 What causes popular toys to get banned from schools? Well, sometimes it takes much less than you think. Or more than you think. Here are five toys that got banned from schools:
Pogs: if you were alive in the early 90s there's no way you’d forget about pogs (unless you did forget about them), and if you were born after the year 2000 then you most likely have no idea what this game is. Pogs, a round shape disc about the size of a milk cap, is a game that first became popular in Hawaii in 1992. The game play is fairly simple. The only thing you need to get started is a collection of pogs and a few friends. Each person starts of with a stack of pogs and one or more “slammers”. One by one each player throws down their slammer at other players pogs. At the end of each throw the thrower collects all the pogs that landed face-up. This is the part of the game that eventually got pogs into trouble with some schools. Some kids were actually playing for keeps, which meant that the winner would be going home with other kids pogs. This arrangement caused some salty tears. It wasn’t long before several schools decided to ban them. According to New York Times, pogs got banned from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Washington, ect. Silly bandz: Could you imagine something so harmless-sounding could ever get banned from schools. Believe it or not these stretchy bands got banned from schools in New York, Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts. A few years ago these object shaped bands were popular among teens and younger children. No matter where you went you were likely to see these bands on at least one young adult or child. Soon these accessories became all-consuming. Kids started to trade these bands at school, talked about them in the middle of class, and desiring them more than they desired to learn. As the trading of silly bandz became more and more popular, it became increasingly common to see children getting buyer’s remorse wanting “trade backs” and even getting in to little fights over it. At this point, several teachers around the United States began to take notice and started to banning this toy from their schools. It wasn't long before school administrators realized how distracting this toy had become. Pokémon cards: Way back in the early two thousands there wasn't anything more exciting than cracking open a fresh pack of Pokémon cards (other than more exciting things, of course). Inside each precious pack was the unknown just waiting to be discovered. Would there be a holographic charizard inside or would there only be meager blastoise? It never mattered all too much because the real joy of pokémon cards came from the simple act of collecting them. Kids would store their massive amounts of cards in huge CD binders. Once someone had amassed an impressive amount of cards it was time to start trading. True pokémon fanatics would trade any chance they got and would spend their whole lunch break or home room time trying to beef up their deck. In certain circles, some pokémon players would even be willing to shell out some of their lunch money to try to purchase a highly leveled card. Once money and trade got mixed in with the pokémon world, schools started to take notice. Before long they realized that there was a veritable bizarre going on under their noses, and once they saw that younger kids were being taken advantage of for their rare cards and that massive amounts of money were being spent every day, teachers were quick to “out law” the use of this toy in their schools. These teachers felt they had to ban them all. Tamagotchi: In the late 90s the ultimate electronic pet, tamagotchi, hit the scene. Within weeks of its release this electronic companion became one of the most successful electronic toys of it’s time. When you first turn a tamagotchi on your greeted with a nice little egg, once you set the toys clock the egg begins to wiggle and eventually it hatches in to a cute little pet. From here the toy owner begins to have a lot of responsibility to keep track of. There are several different aspects of taking care of this virtual pet all of which are represented by different meters. The hunger meter,(measures how often you need to feed your pet, if you don't do this often enough the little guy can pass away). There is also a happy meter, bracelet meter, and a discipline meter. Needless to say a lot of time goes in to taking care of a tamagotchi. Can you imagine how frustrated teachers must have been to see kids focusing on all of these meters, instead of on their schooling. When teachers were able to get their students to detach from their virtual pets it wasn't to long before their tamagotchis would fall ill. This caused many kids to get incredibly emotional and caused even more eruption in the class room. Because of all of this teachers across the country quickly stared banning these cute virtual pets from their classrooms. Heelys: What do you get when you cross the unpredictability of roller skates and everyday usage of sneakers? Well, you get heelys and a ton of broken arms, wrists and a bunch of scrapes and bruises. In the early 2000s these dangerous sneakers hit the stores. By 2006 nearly 4 millon pairs had been sold. On high school campuses around the country young teens could be seen scooting and scraping from class to class. Once the skaters got their hands on these foot holders, they brought heelys to a whole new level. It was not long before shopping malls started to ban the use of heelys as they began to see more and more kids rolling through their stores. Realizing the clear safety risk these new shoes posed, schools across the country soon stared banning heelys as well. The decision to forbid students from using these shoes on campus ultimately came from a place of care. Story by Zhada Johnson Source: Youtube.com Comments are closed.
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