Well, if you have a child aged between about 6-11 you will already know all you need to about these small plastic creatures that come in packets of 3 for 99p. They are the latest craze among school-children, and a great craze they too.
I took my son into school late a couple of weeks ago. It was break time and it was lovely to see groups of children, heads down, concentrating on a game of go-gos. Everywhere I looked there were groups and huddles of kids and small, brightly-coloured creatures on the ground, bench or table in front of them. Harking back to the days before marbles were banned, it was a wonderful sight.
I know many people might not agree with me, not least the teachers who have to sort out disputes involving who owns which go-go and whether the games was actually for keeps or not. But I think it is a great game. It encourages co-operation, turn-taking, sharing and competition. All of these are good things, things we want to instill in our children. Who-ever came up with the idea had a stroke of genius that I am sure the company that produces them recognises. Marbles were banned in schools on the grounds that children could slip over on them, being little glass balls. No such problem with go-gos, which are all different shapes, but stand up on their little feet. Every one of them is designed to balance across one finger for ease of throwing, and the games are all basically the same games that were played with marbles before they were a threat to health and safety.
My nephew’s school has already taken the step of banning them, and I am sure others up and down the country have done so or are on the verge of following suit. My son’s school has taken a more enlightened approach, merely limiting the numbers by telling the children they may only bring 5 each in to school each day. This is still a staggering 2000 go-gos in a school with 400 pupils, but more manageable than the 12,000 that were previously in the place with the average pupil having about 30 of them. If they all managed to collect the full set of 80 different go-gos there could be a staggering 32,000 small plastic creatures in the school (over £10,000 worth in just one school!). Resolving the resultant disputes, misunderstandings and thefts would be a full-time job, reducing the time available for lessons to none whatsoever. So it is quite understandable that schools see the need to limit these toys. But banning them? Schoolchildren have far too few of these diversions left to them (no marbles or conkers or yo-yos – all banned). I say let them keep go-gos. The craze will die down and it will be a smaller proportion of the playground who retains an interest after a while. And that will be manageable.
