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Comment by antipodean | Hacker News Reader

I grew up in New Zealand in the 80s. Bullrush, 3-story high flying foxes on school property, huge trees, open farmland, unsupervised cross-country runs: no adults around were par for the course except if someone broke a bone (which I remember happening in my community twice in 10 years) and we managed ourselves. We like to think we're a good outdoor lot of people and many of us adults have been horrified to think our kids can't grow up like we did.

What I saw in this video was like looking back 30 years and it made me happy. You're underestimating our kids to think we can't let them loose for a good game of bullrush and they are more aware that they are being watched than actually just playing the rules of the game. Also remember that Rugby is New Zealand's national sport and these kids grow up watching it and knowing the rules. I'd bet some of those kids end up in the All Blacks.

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I did too. So I just wanted to mention that it was exactly the same for me. Just like you said: bullrush, rugby, flying foxes, the chance to run around and be kid. I went to a catholic school run by nuns at that age, so they would walk around and make sure that nothing got out of hand. And it never did.

Thing one thing I would say is that it was a different time and I think we have became more fearful of the potential dangers out there. We are presented with extreme events and begin to think that this is the way of the world. Parents (rightfully) become fearful for their children. But, for a lot of us, we are lucky and live in a very safe environments, and in such environments children should be aloud to explore, imagine, and enjoy their childhoods.

Edit: a flying-fox is what we call in NZ and Australia a 'zip line' I believe. Still find them in New Zealand across the country in public parks but not any, I believe, schools these days. How else do you get kids to run up 3 flights of stairs 20 times during lunch?

a quick look on google maps revealed that the flying fox at my intermediate is still there, admittedly it's not as high as most in public parks that i remember

I grew up in the 90s (in NZ...), we also had all of that. However I can say from years 5-9 there was bullying, but not much, but it grew way out of control when things were taken away... The last couple of years at primary school, we were not allowed to play bullrush, not allowed to play tackle rugby, flying fox was gone, not allowed to climb trees, too many restrictions on taking equipment out (for things like soccer/cricket)

Bullying grew more and more, i suspect because we were doing less at playtime and spending more time hassling each other.

I got into far too many fights towards the end of primary school than my first couple of years.

Another New Zealander here, there's merit to encouraging safety consciousness in children. An injury like a broken back (That most people think will "never happen to them") can doom someone for life. Teaching rigorous safety consciousness in children should result in some of that safety consciousness sticking around into adulthood.

That being said, I also think rugby is a silly game.

>Teaching rigorous safety consciousness in children

Yes, watching the video reminded me that no-one taught me how to tackle when I was playing Rugby as a skinny 11 year old. Good to see the kids at the school have someone to help them avoid those common injuries and still get some decent play in.

Upvote for calling rugby a silly game. I went to a rugby playing school and it drove me nuts to be interrupted every three seconds by the whistle. It was psychological torture. I wandered off the pitch one day and joined the losers, punks and scrawny deadbeats playing soccer on a rough sloping field with the goalposts marked out by jumpers. Bugger rugby.

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