Zombie Chase vs. Tag

I read in the newspaper that the child’s game tag is going the way of dodge ball, some schools are getting rid it. Pretty soon the only fun time left at school will be lunch and that already is one of the most popular subjects second often only to recess. Here is something I think contradicts the idea of getting rid of tag, Zombie Chases. They actually had an organized and a publicized Zombie Chase event in Jacksonville the other day and this is the time of year when these events are popping up all over. Zombies can chase kids for fitness and fun but tag on the playground at recess for fitness and fun is out. True the parents got to dress up as zombies to chase the kids and if they tagged the kids with a sticker it meant the kid had been bitten so there was an element of fitness and fun for the parents too. Still tagging someone you’re chasing while dressed as a zombie with a sticker sounds a lot like the outlawed game kids play at school, tag. Instead of tag, you’re it, just substitute tag, you’re bit. And then there are a lot of playground versions of the child’s game of tag, freeze tag and toilet tag, a variation on freeze tag, are some of my favorites. In freeze tag you get a rest when you’re tagged and frozen until another player unfreezes you by tagging you again. In toilet tag (yes, this really is a game-I am not just making it up) when you get tagged you squat into a seated pose and hold up one hand (the flush handle) and wait for a player to come sit on your lap (they really don’t actually sit because there isn't time for that) and flush so you can be unfrozen and run again. When Twilight was all the rage vampires were it and chased their classmates at recess so the zombies are probably playing a version of tag these days too. I’m thinking when it comes to childhood obesity the tag playing (and running) dead beat the walking dead every time. To me it seems unfair after all the teaching to the standardized test that goes on in the classrooms to stifle the creativity and imagination of the kids on the playground too. I say let them play.