My son is currently obsessed with Pokémon cards. I’d really rather he wasn’t. They’re expensive, and nothing is more boring than listening to a child wanging on about Pokémon. I got so sick of hearing about it that, in a show of exemplary parenting, I’ve paid him not to talk about it within earshot of me any more.
His teacher had noticed that her class was obsessed and had been theming her teaching around Pokémon. I can’t decide if she’s a genius for boosting their learning like this or a total git for adding fuel to the obsessive fire.
Trends like this have always been part of school life. They appear out of nowhere and take the playground by storm for a couple of months before fading away into nothing, ready for the next big fad to take over.
When I was at primary school, it was yo-yos - a fad that ended abruptly when the Year 6 teacher was smacked in the eye while someone was attempting to do ‘Around the World’.
The next craze was marbles, which ended equally badly when a dinner lady stood on a crop of them and did a spectacular Home Alone-style fall in the playground, resulting in a broken arm.
More recently, your school may have been invaded by fidget spinners, loom bands and JoJo bows.
But where do these trends come from and how can you spot them early so that you can prepare your defence in advance?
Transatlantic trends
There are ways to predict the next big thing before it happens. For starters, take note of what is popular in the US. Whatever is whipping kids into a frenzy there is likely to hit the UK soon afterwards. I first noticed fidget spinners trending on US craft site Etsy when I was Christmas shopping, and within six months everyone had one.
Keep tabs on ‘the influencer’
Another way is to identify your class influencer and listen to what they’re talking about. Class influencers are usually loud-mouthed, have well-off parents and are popular because anyone getting on the wrong side of them instantly becomes a social outcast. The chances are that if they like something, the rest of the class will follow.
Beware local store promos
Some trends, however, crop up out of nowhere. Take the “hatching alien eggs” that once took a tiny farming village school I worked at by storm. This was because the village shopkeeper had bought a job lot and was flogging them to every child who went in.
Of course, even if you fail to identify a trend before it begins, you can ignore the Twitter haters and jump on it, master it, and incorporate it into your lessons for extra cool points. Loom bands were excellent for class enterprise projects, fidget spinners were great for numeracy and science, and JoJo bows were…utterly pointless and have no place on the head of a 40-year-old teacher. I gave that one a miss.
Alternatively, resurrect something from your youth and attempt to start your own trend. And if you could hurry, that would be great. The sooner Pokémon cards are old news, the better.
Lisa Jarmin is an EYFS teacher and freelance writer
