Are Todays Kids Too Soft?

There was an item recently featured in one ofswimming test as possible, the school's sports
the newspapers, which questioned whether theteacher offered her encouragement by whispering
kids of today were missing out on life'sto each of us upon entering the water. She
experiences and asked if the children wereadvised that we should keep our legs well away
growing up too soft, in this age of the computer.from the weeds, as we might get them
Todays kids, so the article argued, unlike those ofentangled and drawn down into a watery grave.
previous generations, sought excitement throughThe effect of this advice was electrifying. The
playing computer games rather than experiencingtouch of a weed merely brushing against a foot,
adventures, playing in the great outdoors.Thebrought about an immediate panic striken burst of
article got me thinking.energy which propelled the swimmer along the
Do children no longer play cowboys and indians incanal at amazing speed. Many records were
the woods armed with bows and arrows, or havebroken that day. Needless to say the whole class
mock battles with wooden swords and shields?passed, with special commendations given to the
No more trolley races, birds nesting or secretpupils who were seen attempting to walk across
hideouts in the hedgerows where we attemptedthe surface in their panic to avoid the weeds.
to smoke the twine from a tree. Personally, I amMany years have passed since those days and I
not certain that yesterday's more rigorousreflect on how things have changed since then.
upbringinging was preferable but it had to be moreWhat would the 'health and safety' brigade say if
fun.teachers attempted the same today. On another
I have been swimming for as long back as I canoccasion the school arranged to take the class to
remember, I suppose I must have been about 8visit the largest employer in the town. All we
years old and attending junior school in a smallyoungsters knew about the place was that bacon
rural town in England. There were no facilitieswas made there, the means by which this was
there for this activity, but there was the fastachieved did not occur to us. Determined to
flowing river Dart that ran through the town. Iceeducate us into the finer details, we were herded
cold, after tumbling down from the heights ofinto the area where the raw material 'on hoof'
Dartmoor, I now shudder to think that wewas being unloaded from lorries. At this point we
children swam there, oblivious of the waterwere all delighted to be amongst the animals and
temperature and the danger the river posed. Iall of us children chased around the pigs
reckon that we had anti freeze running throughattempting to pet one; the full horror of what
our blood.was about to happen didn't occur to us. It was
Running parallel to the river was a length of canal,but a few minutes later that the teachers
drawn off from the river further upstream whichushered us in single file passed the stunning pen,
fed the needs of the local abottoir. The canal wasfollowed by the slaughter pen where a few flecks
where the schools' annual swimming tests wereof blood, that ran like a river between the feet of
held and the time duly came for class 4B tothe slaughter man, landed on the clean white
assemble there one grey cold morning. We wereblouse of one of the girls who promptly collapsed
instructed to strip down to our swimming trunksin a faint. Undeterred in their determination to give
and line up on the edge of the canal. I have nous a good grounding in education, the teachers led
recollection of any of the teachers similarlythe rest of us through the bristle burning,
prepared.scrubbing, deboweling, slicing and chopping
Those of us, thought less likely to drown, weredepartments. We were finally led into one of the
encouraged to enter the canal and swim betweenlarge curing kilns and remained there for what
markers that had been chalked onto the concreteseemed an age, no doubt intended to ingrain the
edge of the canal. If successful, a certificate waslesson that we had just received.
to be awarded, proclaiming to the world, that theThe pupils of class 4B finally emerged into the
bearer had been judged proficient in swimming asunlight. Like walking wounded wearing blank
distance of 25 yards. The bottom of the canalexpressions, speechless, with faces the colour of
was thick with long weeds which swayed in thealabaster, we were greeted by the factory
current, making it impossible to determine themanager, who handed to each and everyone of
true depth of water. In order to boost her ownus a complimentary packet of bacon.
standing, by getting as many pupils through theThey don't make kids like that anymore.