Fidget Spinners: A Classroom Controversy
When I was in elementary and middle school, I remember multiple things being banned in the classroom: Tech Decks, Pokémon/Yu-Gi-Oh!/regular playing cards, even paper Beyblades that kids would make and spin like tops on their desks.
But recently, a new “trend” has given rise to a new potentially banned item in the classroom: fidget spinners.
Fidget spinners were introduced shortly after the release of the Kickstarter-funded Fidget Cube, a six-sided die that features a different fidget mechanism on each face of the cube. I have one of my own, given to me by a good friend to help with my anxiety. I absent-mindedly fidget with rings I’m wearing, clicking pens, chewing pencils, and, worst of all, I pick at the skin around my fingernails to the point where I bleed. With the fidget cube, I can fidget with any one side of the die rather than bother other people with noise or peel away the skin around my fingernails.
This is what the fidget spinner aims to do — allow people to fidget noiselessly wherever they are. Both fidget mechanisms, the spinner and the cube, offer a minimal and pocket-sized design to allow portability. They are designed to help people with ADHD, autism, and anxiety to allow them to focus on tasks at hand rather than tap a pencil, let their minds become cluttered to the point of not doing anything, clicking pens, or any other “distraction of choice.” They are also said to help instill creativity, and all around they are just tiny items that allow for an outlet for people to quietly relieve their stresses.
However, the fidget spinner has recently become a trend for some reason. YouTube personalities of all kinds are making fun of fidget spinners, creating a comedic and parodying world surrounding the fidget spinners. Jokes among social media add into the “meme” of fidget spinners, basically painting the tools as unnecessary and, for lack of a better word, stupid.
Fidget spinners are not stupid. Fidget spinners were made as tools for those who need a way to help them focus. They are being treated like toys for some reason (personally, that seems like a really boring toy, to be honest), and it is creating controversy within the classroom. So much controversy in fact that some teachers in some schools are looking to ban the fidget spinners from being in the classroom, under claims that they are a “distraction,” just like Tech Decks, trading cards, and Beyblades.
However, unlike the previously listed distractions, the fidget spinners are clearly the exact opposite. They are tools, coping mechanisms, and outlets for stress and scattered brains. The children using these as toys are only making it more difficult for those that use them as tools.