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> “Of course a child is not allowed to kill another child,” Mr. McLachlan said. “One of the rules I said facetiously is kids aren’t allowed to hurt other people

> “Of course a child is not allowed to kill another child,” Mr. McLachlan said. “One of the rules I said facetiously is kids aren’t allowed to hurt other people. But in fact they are. … If you hurt somebody in a game where you are playing hard, or a boxing match or a stone-throwing competition, for me it’s absolutely fine — as long as the other person was willing to get hurt.” This is a very interesting article but is the administrator being serious when he talked about boxing matches? My American English parses that to mean throwing punches actual physical contact between fists and the body. Surely that is a bad idea?

sigzero 13y ago
We had boxing matches in High School.
- mrottenkolber 13y ago
  Any permanent injuries? This stuff is quite dangerous unless performed with disciplined caution. I would not want to observe kids boxing (ouside a boxing sports club). Hit the throat. Bad day.
  - sigzero 13y ago
    Nope, we had all the gear necessary and instruction.
  - seestheday 13y ago
    Got anything to back up your statement? Everything fight I've seen between two willing participants (not bullying) is that it isn't really very dangerous. I'm 36 and I still love to spar. I do it with boxing headgear, a mouthpiece and gloves now, but when I was young my friends and I always used to fight for fun with no gear. Sometimes it was fists only. Sometimes grappling, kicks, punches. Sometimes it was with hockey sticks. The worst that ever happened was a few bloody knuckles, busted lips or black eyes. When friends or brothers are fighting you know that you should stop if you punch someone in the throat or drop them in any other manner.
    - mrottenkolber 13y ago
      Dropping is rather dangerous, and if you hit a throat hard enough its pretty much an instant death.
- spiritplumber 13y ago
  We did too. Our principal used to be a boxer, and had a "if boys must fight, i want to see a fair fight and i'm reffing it", so it was a thing right after school. He wouldn't allow girls to duke it out though.
dools 13y ago
I remember having boxing and wrestling matches in the playground at school (from very young up until the age of 17 when I finished) ... things like body hits only and slaps to the head and face. As long as no-one went psycho it was pretty good to get your energy out (and since there were always other boys standing around watching if someone did go psycho they were shut down pretty quickly so no-one ever got hurt badly).
bane 13y ago
Yeah sure, you didn't grow up boxing and wrestling with your friends? Hell, we used to have stick fights and beat each other with sticks, or play full contact football without any gear. We used to also climb all over parking structures, up and down trees, construction sites, ditches, rain water drains. One thing you learn from punching around with your buddies is the unwritten agreement of fairness. You only punch or slap as hard as you want to get punched or slapped. The golden rule works both ways! I thought I grew up in a pretty overly coddled time. Are things really this bad?
NamTaf 13y ago
Eh, there's a certain logic to saying 'boys are going to beat each other. Supervise it and let them vent it in a controlled manner and it's better for all'. We didn't have boxing, but teachers realised pretty early on that boys were going to play tackle rugby at lunch time, since from about grade 6 onwards it was offered as an extracurricular sport. The idea was that the kids and teachers reached an agreement that they'd let us play it if a teacher (usally one of the coaches of the school teams) was present to referee it and make sure we did it safely. It was a pretty good, common-sense solution to something that was going to happen anyway, so they instead went with risk-minimisation.
klh 13y ago
Yeap, boxing means the same in Kiwi English as it does in American English. The point is to get away from the cotton wool or 'Helicopter Parenting' model. If we don't allow kids to do the risky stuff then they don't until they reach adolescence. I am firmly of the opinion we have to get them doing it while they are young; while they still listen to us (parents, adults, etc) and while they are small and less strong. When we wrap them in cotton wool they reach adolescence with no understanding of risk but plenty of testosterone. Then they start to experiment without years of experience in informal risk assessment. I have also read of a school that is achieving higher academic results by encouraging Bullrush. Think rugby without a ball - tackling, running, dodging, actual physical contact (or American Football but without the stopping and without any pads, etc.)

sigzero 13y ago

We had boxing matches in High School.

mrottenkolber 13y ago
Any permanent injuries? This stuff is quite dangerous unless performed with disciplined caution. I would not want to observe kids boxing (ouside a boxing sports club). Hit the throat. Bad day.
- sigzero 13y ago
  Nope, we had all the gear necessary and instruction.
- seestheday 13y ago
  Got anything to back up your statement? Everything fight I've seen between two willing participants (not bullying) is that it isn't really very dangerous. I'm 36 and I still love to spar. I do it with boxing headgear, a mouthpiece and gloves now, but when I was young my friends and I always used to fight for fun with no gear. Sometimes it was fists only. Sometimes grappling, kicks, punches. Sometimes it was with hockey sticks. The worst that ever happened was a few bloody knuckles, busted lips or black eyes. When friends or brothers are fighting you know that you should stop if you punch someone in the throat or drop them in any other manner.
  - mrottenkolber 13y ago
    Dropping is rather dangerous, and if you hit a throat hard enough its pretty much an instant death.
spiritplumber 13y ago
We did too. Our principal used to be a boxer, and had a "if boys must fight, i want to see a fair fight and i'm reffing it", so it was a thing right after school. He wouldn't allow girls to duke it out though.

dools 13y ago

I remember having boxing and wrestling matches in the playground at school (from very young up until the age of 17 when I finished) ... things like body hits only and slaps to the head and face. As long as no-one went psycho it was pretty good to get your energy out (and since there were always other boys standing around watching if someone did go psycho they were shut down pretty quickly so no-one ever got hurt badly).

bane 13y ago

Yeah sure, you didn't grow up boxing and wrestling with your friends? Hell, we used to have stick fights and beat each other with sticks, or play full contact football without any gear. We used to also climb all over parking structures, up and down trees, construction sites, ditches, rain water drains. One thing you learn from punching around with your buddies is the unwritten agreement of fairness. You only punch or slap as hard as you want to get punched or slapped. The golden rule works both ways! I thought I grew up in a pretty overly coddled time. Are things really this bad?

NamTaf 13y ago

Eh, there's a certain logic to saying 'boys are going to beat each other. Supervise it and let them vent it in a controlled manner and it's better for all'. We didn't have boxing, but teachers realised pretty early on that boys were going to play tackle rugby at lunch time, since from about grade 6 onwards it was offered as an extracurricular sport. The idea was that the kids and teachers reached an agreement that they'd let us play it if a teacher (usally one of the coaches of the school teams) was present to referee it and make sure we did it safely. It was a pretty good, common-sense solution to something that was going to happen anyway, so they instead went with risk-minimisation.

klh 13y ago

Yeap, boxing means the same in Kiwi English as it does in American English. The point is to get away from the cotton wool or 'Helicopter Parenting' model. If we don't allow kids to do the risky stuff then they don't until they reach adolescence. I am firmly of the opinion we have to get them doing it while they are young; while they still listen to us (parents, adults, etc) and while they are small and less strong. When we wrap them in cotton wool they reach adolescence with no understanding of risk but plenty of testosterone. Then they start to experiment without years of experience in informal risk assessment. I have also read of a school that is achieving higher academic results by encouraging Bullrush. Think rugby without a ball - tackling, running, dodging, actual physical contact (or American Football but without the stopping and without any pads, etc.)