Thursday, October 27, 2016



Children at a British primary school that BANNED running because pupils kept 'bumping their heads' are bending the rules - by SKIPPING instead

That head bumps are educational seems to be overlooked

Children at a primary school that banned running because too many pupils were 'bumping their heads' have found a way to bend the rules – by skipping instead.

Youngsters at Summerhill Infants School in Bristol were told they must stop running in the playground over health and safety fears.

Teachers said too many children were 'bumping their heads' and warned that anyone caught running would be punished by standing against a wall for a minute.

But the youngsters have now found a way round the bizarre ban – by skipping in the playground instead.

One mother of a six-year-old boy said she discovered the pupils were bending the rules when her son came home and started 'skipping everywhere'.

She told The Sun: 'He said it was because they'd been stopped from running as too many kids were bumping into each other.

'It's every child's right to run about. To stop is health and safety gone mad.' Another mother, Christine Rumsby, added: 'It's beyond a joke.'

The parents are now calling for the ban to be lifted.

But the school is continuing to defend its position. Headteacher Ira De N'Yeurt said: 'On return from summer holidays we had a steep rise in head bumps. 'Keeping our children safe is our top priority.'

Summerhill is not the only school in the country to introduce a running in the playground ban.

Earlier this month, children at Hillfort Primary School in Liskeard, Cornwall were banned from running around because pupils kept 'ending up in first aid'.

Teachers instead told children they should take part in activities during the break times including sand play, playing with Lego or joining the school choir.

But parents condemned the school for using health and safety as an excuse to 'remove the liberty to spontaneously run in the playground'.

Parent Caroline Wills, who has a six-year-old daughter in Year Two, told MailOnline: 'Kids will be kids. How far is the school going to take this?

'In this day and age kids are stopped from being kids in so many ways. They have got to be allowed to be children.'

A petition, which has more than 150 signatures, was then started by Leah Browning, 32, whose son Jago attends the school.

In the petition, the parents said: 'Please lift the ban on running in the playground at Hillfort Primary School at lunch time break.

'Ensure that there is adequate funding and provision of suitable staff to safely supervise lunch break.

'Enable and empower children's right and freedom to run freely through spontaneous, child led play, in the playground during lunch time break.

'Stopping children running during free play due to bumping into each other is health and safety gone mad.

'Do not allow 'health and safety' to remove the liberty to spontaneously run in the playground during imaginative and child-led play.'

Andy Murray's mother Judy also got involved in the row, tweeting: 'A ban on running in a school playground? How utterly absurd. No wonder we are becoming a nation of fatties.'

Following her intervention, the school did a U-turn and described the situation as a 'misunderstanding.' It outlined that the ban only applied to running from one end of the playground to the other.

Last year Old Priory Junior Academy in Plympton, Devon, also banned children from doing cartwheels and handstands at break times over safety fears.

Pupils at that school were told in June 2015 that they couldn't perform 'gymnastic movements' in the playground after some children had been left with injuries.

Emma Hermon-Wright, the school's interim headmistress, said she introduced the ban because the children were attempting moves 'beyond their capability'.

SOURCE 





Maryland High Schools Swap 'Traditional' Homecoming Court for 'Politically Correct' Alternative

For years, high school homecomings have centered around football games, pep rallies, and electing a homecoming king and queen.

But that all changed this year for two Maryland high schools, who are forgoing age-old traditions in the name of inclusiveness.

As NBC Washington reports, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School had a “gender neutral” homecoming court — which allowed students to elect two boys, two girls, or a boy and a girl, or a transgender couple — regardless of “gender identity.”

Meanwhile, Walt Whitman High School chose to forgo homecoming court altogether.

Student Body President Ari Gutman told Bethesda Magazine most students just didn't care about crowning a king and queen:

    “At Whitman, the homecoming court is never really a big deal, it’s not really instilled in our school culture. We decided that instead of having the court, we would just not have it at all, so no one was left out,“ adding that ”the SGA worried the gender distinctions affiliated with the homecoming court could make gender non-binary or transgender students uncomfortable."

Walt Whitman principal Alan Goodwin told Independent Journal Review the decision was entirely in the students' hands:

    “Our student government decided to drop it because of a lack of interest in selecting a homecoming court. There has not been any ongoing discussion about it.”

Though the student government chose to nix time-honored homecoming traditions in the name of inclusiveness, plenty of parents on Facebook felt the move was a little too “politically correct.”

One Facebook commenter, Bonnie Miller, said:     “Let's just change everything. That way everyone can be happy. CRAZY.”

Chris Mika joked:  “The most important question: Does everyone get a participation award?”

Many said the move was “ridiculous” and inclusiveness was “getting out of hand,” though some parents felt it was the right call.

Megan Bailey-Hall summed their points up best:  “This is why I have so much hope for the future generations! This school gets it! Obviously times are changing- and is that a bad thing? I think not.”

The Maryland high schools aren't the only ones to adopt a more gender-neutral alternative for homecoming court. The University of Wisconsin-Stout recently replaced their king and queen with “sexless diplomats” instead.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the university broke an 80-year tradition and opted to have 8 to 10 recipients of the “Stout Ambassadors Spirit Award.”

Only time will tell if this “inclusive” homecoming tradition will soon be the new norm.

SOURCE 





Australia: Parents' outrage over educational program that teaches children 'men are the greatest threat to women'

Rampant feminism.  The hate never stops

The organisers of an educational program which teaches school children 'men are the greatest threat to women' have received a barrage of hate mail.

Privately run Frame Initiatives travels between about 30 Western Australian schools to teach children about respectful relationships.

Last week, a Perth student set off outrage when he took a picture of a slide with the words 'globally and historically, men are the greatest threat to women' and posted it online, The Australian reported. The slide was part of the Men of Respect workshop for boys in Years 7 to 9.

Director Dan McGrechan said the words were taken out context and was referencing US comedian Louie C.K.  The controversial statement was intended to 'stimulate discussion', he told The Australian.

Critics have accused Frame of teaching superficial and biased content.

The barrage of hate mail appears to have led organisers to delete the Frame Twitter account.

The programs for girls include Please Like Me and Back Off: Sexual Harassment. Other programs for boys, aside from the Men of Respect workshop in question, include Problems with Porn, Sexual Harassment, and Date Rape and Consent.

SOURCE

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