Teacher Don't You Fill Me Up With Your Rules

School starts next week, which means that we're back to following all of the arcane rules that our admininstrators have dug up for the kids to follow. Here are the three that bug me the most:

1. No running on the blacktop. What? Aren't skinned knees pretty much a right of passage for kids in elementary school? Furthermore, how are kids supposed to learn their limits if somebody is always stepping in to save them before they discover how fast they can run, how high they can climb, or how big of a kid they can bully before they get hurt?

2. No red or blue. Middle schools don't allow red or blue clothing because they are gang colors. Red for the Bloods, blue for the Crips. Or if you're from California, red for Nortenos and blue for Surenos. I support the school's need to prevent gang activity in schools, but are the light blue accents on my middle-class white son's shoes really going to suck him into a swirling vortex of gang violence?

3. No skateboarding. Again, I understand the need for limits, but in a society where children being 20 to 30 pounds overweight is completely normal, shouldn't we be encouraging them do be more physically active?

What dumb school rules can you think of?