Exacto Knives for Children...do you see any logic?



That's right...this is an exacto knife shaped like a cute little school bus.
I took this from a student who started using it in class a few months ago. My first week teaching I had an unforgettable encounter with an exacto knife. I gave my students an activity involving cutting paper so handed out 6 pairs of scissors...one for every 2 students. I notice the little shy boy (8 yrs old) in the back acting a bit strange so I walked over to see what was going on. As he bashfully tried to hide his paper I noticed bright red blood smeared all over it and his hands were hidden under the table. I told him to show me his hands and saw the exacto knife (his had little teddy bears on it...how sweet) he had cuts all over his little fingers. I was shocked. After the boy returned with bandaids and a towel to clean his mess, I asked him why he didn't use the scissors. "Tommy was using them" he replied. I realized he was probably too shy to ask him. So the lesson of the day for me was "don't assign cutting activities without prohibiting the use of knives in advance, when teaching in Korea." All my students have exacto knives in their pencil cases and apparently use them for sharpening pencils and crayons. All with cute little designs and pictures of puppy dogs or hearts. Why not a pencil sharpener...they are smaller and considerably safer? I just don't understand the logic in giving an 8-year old an exacto knife. Do you?
-Heather