Mechanical restraints in the classroom

Some German schools have found a solution for pupils who find it difficult to sit still in the classroom: a heavy vest. A creative solution that is also a lot of resistance collide.

The whole time to sit still and be careful, it is not to each and every student. Some know their energy does not stay. They wobble on their chair, slip out of their bank, or – worse yet – roll over …

The whole time to sit still and be careful, it is not to each and every student. Some know their energy does not stay. They wobble on their chair, slip out of their bank, or – worse still – rolling on the floor. Annoying to themselves, to their fellow students and for the teachers. But in Germany a growing number of schools with a creative solution: a sand-filled vest.

A heavy armor, that up to five kilograms can weigh, and your children are just physically difficult for many to move. This enables them to concentrate better on school tasks such as learning to read and count. About 200 schools would be the vests, which are between 140 and 170 euros in costs, already use.

Gerhild the Wall, responsible for the inclusion of the Grumbrechtstrasseschool in Hamburg, explains in Der Spiegel that the children wouldn’t have a problem with the vests. According to her, is no man obliged them to withdraw against his will.

Arms and legs under control

One of the parents of the children says that her nine-year-old son Frederick three years, and a cardigan of two kilograms and that it has a positive impact on the boy who has ADHD suffers. ‘He attracts it voluntarily, ” she said in the Hamburger Abendblatt. “He has the feeling that it helps him. He can concentrate better and take more active part in the lessons because he is not all the time strain on his arms and legs under control.’ Frederick itself confirms that: “The vest helps me to calm down. If I aanheb, it is my handwriting, not so much of a scribbling.’

But the criticism is obvious: the vests look a bit like a straight jacket and the tie up of children, however, ethical questions. It may be a problem temporarily to ease some, but it is not an adequate remedy, say the critics. And it would children also be stigmatizing: who with such a vest in the class, gets a clear stamp that he or she has a problem.

When yes and when not?

Kinderpsychiater Michael Schulte-Markwort of the university psychiatric hospital in Eppendorf fear, moreover, that it’s too easy as a means can be used for all kinds of attention disorders without a proper diagnosis in the first place.

“It can be to ADD, ADHD or a learning disability,” he says in That daily newspaper. “We need to determine where exactly it is about. This is why a good diagnosis is required, ” he says. Also the fact that there is little or nothing is known about the long-term consequences, leads many experts to caution against this panacea.