Garbage Pail Kids, Silly Bandz, Fidget Spinners… Oh My!

When I was little, I loved Garbage Pail Kids.

I bought them every time I went to the gas station when we stopped to get my snack for school. I couldn’t wait to tear open the pack and show them to my friends. Yes, they were a slight bit crude and tasteless, but I loved them! Everyone my age did. It was the “toy” to collect for quite a while. The highlight of every pack was that little stick of gum. I’m sure my teachers hated me and every other kid bringing those things to school. They were after all “sooooooo offensive” and most assuredly, a complete distraction to the rigorous learning I was supposed to be participating in. Imagine if the teachers had capitalized on those cards, allowing students to create our versions of them. What if Garbage Pail Kids were used to teach different ELA strategies? Personally, I think they would have made for a great lesson in supply and demand, marketing, advertising, etc. I digress. They missed out on a great learning opportunity. Instead, the cards were banned, marked as evil, and had no place in- well organized classrooms of desks in rows and worksheets in ready piles.

Fast forward to my classroom some 30 years later, and it wasn’t Garbage Pail Kids that stormed my classroom, but Silly Bandz, Bey Blades, Tech Decks, and the almighty Hot Cheetos. We certainly can’t forget the great bottle flipping war that hit us all with such force that it shook us to our core.

With each of these fads, some districts, administrators, & teachers seemed to go into full on emergency preparedness mode as they drafted well thought out plans of attack to keep these education- killers out of the classroom. These “toys” have no place in the classroom. Only books and worksheets can teach you anything. Right? Along with a beautifully written lesson plan! I specifically remember hearing a school-wide announcement about the Silly Bandz ban and having to send  a note home to parents informing them of their banishment from the school.
Now that I think about it… how embarrassing that my 21st Century education delivery methods were threatened by a little piece of rubber shaped like an animal or super hero.

The same thing happened with Bey Blades. We labeled them dangerous and kids were told to never ever take them out of their bookbags. I will admit that I saw a kid get popped in the face with one, and there may have been some blood, but I’ve also seen kids stab themselves with pencils and eat the glue while making an art project, but we didn’t put out a PSA about the dangers of pencils and glue in the classroom, nor did we ban them from the building. We simply developed strategies over time to teach children the correct use of tools. Kids do not come to school knowing proper math and science skills, but you don’t see us kicking those subjects out of the building do you?

This brings me to the latest weapon to launch its war against classroom learning… those dreaded fidget spinners. If you’ve lived under a rock and haven’t seen one in action, check them out here. According to Wikipedia, the spinners were invented in 1997 by an American woman named Catherine A. Hettinger, but only recently have they become popular amongst students.

Oh the stories and complaints I’ve heard from some educators. “These things are nightmare,” exclaimed one teacher on Facebook. Another complained from her blog, “I’m just trying to do my job!” Another wrote that the fidget spinners were a “threat to America.” I’m sure she didn’t mean a literal threat to our democracy, but that’s quite a big statement to make nonetheless.

It seems appropriate here that I remind everyone that I’m not currently in the classroom for this latest battle between teachers and an evil toy, but as mentioned above, I did face the battle of Silly Bandz, the attack of the Bey Blades, and there was even a surprise resurgence of Pokémon cards while I was at the helm of the class. I do have a bit of expertise in fighting off all that would threaten our sacred educational norms. What norms? You know… kids should be sitting. In silence. Working. All day everyday. No exceptions. That’s the only way they will learn. Ever. Anything that challenges those ideals must be stopped immediately. Thus, all the bans of fidget spinners and anything else that may take away from our talking all day.

As a professional development leader for teachers across the country, I’d like to help develop us all a bit in regard to our knee jerk reactions to situations in education. So often we overreact rather than capitalizing on teachable moments.  Think of the impact our perspectives have on learning and pedagogical best practice. Let’s talk about the real reasons we want to ban these spinners (and other items like them).

I know that last point may ruffle some feathers, but pause for a moment and let’s reflect. My job is to help develop educators professionally. Development, often times, requires a good hard look in the mirror, and sometimes what we see isn’t what we want.

Rather than complaining on social media and banning everything fun from the buildings, here is what I think we should let the world see and hear from us as educators when one of these pop culture fads, like the spinners, invades our space.

A fantastic, super-duper, awesome educator would figure out how to connect these spinners to classroom learning experiences and make the most of the last few weeks of school.

The next time May rolls around, and you’re distracted by all of the end of the year work, and some new fad tries to attack your classroom, think about the fantastic, super-duper, awesome educators, and choose your response wisely. Don’t overreact.