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There weren't any rules when I was in primary school either and there definitely were bullies and injuries on the playground. > Children develop the frontal lo

There weren't any rules when I was in primary school either and there definitely were bullies and injuries on the playground. > Children develop the frontal lobe of their brain when taking risks, meaning they work out consequences. "You can't teach them that. They have to learn risk on their own terms. It doesn't develop by watching TV, they have to get out there." Weak argument for the no-rules position. Children get injuries all the time, whether you have rules or not :]. The fact that this particular school has no reports of injuries seems suspicious to me. And a (self reported) higher level of concentration in the classroom can't be related to the playground absence of rules (well, the article doesn't provide any explanations for that). Did they ditch the coke vending machines as well ? I could believe that. Disclaimer: I was raised in Europe and although there were no rules per se we weren't allowed to leave the school premises. The article doesn't give enough details to compare both situations.

MAGZine 13y ago
The article doesn't give a lot of information, but neither does your anecdotes. >There weren't any rules when I was in primary school either and there definitely were bullies and injuries on the playground. I'm not sure that the article is saying that the removal of rules has lead to zero bullies/injuries--just a reduction. >Weak argument for the no-rules position. Children get injuries all the time, whether you have rules or not :]. This is an even weaker argument for rules. If children are going to get injuries whether you have rules or not, than why are you wasting time rule-making when nobody wants to follow the rules and nobody wants to enforce the rules? Furthermore, I'd say that the thesis of "less rules means more activity, means less time spent harassing and troublemaking," is very plausible. It's like getting a husky and crating him up all day, then wondering why he's irritable and destructive.
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  It got stuck in the keyboard but I wanted to add in the disclaimer that I don't have any strong opinion on the subject of rules on the playground. Moreover, there seem to be significant differences between our countries on that topic. > The article doesn't give a lot of information, but neither does your anecdotes. I fully agree with you, I just wanted to point out that one school "without rules" is not enough to draw any conclusion regarding bullying as the article seems to imply. (I read "lose bullies" as "no bullies", my mistake). > This is an even weaker argument for rules. I don't really have an argument for or against rules. I don't even know what's in the playground rulebook.
andrewflnr 13y ago
The higher concentration in class (if real) is quite easily explainable by kids getting all their crazies out during recess, and generally being able to do what they want for a while.

MAGZine 13y ago

The article doesn't give a lot of information, but neither does your anecdotes. >There weren't any rules when I was in primary school either and there definitely were bullies and injuries on the playground. I'm not sure that the article is saying that the removal of rules has lead to zero bullies/injuries--just a reduction. >Weak argument for the no-rules position. Children get injuries all the time, whether you have rules or not :]. This is an even weaker argument for rules. If children are going to get injuries whether you have rules or not, than why are you wasting time rule-making when nobody wants to follow the rules and nobody wants to enforce the rules? Furthermore, I'd say that the thesis of "less rules means more activity, means less time spent harassing and troublemaking," is very plausible. It's like getting a husky and crating him up all day, then wondering why he's irritable and destructive.

johnchristopher 13y ago
It got stuck in the keyboard but I wanted to add in the disclaimer that I don't have any strong opinion on the subject of rules on the playground. Moreover, there seem to be significant differences between our countries on that topic. > The article doesn't give a lot of information, but neither does your anecdotes. I fully agree with you, I just wanted to point out that one school "without rules" is not enough to draw any conclusion regarding bullying as the article seems to imply. (I read "lose bullies" as "no bullies", my mistake). > This is an even weaker argument for rules. I don't really have an argument for or against rules. I don't even know what's in the playground rulebook.

andrewflnr 13y ago

The higher concentration in class (if real) is quite easily explainable by kids getting all their crazies out during recess, and generally being able to do what they want for a while.