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DEBATE: SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
Heart disease kills more people than minor cuts and grazes
In a day and age where Britain is getting fatter and the obesity rate is raising to one in four children, something needs to be done. Yes, parents may feel that their child will be at danger by playing games such as British Bulldog and tag, but they will be in danger of minor cuts and bruises, not life threatening conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Surely a simple assessment of the two risks reveals what the answer to this question is; lift the ban on British Bulldog.
Exercise is important for health, but it can be gained by playing other, less violent games than British Bulldog. Football or skipping are non-contact activities that also provide plenty of aerobic exercise without running the risk of broken bones.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
There are many health benefits to be gained by parents removing the cotton wool from around their children
Children are meant to be boisterous, they are meant to get dirty and get bruised. In fact, childhood is when people mature their immune system. A child should be exposed to natural dirt so their bodies are equipped to deal with such germs in adult life. So by removing the cotton wool, not only will children’s immune systems gain strength but they will also lose weight and be less likely to suffer from illnesses associated with lack of exercise such as high blood pressure. If we lifted the ban on British Bulldog, perhaps parents would see how their cotton wool is suffocating their child’s health.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
There are many social benefits too!
Childhood games such as British Bulldog gave children an opportunity to interact with each other. In a day and age where technology is so advanced it is taking over human interaction, such games are needed so children learn how to behave around other children.
If we were to ban all contact games in school playgrounds the only things children would play with at lunch time is personal stereos and handheld games. Children would have no awareness of how they should behave around other children. This lack of social awareness would then be transferred to adult life, making Britain a very isolated place.
Games based on violence, like British Bulldog, surely only teach children that the way to get ahead is to use brute force and shove anyone weaker than you out of the way. Unlike team sports, like football or even games like ‘Stuck in the mud’ where children have to work together, British Bulldog doesn’t teach children about team work.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
Playground sports will only be detrimental to obese children’s self esteem
Yes, children can be cruel, but unfortunately discrimination is part of life. You can’t ban any competitive situations just because some people will have to lose; that is no preparation for the real world.
Picking teams is always a traumatic time for the chubby kid; being the last fatty standing. Children are cruel and they may even insist that the obese children are not allowed to play on their team. Such a public rejection by their peers is deeply embarrassing and degrading. Not only will the obese child not play the game on such an occasion, but they would go home with a low self esteem and may comfort eat. Obese children may even comfort eat after a poor performance in one such game at school. Once obese, children need special attention with regard to exercise, not just shoved into the deep pool.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
compensation culture makes playground sports impossible
Britain is following America with regard to, among other things, their compensation culture. Places of work are being sued; professionals are being sued and public enterprises such as schools and hospitals are also being sued. If rough and tumble games are played at school, and a child gets hurt, a school could be left in the red after paying out a fortune in compensation. In a growing technological market, education is increasingly important and so educational institutions need to take all the precautions they can to keep open.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
the answer to obesity lays outside the school’s reach
As with anything, the buck for obesity is trying to be pushed elsewhere. Now we are hearing the banning of violent games from school playgrounds is to blame! However, boys were the main players of such games whilst girls sat around crayoning and plaiting hair. But girls were no more obese than boys back when obesity was described as an epidemic. So this shows that the banning of British Bulldog in playgrounds was not the cause of obesity and so lifting the ban will not be the solution to obesity.
SHOULD THE BAN ON THE PLAYGROUND GAME 'BRITISH BULLDOG' BE OVERTURNED IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBAT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
Lifestyle changes are needed, not child’s play
Merely lifting the ban on violent games such as British Bulldog will make no difference to our obesity epidemic. For a start, it is only helping children; obese parents need to be helped. If a child witnesses their parent slobbing on the sofa constantly when at school they will exhibit the same behaviour, regardless of whether contact games are allowed in the playground.
The energy that would be used by exercising in lunch time may not be enough for binging Britain. If the parents remained uneducated about food, and packing a stodgy pack lunch for their obese child, a game of British Bulldog may not even burn off the calories of the lunch, let alone their breakfast and tea.
Unfortunately there are no quick solutions to obesity, we need a British reformation.
