I’m calling for a provincial Ban of Math Books!

My son got a papercut from his math book yesterday, so I’m calling for a PROVINCIAL BAN on MATH.. or BOOKS..I’m not sure which one yet, but believe me, something got to be banned because THAT’S the way we deal with things, RIGHT?

Of course I’m referring to the latest and clearly, ridiculous situation of the Toronto school that has decided to ban soccer balls (as well as most other kinds of balls) from their property after a parent got hit in the head with one last week.

I could go on and on about how INSANE this is, but I will try to keep this short..like my fuse right now. Kids NEED to PLAY and they need to play without FEAR! It would be impossible to keep our kids away from EVERYTHING that could POSSIBLY harm them in life, which is why we teach them how to be careful and vigilant. We teach our kids how to play safely and fairly and when neccessary, we provide helmets and padding to lessen the likelyhood of serious injury, but they will still get hurt. They will fall and trip and yes, they may even get hit with soccer balls but they will probably be just FINE.

I truly believe that if you never fall, you will never learn how to pick yourself up again and that is a lesson we may be cheating our kids out of these days. Trust me, I am not a laissez-faire kind of parent, I’m actually a worrier..a pretty big worrier to be honest, but I WILL NOT let my irrational fears stop my kids from enjoying their lives. Are there times when I’d like to cover my kids in head to toe bubble wrap? Damn right there are; but I don’t, because that would be silly just like the ball ban we’re talking about.

We keep hearing how out of shape and lazy kids are today, yet we keep making it harder and harder for them to be active! It’s shameful how most schools offer far too little physical education in their curriculum to begin with and now we are limiting what they can do at recess?!

It seems that whenever a school wants to look like they’re being responsible, it involves removing something! I know kids who are afraid to be caught HOLDING snow in their hands for fear of being accused of actually throwing it at someone and don’t get me started on the “Junk Food” ban. Here’s a thought..instead of simply taking stuff away..why don’t we try to put stuff back in,like maybe COMMON SENSE and TRUST.

I am sorry the parent got hit in the head with the soccer ball, I really am, it must have hurt like hell, but isn’t this reaction a little much? Are we really going to start removing eveything that we could accidentally hurt ourselves with? If so, can we start with those razor sharp geometry sets, they’re scary…and math kinda sucks anyway.