Posted on 02/18/2007 7:34:27 PM PST by Ellesu
TOY soldiers, model war planes and wrestling figurines have been banned in schools across the state in a politically correct crackdown. Primary schools and kindergartens have declared themselves "war toy free zones" and outlawed traditional toys and playground games that have even a tenuous link to war. All schools contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun said they had a policy banning war toys. Principals said schools feared they could be sued by litigious parents if they allowed plastic weapons and war toys in the school ground. Children at primary schools and kindergartens are also forbidden from playing "war-like games" such as cowboys and indians and poison ball. At one Melbourne kindergarten, children who bring in wrestling figurines are told to put them back in their bags until they get home. It's a political correctness of some type, but misguided." Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Greg said the war toy ban had no logical basis. "There is no evidence playing with toy soldiers or wrestling figurines in any way, shape or form has negative effects on the child's psychological development," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at townsvillebulletin.news.com.au ...
Most schools here officially ban all toys from the school. Children come to school to learn, not to play. Sporting equipment - bats and balls - are generally an exception but besides that most schools don't allow any toys. This is primarily done to prevent theft and to prevent distractions in classrooms.
Some schools may specifically single out toy weapons, but most don't need to make that distinction.
As long as they don't take away the bling, it's OK.
Thanks for reassuring me that all is still well there.
What? Have there been murders on kindergarten playgrounds in Australia using action figures? There are few things more dangerous than plastic cowboys and indians.
The idiocy of school hierarchies never ceases to amaze me. The boys will now probably use pencils for daggers instead.
If only they would be consistent and forbid school nurses from recommending abortion clinics to older students (where war tools are used against innocent babies.)
This has nothing to do with war toys per se. It has everything to do with dumbing down the masses into compliant drones as early as possible.
wrestling = war
I wonder if Barbie = war.
And the plumbers crack pants with the thong. They'll have a riot on their hands....
Never seen that one - but they do tend to turn pieces of tan bark into guns.
If only they would be consistent and forbid school nurses from recommending abortion clinics to older students (where war tools are used against innocent babies.)
Very few schools in Australia have school nurses. Most of those that do are elite independent schools founded on Christian principles.
This has nothing to do with war toys per se. It has everything to do with dumbing down the masses into compliant drones as early as possible.
No, it does not. It has to do with keeping toys at home where children play, rather than letting them bring them to school where they are supposed to work. Toys, of any sort, do not belong in schools. The idea isn't to dumb the kids down - it's for them to learn that education is a serious business, and that school isn't a playground.
Most schools in Australia have uniforms. So, thankfully, we don't have to worry as much about the way many girls would like to wear their trousers. They wear their school skirt, or if they are at a progressive school, pants that go up high enough for decency.
Subtle jewellery is allowed in some schools - small earrings, a watch, and maybe a single chain around the neck. More than that generally isn't permitted.
The only consolation is that boys will be boys (Dr Michael Carr-Greg is excused ;'} and even if given doves to play with, they will use them as pretend guns.
Ever it was thus; ever it shall be...
Does Your School System consider CHESS to be a "warlike game"?
Chess is generally encouraged. I'm not sure what the people who run those programs think.
Yes, I am.
I don't teach in a government school - I teach at one of the country's elite private schools, and I think the private school system is in better shape than the state school system. But the state school system, in general, does take education very seriously. And efforts have been made at times to make the state schools extremely socialist, but those efforts have largely failed. In my state of Victoria, 1983-1992 was the era of socialist domination of state education. People worked out that it was a bad idea, and that really hasn't been a problem since then.
You can't be serious saying this is only about kids keeping their toy guns at home when Australia has implemented draconian gun control laws. Read all about it here: http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/6/26/12629
I live in Australia and I am a gunowner. While Australia's gun laws are not perfect by any means, they are far from draconian, and that Newsmax article is, quite frankly, inaccurate propaganda. Rodney Ansell was not killed in a 'mysterious shootout with police', nor was he killed because police came to 'confiscate his unregistered firearms.'
He was shot dead because he was suspected of attempted murder, and he chose to open fire on the police when they tried to question him, killing that police officer. Until he tried to murder someone, the police had left him alone, even though he was a convicted felon.
And, police cannot enter your home and search it without a search warrant in Australia to search for guns. That simply is not true. That article is full of lies, to be frank. I personally own semiautomatic weapons, fully legally - they are not banned.
The only thing Australian government schools probably take seriously is brainwashing education.
No, that simply isn't the case.
Just because your government schools in America have problems, don't assume they apply elsewhere. Our school systems are not equivalent. One huge difference - religious education is legal in government schools in Australia. So are prayers. Our schools haven't gone down the same paths, yours have.
Well about the only thing left to play is smear the queer.
Or is that recess game banned now too ?
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