment. The other problem we had was that we had
some visually impaired kids who could not get out of the way
quickly enough.

At the Y, we allowed wrestling in the gym with supervision and
had one of our counsellors who had wrestled come in and
explain the rules (the kids loved that).

Running was allowed, of course, on the playground or in the
playroom or gym, but not in the classrooms because the
classrooms are not big enough for such activities. In the
preschool I teach at now, running and chasing take place
at the park, but not indoors since our playroom is too small
for that too. The kids only come for 2 1/2 hours a day though
and we have a lot of other activities they can do.




--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 20:06:28 GMT, "P. Tierney"
wrote:

Channeling their energy into positive directions rather than trying to
enforce pointless, useless rules would have been much smarter.

One, I agree with Dorothy that what you say is smarter, but that
the numbers at childcare places sometimes make such "channeling"
difficult, if not impossible, to effectively enforce.

The other thing that centers do see is that children who play TV
characters tend to replay stories they have seen with little
variation. Since most preschools want to encourage creativity,
limiting play like this seems to allow the children more room to
experiment with imaginary characters they make up themselves.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits