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Op-Ed Contributor
Australian School Reconsidering Its Ban On Cartwheels
By Robert Paul Reyes
Adults engage in individual or team sports to lose calories, network with business associates, or to get away from their significant other for a couple of hours.
Children don't have to schedule a recreational activity or consider its health benefits, they will spontaneously somersault, jump or run for the sheer joy of it.
There is nothing more therapeutic for adults than watching children at play, it's like taking a trip back in time before responsibilities, obligations and expectations robbed all the joy out of life.
The fun and innocence of childhood lasts but for a few moments, children should be allowed to be children for as long as possible. But there is a school in Australia that is trying to regulate the fun out of childhood:
"An Australian school which recently banned its students from doing cartwheels, somersaults and other gymnastics during recess is reviewing the decision after parents and students got all bent out of shape.
The school, in the coastal town of Townsville in Queensland State, told students they could not perform any acrobatics such as handstands outside class because they were a safety hazard."
Reuters
Life is a hazard, there is a risk around every corner, and danger is always on the horizon. Our kids already have to don a helmet, kneepads and jock strap before they can play Tiddlywinks, let's give them a break.
If a school bans cartwheels and back flips it will stifle creativity and spontaneity -- the marks of genius.
I don't want our kids to attend a school where they march out when the bell rings; I want them to run, somersault and back flip out of the place.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
Tags: australian school, cartwheels, robert paul reyes
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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