In the days before “fidget toys” were commonly known and/or accepted, before society understood what autism/ADHD looked like in girls, all my erasers suffered this brutality. It probably wouldn’t have had to happen if teachers didn’t keep confiscating my Silly Putty and these things, whatever you call them.
My grades were good, but my hands needed something to do. When you need to stim, you need to stim. Take away the appropriate outlets for it, and you’re left with stabbed erasers and obnoxious pencil-tapping.
i used to take little pieces and flick them. the goal was to get it in someone’s hair and pretend i didn’t do anything
I don’t remember if I ever did this in school, but in hindsight - it’s an obvious reaction to almost infinite boredom.
I also don’t recall if I ever did the stabby thing… probably.
But I did get my hands on one of those weird putty erasers that artists use for fine point erasure or whatever they are actually for (didn’t work very well, anyway). I used to use that stuff to make little sculptures in class. If it hadn’t been slightly elastic it would have worked very well for it.
The putty erasers work for graphite/charcoal. They need some warming (kneading) to work well. They aren’t great on generic paper but work better on the thicker and rougher fancy drawing paper.
why are we like this
The sensation of sharp graphite piercing the soft, yet resilient eraser flesh is soothing for children forced to be still for hours on end while being Industrial Factory inculcated into the systematic destruction of creative thought and whimsy.
Oh right I remember now
The orphan crushing machine must be kept running!
I think I would eat it more times than doing this, but surely this also happened 😅
