A colleague at work told me a few days ago how his son’s primary school had banned trading cards. The students had been taking them in to swap but the school had decided there had been too many arguments and prohibition was the way to solve it. It reminded me of a similar time at my primary school and how I’d been more fortunate with World Cup football stickers in 1986. We’d had similar problems, I’d probably been involved. Our Head realised it for the teachable moment that it was. She came in the next day with her own collection and was out in the playground for days with us doing swaps. It felt like a real missed opportunity to now hear about the education system treating learning about relationships and emotions as something that was obstructing ‘studies’ when I’d seen a better way. (I’ve still got my album, and yes, it’s full)
Fear and Loathing in the Playground
