It wasn't that much of a story, here it is:

when i was a kid, playgrounds were steel monkey bars eight feet over concrete, a metal slide that you could fry bacon on any time the sun came out, and a swingset the you could get twenty feet high on while you tried to get over the bar AND WE LIKED IT

...

[Edited on Nov 12, 2004 by crispy]

Man... seriously... we used to do shit that would just about get us killed... only not quite, because we weren't stupid. We'd push the swing-set until we were doing loops over the bar... it wasn't worthwhile unless the seat of the swingset ended up wrapped N times around the bar (for some suitably large value of N)!!!

Now... who's going to teach the new kids the fine line between crazy and stupid? It's an important line, but... who really understands it, now? Alas for our future generations of playground kids...

...I always rounds off were the gateway activity...

kids and parents are pussies these days in america. nuff said.

It's a playground. Kids are supposed to run around and get fresh air. That's the point. If she had been in a crowded cafeteria, then fine... sure... I can see that, but on a playground?

I wish they'd said where she'd been doing cartwheels. That would give a bit more perspective to the story.

she was in a caffeteria
read the story

its a legitimate afety thing
maybe a tad heavy-handed
but the youth need to be disciplined
hoodlum ganstas

when i was in sixth grade, there was this gymnast girl. we played capture the flag during P.E. and she'd just do cartwheels/flips all the way back across the line. it sucked!! you couldn't tag her without getting levelled and such. i did all of those fun recess things too, but come on, i wanted to win at capture the flag! it was scary!

actually, the story just said it was during lunch time. it didn't say it was in the cafeteria, specifically, although that is a possibility. it is another possibility that it was during lunch-time recess, outside, which seems a bit more probable, considering the father's reply. they certainly don't allow basketball in the cafeteria. at least i hope not. that would suck.

we had balance beams...3 of them...one taller than the next and you could step up to the taller one at the end...all over concrete. 2 kids i know fell off and broke their arms
i miss merry go rounds...those were awesome...especially when you ran around so much and just hung on and the force drug you around as you clutched on for dear life

I can't comprehend how today's youth are going to make it if they apply for the military.

I'm never far from amazed at how idiot the people in the school system can be. My god.

ya know, the entire point of being a kid is so you can f*ck yourself up as much as possible while your recovery rate is still astronomical. We get our pain tolerance from the stupid stuff we do as kids, and we learn how not to kill ourselves by damn near doing it when we're young. Even god forbid she kick a kid while doing a cartwheel, both she and that kid would watch the hell out next time, and both would learn they don't live in a void. People in America are so goddamn worried about little Timmy getting a scratch that Timmy's going to wind up a spoiled, weak, oblivious, and overdramatic asshole who thinks the entire foam-covered world is owed to him.... Such a damn shame... I fear for the future.

Well said.