Whatever happened to all the fun in the world...

So - some schools in England are banning kids from playing Conkers in case someone happens to suffer from a nut allergy, this follows on from another school making them wear safety glasses, and yet another school asking them to wear gloves...


Ridiculous...

 

I agree that is so pathetic, never did that for us and I honestly can't remeber anyone coming to any harm.

 

i'm not UK so i don't know what conkers is...but it sounds fun...care to enlighten me? thanks.
brad

 

Starfly is utterly and completely right... deal with the culture of compensation before having a go at schools... we don't have spare funds to pay sue-happy parents at the expense of paying teacher salaries and buying resources... and anybosy who disagrees is a wanker...

Fly...

 

heh she said nut allergy

 

Thanks for that intelligent contribution to the discussion... hope your knuckles don't hurt from dragging along the floor...

Fly...

 

i read a thing in the paper the other week. it was some survey where 57% of parents said they would complain to the school if their child was injured, and i'm not talking about losing an eye, even just little injuries. it's totally mad.

i only ever remember one game at school getting banned, (red rover) and that was only coz three kids broke their arms in one week. can you imagine if a school even thought about letting kids get involved in that game now??

i work in a childrens home sometimes looking after kids with special needs. if we want to do any activities with them, or take them on any outings then we have to risk assess absoloutly everything, and if there's the slightest risk involved we cant do the activity. it is now no longer their disabilities that are holding them back and preventing them from enjoying things, it is the paperwork and burocracey(sp) that goes with it.

if thats not totally fucked up then what is?

peace and love
stardust
xxx

 

I remember at primary school even if we just fell over and scraped our knees a bit we were made to go to the medical room and they had to log it and phone our parents and everything. Madness

 

I thought "she said nut allergy" was pretty funny :H

That red rover was banned pretty quick at our school too. Managed to get right through primary able to play conkers though. It's crap how it now looks rather wiped out. It's all marvellously wholesome, collecting them, getting your folks involved with stringing up help - few games with them when they're done naturally, then off to school for proper battles with your mates.

Canny bit of time all that, I'm sure they'll think of something else to do though. Maybe go out and break some windows with all their useless conkers

 

generally though, if something got banned when i was a kid, you always wanted to do it even more coz you weren't allowed. where has the rebelious streak in the kids gone? you'd think that coz it's banned there would be loads of secret meeting places in the playground where you would all go and play conkers with someone on the look out for teachers. the fact that the kids aren't rebelling and doing it anyway makes me think they probably dont want to play it anymore.

did anyone else used to soak their conkers in vinagar and put them in the freezer? it worked really well!

peace and love
stardust
xxx

 

yeah I did that, just made them soft though (and smelly)

 

maybe it was the freezing that helped. i cant really remember that much. i used to try everything!

 

Yeah, I remember hollowing out a conker with a penknife and filling it with epoxy putty that I found in my grandads shed. Think it took so long to harden that the season had finished by the time it was ready.

 

nah, british bulldog and red rover are different, but both result in frequent breaking of arms, so its the same consequences!

 

What is british bull Dog and Red Rover?

 

http://www.scoutxing.com/games/game_0662.htm

 

the link above only explains british bull dog.

red rover is played by two teams. the teams are in lines facing eachother and holding hands. they decide on one person from the other team who has to run over. once they decided who this person is they all sing a rhyme "red rover, red rover we call [insert name] over"

the person called over then has to run at the line and see if they can break through the arms. if they break through the arms they get to go back to their own team, if they cant get through they have to join the other team.

it's all about strategy and putting stronger kids inbetween weaker kids, and then deciding which part of the chain you think will be weakest and running at it as fast as you can.

and if bones get broken in the process.......so be it!!

im sure there are different versions, but that was how we played it

peace and love
stardust
xxx

 

man those games used to be so good. and when i was lickle, (well still now really) i never worried about "oh what if i fall and snap my vertabrae" although obviousely i demanded sympathy when i fell and grazed my knee, how was i to know that my trousers weren't going to keep me safe and instead would just tear a hole in the knee, it was cool though back at my shool the hole in the knee meant you were all that.

 

This security isue is all getting bullshit though, what is gonna happen when these kids get older after such a sheltered youth with the strangest of TV and the most hardcore security. when they get out in the world there is gonna be like mass suicide when the realise all they have ever know was pure bullshit.

 

All I have to say on this is ......

BUUUUUNDLLLLE ! ! ! !