Silly Bandz Bracelet Craze: School Ban Over Distraction

Silly Bandz Bracelet Craze: School Ban Over Distraction


The Bandz are now contraband. Schools in several states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, have blacklisted Silly Bandz, those stretchy, colorful bracelets that are creeping up the forearms of school kids across the U.S. And starting this week, all 800-some kids at my son's elementary school in Raleigh, N.C., were commanded to leave at home their collections of rubber band–like bracelets, which retail for about $5 per pack of 24. What could possibly be so insidious about a cheap silicone bracelet?

"It's a distraction," says Jill Wolborsky, a fourth-grade teacher at my son's school, who banned them from her classroom before the principal implemented a schoolwide ban. One student stole some confiscated Bandz from her desk, choosing them over the cash in her drawer. (See pictures of teens in America.)

Students fiddle with them during class and arrange swaps - trading, say, a bracelet with a mermaid for one with a dragon - when they should be concentrating on schoolwork, teachers say. Sometimes a trade goes bad - kids get buyer's remorse too - and hard feelings, maybe even scuffles, ensue.

That's what prompted Karen White, principal of Snow Rogers Elementary School in Gardendale, Ala., in October to become one of the first administrators to forbid students their Bandz. "We try not to limit their freedom of expression and what they wear, but when this became a problem, I knew we had to nip it in the bud pretty quickly," says White, who has since extended an olive branch in the form of monthly Silly Bandz days. (See pictures of a public boarding school in Washington, D.C.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100527/us_time/08599199179700

School districts highly concerned with the "distraction" of clothing, not so much with the "distraction" of bullying. :eyes:

Pokemon cards? Marbles?

Yet another in a long and never-ending line . . .

Pogs were popular when my youngest was in that late elementary-school age. The difference is, kids didn't have the Pogs out on their desks all the time, distracting from lessons and attention. You would probably think it was totally reasonable if a teacher said, "No Pogs on your desk and no playing with Pogs during class time."

These bracelets, because they are as much attire as toy and trading pieces, are always out, always distracting, and always playable with. I'm for the ban. They can come out at recess time.

Some fad comes along, and consumes the minds of the young. My comment was more in the way of Ecclesiastes' observation that there is nothing new under the sun. While the actual playing with Pogs was usually reserved for recesses, there was no shortage of discussion, display (covert or overt), and so forth, in the sort of obsession that is the province of the very young.

I'm for the ban, too. But it's not like this is the first (or last) in a very long line.

to two children who are obsessed with them, I'm glad they banned them. Way too distracting, especially with them trading etc.

them because they were dangerous.

What about teaching children self-restraint? Of course, the idea of consequences for behavior is now a dead concept in America - if you are powerful enough. So these little ones are being taught early that they are not trusted and not held accountable for making a bad choice.

Schools almost out. They'll be a new fad next year to replace these Silly Bands. Chill out and let the kids be kids.

making a bad trade. A lot can be learned from that as we all probably know from experience and the younger you learn "buyer's remorse" the better it's going to suit you in your future trades and transactions.

it's the emotional aftermath (hard feelings and scuffles) that increase the distraction quotient. The problem is the distraction, not the consequence of a poor 'economic' decision.

I teach at the college level and ban all electronic devices (except medical devices - I'm not suggesting someone turn off their pacemaker) because of the level of distraction they cause. Laptops to take notes? Okay, with the understanding that I WILL wander by on occasion and check that they are taking notes and not surfing the Web (common) or checking their email (even more common). One strike and the laptop is out, unless they have a qualified medical excuse - bad handwriting doesn't count - to use one.

I don't really care if they pay attention and I can't force them to learn - it's their choice to be there and their choice to make what they will of the opportunity - but the use of the gadgets is a distraction to other students who may have more interest in learning.