Kids have probably been playing monster and hero games since Greek kids first played Minotaur. ("I want to be the Minotaur!" "No, you were the Minotaur last time! It's my turn! Roar!&quot No matter how the kids are "palying", there should be some safety-based rules about physical contact. Limit the contact, not the imagination.

I understand the ed-deformers motivation, but teachers get paid crap.

Is it having free reign to bully helpless children? Had a couple like that myself, but I think I got through it pretty much unscathed. But I never had any respect for authoritarians... or their opinions.

They encourage imagination and creative play. They simply do not want kids hurting other kids. sheesh

But they need better proof-reading. LOL

even one that has all the hallmarks of being fake.

I'm so relieved this was a friendly reply.

Okay, at the risk of showing just how big of a nerd I was growing up, I used to tie my jacket around my neck during recess and run around pretending I was "The Greatest American Hero" (a favorite show when I was a kid). We would also divide up into teams and play "GI:Joe". This always involved us kids running around like loons, spouting off cheesy cartoon rhetoric, and being all rough and tumble about it. Star Wars was also huge, with scavenged sticks and tree branches becoming powerful lightsabers. Anther favorite of mine was to pretend I was Spider-man. I would grab onto the swing set chain and imagine I was swinging to the rescue. We played dodge ball and recounted the tales of our glories in battle to all who would hear them. We got bruised up, scraped up, battered, and knocked around. It was an absolute blast. We of the generation of old would come home with our battle scars earned from going toe-to-to with Cobra agents, Sith lords, and other baddies and listen as our parents aked us what the hell happened. When told of the brave and fearless adventures we had embarked on, we would be promptly and properly bandaged and sent back out into the field. That was the whole pint of being a kid and letting your imgination run wild.
Now, kids in school cannot so much as stick out their tonue at another kid without someone crying foul and ranting about the potential harm it could do to our kids. It is as if the adults of today have forgotten what it means to be a child and how important such play is to their development into adults. I sincerely hope this trend over the last couple of decades comes to a crashing halt and people stop being so damned paranoid about such things.

There. Problem solved.

Violent and culturally insensitive. Neither of my kids' schools would ever allow that.

I think it's cute when the little one pretends to eat my brains.