I've been following the adventures of J. on Mildly Melancholy lately, and apparently the latest trend at her school
is knitting. Oddly, kids at her school just can't get enough of it. And there are certainly worse ways kids could occupy their time.
I once taught special ed., and there was a clique of women in my department who knitted furiously every free minute they had. They frightened me a little for some reason. But they never caused any trouble, as far as I knew.
I can't help but wonder, though--if kids at my school got caught carrying sharp knitting needles around school, they'd probably get in trouble for carrying potential weapons. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be if kids in my daughter's schools were carrying long pointy implements around. How many years has it been since metal butter knives in school cafeterias were replaced with plastic? Perhaps they did that for expediency rather than safety, but a knitting needle could potentially do more damage than a butter knife.
So am I just paranoid about this, or is it a perfectly healthy pastime for kids in school?