(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)
This story is very personal for me seeing how every person I am friends with or meet for the first time gets a variation of a hug.
The response is usually “why is this person hugging me?” but the awkward moment subsides when they realize that anyone who hugs strangers is crazy enough to kill you. They smile, laugh, and eventually give up on feeling weird and associate my presence with a hug. Eventually, they think i’m awesome.
And now, all the kids realize that hugging is cool. So of course, “the man” bans it….
Comforting as the hug may be, principals across the country have clamped down. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School, a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., who banned hugging two years ago. “It was needless hugging – they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.”
Schools that have limited hugging invoked longstanding rules against public displays of affection, meant to maintain an atmosphere of academic seriousness and prevent unwanted touching, or even groping.
But pro-hugging students say it is not a romantic or sexual gesture, simply the “hello” of their generation. “We like to get cozy,” said Katie Dea, an eighth grader at Claire Lilienthal Alternative School in San Francisco. “The high-five is, like, boring.”
Some sociologists said that teenagers who grew up in an era of organized play dates and close parental supervision are more cooperative with one another than previous generations – less cynical and individualistic and more loyal to the group.
But Amy L. Best, a sociologist at George Mason University, said the teenage embrace is more a reflection of the overall evolution of the American greeting, which has become less formal since the 1970s. “Without question, the boundaries of touch have changed in American culture,” she said. “We display bodies more readily, there are fewer rules governing body touch and a lot more permissible access to other people’s bodies.”
Indeed, this is a phenomenon that is gripping the nation:
Massachusetts:
Connecticut:
Virginia:
Protest against it too
And now? New jersey.
This is a generation gap that is keeping children from loving each other in order to teach them the “rules” of acceptable behavior in the real world.
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Teh kidz aren’t shooting each other up at school anymore!
as well, right?. To our national shame 22 states still allow it. To their credit NJ, a focus of the no-hug article, disallows CP.
But of course, kids trading hugs is not the same. Nor is it in any way bad, harmful or perverting. These school scolds are digging deep, really deep for something innocuous to get flustered over.
“Needless hugging”? Words fail.
making out in the hallway is still OK, right?
’til they send the cops in after this guy?
I might indeed name it “needless hugging”, which is just great.
As Homer Simpson might say, “It works on so many levels!”
I thought this just applied to teachers hugging students (I do the arm-around the shoulder Michelle-to-Queen hug with students).
Kids can’t hug each other?! Woa.
What about the “tent-hug” and air kiss?
they called it in a recent sci-fi movie. Can you name it!