Children’s playground games come and go all the time. They are made up one day in the creative mind of 7 year old and the next they are a distant memory. One game though dates back hundreds of years and has been played by school children all over the world. The we are talking is ‘tag’. This basically involves one or two people being ‘it’ and they have to chase others around to ‘tag’ them and make them ‘it’. When someone is caught they then become the person who is ‘on’ and they then have to chase others. The original chaser is now chased. It’s a very simple game that promotes agility and spatial awareness, as well as improves teamwork and of course fitness levels.  You don’t need any expensive [1] toys, and also it can be played anywhere.

The UK government howe ever feel that the it can act to discriminate and it is also unsafe. They therefore would like to see it stopped in schools. Their stance is that because the game often takes place on harder ground, children can seriously hurt themselves. They also say that the game can often escalate into a more physical tussle when there become agreement over whether someone has been caught or not.  Their second grievance with the game is that people tend to get left out and this promotes segregation.Harold James from the Education Committee says “the unpopular children are often not chosen to take part in the game or are ignored all together….we would like to see more inclusive games”. Mr James continued to say that it is not something that can include those with physical disabilities as they have difficultly competing in the game.

Other games that have been banned already include conkers, mercy, British bulldog and kiss chase. It does make you question whether kids are allowed to do anything anymore and ask if wrapping them in bubble-wrap is really the best thing for them. We need to take the wheels from the [2] trainer bike someday don’t we?