Community Chat

[lolakimono]

I am from the generation who is lucky to be alive, based on everything that's evolved since I was a child.

* We had asphalt playgrounds with no soft surfaces.

* We had metal slides (no enclosure) and teter totters that you could fall from at great heights.

* The monkey bars and metal swings were on top of blacktop.

* We played dodgeball against brick walls and used walls to bounce tennis balls off of.

* In phys. ed. we did tumbling, used the "horse", balance beams, uneven bars, etc.

* Our roller skates had a "stopper" the size of a jumbo marshmallow or were metal skates that clipped on to tennis shoes.

* We fought over who would ride in the "way back" of the station wagon without seat belts, car seats, and sometimes very close to the rear door.

* Every neighborhood kid owned a wood bat and we played all sorts of games swinging the bats and using softballs/baseballs.

I could go on and on with safety hazards...

Not one person I knew of EVER had a concussion, and we played team sports, stayed outside all day playing until dinnertime or darkness set in, and we never wore helmets (except for Little League) or wrist guards.

The kids I teach are the walking wounded. On any given day I see crutches, casts, braces, splints, wheelchairs, etc. and when I ask the kids what happened, they say that they fractured _____________ (insert body part) and many times they have fractured a growth plate. I have some with a broken collarbone or pelvis, and often times they are out of school for an MRI or for therapy.

Recently there has been a great number of kids out indefinitely (an entire marking period) for CONCUSSIONS. I have five students now who have concussions, and four of them are girls!

So, what gives? Do you see this in your kids and their classmates? If you are a teacher, do you have multiple students who are the "walking wounded"? I don't understand how they get so many concussions when they wear a helmet for skateboarding, snowboarding, riding a bike, etc. and in my generation it was uncommon to see more than one student a year from a broken ANYTHING, and that was mostly due to a freak accident or a car accident.