Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020066
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On this scorched earth the swimming pool is the only cool place, and it is packed with kids, bobbing and splashing and hollering: Mar-co! Po-lo! Mar-co! Po-lo! Mar-co! Po-lo!
Day after day, hour after hour, it goes on. What is it about this aquatic version of blind man's bluff that so addicts children? From the time they get their first plastic water wings until they're nigh old enough to vote, it's Mar-co! Po-lo! Mar-co! Po-lo!
In fact, it's good, chlorine-clean fun. It also may help children develop lung power. (The rules require a swimmer designated as ``it'' to close his or her eyes while other players scatter. When ``it'' shouts Mar-co!, all others must shout Po-lo! until ``it,'' arms flailing, tags someone.) It may also, after enough hours of it, drive adults off the deep end.
It seems unlikely, though, to inspire an interest in world history. In a recent story about the game, The Washington Post asked several Virginia youngsters if they knew who Marco Polo was. Most hadn't a clue. (``There's some disease called polo,'' one girl guessed. ``That's polio,'' said her brother. )
One 10-year-old boy, of all the children interviewed, knew that Marco Polo was ``some sort of explorer, like of China or something.'' Asked how he knew about the 13th century Italian trader who traveled in central Asia and China, the Alexandria fifth-grader said, ``Whenever I'm bored, I read the encyclopedia.''
Might all kids tire soon of Mar-co Po-lo? Might one shout, ``Everybody out of the pool - let's head for the library''? Pool-sidelined adults best not hold their breath.
by CNB