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Lament of the fidget spinner

June 1, 2017
By Robyn Barberry
Filed Under: Blog, Unconditional

This is a response to Rita Buettner’s blog post singing the praises of fidget spinners. Though I’m a huge fan of Rita AND her poem, I can’t stand fidget spinners. Although they are not a problem in my art classes at St. Joan of Arc School, I can’t imagine trying to teach with a whole bunch of those atrocities spinning around the room!P.S. I did buy one for my seven-year-old son Collin at 7/11 one morning as a bribe because I wanted him to go for a run with me. It does not go to school with him. (But, if it does, it will be finding a new home!)

This obnoxious toy from 7/11,

Has nearly every kid in heaven,

But as a teacher and as a mom,

They’re getting in the way of my job!

These spinners move and twirl, you see,

Disrupting and disturbing me!

What’s that sound? That whir? That hum?

It’s coming from Sylvester’s thumb!

“Stop!” I say, then with a clang

It hits the table with a bang!

And then before me, colors fly,

A metallic rainbow across the sky.

I cannot focus in the noise

And chaos caused by these obnoxious toys!

“Put them away!” I tell the class.

“Or they’re mine!” They disappear fast.

When Grandad taught, it was comic books,

And baseball cards; they’re what he took.

He brought them home to my dad,

A Nolan Ryan rookie card he has!

I said “School is not the place for toys,”

When I broke down and gave a fidget spinner to my own boy.

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Robyn Barberry

Robyn Barberry is married to her high school sweetheart, Patrick. They are raising four imaginative and adventurous children, one of whom has autism.

Robyn teaches English at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore and is a former art and language arts teacher at St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen, where she worships with her family.

Robyn earned an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College in 2011 and she has been blogging for the Catholic Review since 2012. If she could have dinner with any living person, it would be Pope Francis.

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