I just read an article about British primary schools no longer allowing children to have 'Best Friends'. They claim it is to spare the kids the pain of one day breaking up with their best friends. They want the kids to play in large groups and not form small cliques. This is absurd. This is why kids are KILLING themselves when bullied. We are creating a generation of Bubble Wrapped Children, so emotionally sheltered they are ill equip to handle the real world. We no longer keep score in JR sports. They want the kids to focus on having fun instead of winning/losing. When I was a kid you weren't allowed to play unless you were capable. We kept score, sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. We were taught to be good sports. We learned how to be good losers and winners. We learned how to heckle the other team. Chants like "Hey Batter Batter" were not only allowed, but encouraged. The opposing team was taught the counter-chants and were told to make some noise. If we struck out, we took our lumps and practiced harder. Sure this seems harsh, but we learned to deal with the emotions of losing and of being called out for losing. We knew that name calling was cause to break out "I'm rubber and your glue, what ever you say bounces of me and sticks to you" or the ever popular "I know you are but what am I". We had best friends. They were the ones standing next to us, defending us, picking us up when we were pushed down. Today if a seven year old calls a classmate a name, they are suspended under the Zero Tolerance policy for bullying. Whatever happened to 'Sticks and Stones'? I'm not against Anti-Bully policies, but let's be realistic about what constitutes crossing the line. Society has given up trying to raise our children to be strong adults. We now expect the world to be padded, our kids to be protected from any emotional harm. GUESS WHAT people. The world doesn't work that way. Adults are often petty and mean spirited. We need to teach our kids how to cope with that. If we don't teach are kid that there are winners and losers, bullies and those that are bullied, confident kids and shy kids and more, and give them the essential tools they will need to survive in life, than we might as well Bubble Wrap them all.
Strict English Primary Schools Establish 'No Best Friend' Rule
