Problem Solved

We've had a "problem" in the 3-5's class these last few weeks with gun play.

If it were up to me, I'd allow gun play at Woodland Park, with certain restrictions, such as only aiming at people who are also playing the game and having to stop if someone is scared, but it's not up to me. The Woodland Park 3-5's class makes its own rules and they always ban guns, real and pretend. (For a complete and hilarious list of last year's rules, click here.)

I tend to deal with this conflict between my own opinions and the group consensus by turning a blind eye toward gun play that is self-contained, but lately we've had a couple of younger guys prowling around the place, weapons raised, faces fierce, leaving no doubt as to their intention. On Monday, they had chosen a pair of long sticks as their surrogate hardware. When their friends pointed out this clear violation of the rules, they dropped their weapons and, for the time being, we were back to being a weapon-free zone. But as long as there are young boys around, the threat of re-arming is just a found stick away.

An example of "approved" stick play

Later as I admired a particularly deep hole in the sandpit, Max informed me, "We're burying all the weapons." And sure enough, upon further inspection I saw that the hole was only secondary to the real project. A group of the older guys had collected all the stick they could find, mounded them in the sandpit and were shoveling sand onto them. "Then we're going to blow them up with a bomb."

Problem solved.