Squeezing All the Fun Out of School

My daughter, Ellen, age 9, brought home a 2-sided flyer from school the other day. Here it is:

Also coupled with a “no cupcake” school policy, my daughter’s costume actually made it through the above check-point-standards.

Ellen is going to be a genie for Halloween, but she has to put on her costume in the school lavatory sometime around "noonish," tomorrow, anyway, because she isn’t allowed to wear it to school. OK. Not a big deal.

While Halloween certainly shouldn’t be the focus of school, it still will be the focus of school for many of our children. And, some may argue that Halloween is a celebration of Satan or something like that, but I scratch my head and wonder where all the fun has gone in school. But, getting ultra-particular and hyper-sensitive about Halloween isn’t what this blog post is really about. Halloween is just one of the many casualties of educators who might squeeze the fun out of school.

Which leads me to think: As we tell students “No” about a lot of things each day, are we missing all of the “Yes” opportunities that engage learning and socialization, make school fun, and create memories for years to come?