Pupils’ calming toy driving teachers crazy
IT was supposed to calm nerves, relieve stress and improve concentration but a new anti-fidget toy spreading fast through US and European schools is whipping up anger among teachers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Just months after the fidget spinner first whirled its way into the hands of antsy youngsters, some schools have already banned it – prompting a debate about difficulties children experience concentrating.
“The fidget spinners came out of nowhere, and then it seemed every other kid had them,” Meredith Daly, a sixth-grade teacher at a public school outside Phoenix, Arizona, said.
“The kids would say, ‘Oh it helps me calm down’. I did not really know what to think at first.”
Sold for just a few dollars, the spinning top-like gadget divided into two or three branches, has proved a surprise hit.
The spinners have the advantage of being silent, Daly said. But it quickly became clear that “you need to keep it going, they [pupils] want to look at it spinning around – it is too distracting if you are trying to learn something new”.
Like many American teachers who have recently vented their irritation on Twitter, Daly tolerates them only at parents’ express request, or when the need arises, as is sometimes the case for children with attention problems, hyperactivity or certain forms of autism.
Other schools in the US, France and England have banned them, even during breaks, much to the annoyance of children like Tom Wuestenberg.
“It would help [to have them in school]. If I don’t want to do my work anymore, I take my fidget, do a little spin and then get back to work,” the eight-year-old New Yorker, originally from Belgium, says.
Noelle Cullimore, of Long Island, said spinning helps her 10-year-old son, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to relax.
But it is not just for kids. Adults also like to use spinners as a way to burn out stress, Global Toy Expert chief executive Richard Gottlieb said. “People do want to fidget,” he said. As annoying as it may be, many teachers recognise that more children need to play with something in their hands to concentrate better, and are now more tolerant of pupils clicking pens or tapping their feet.
Stress balls and wiggle seats were common in schools, Daly said. – AFP