If schools follow the example being set in the United Kingdom soon it will be wrong to raise your hand in the classroom.  The thought process here is it will create a calmer classroom. Instead of hand-raising, students are encouraged to show a “thumbs-up” with one hand and cup it with the other.   I don’t know what happens in the United Kingdom but hand raising never made me nervous.  I used to sit in class and have the school bully, reeking of Marlboro smoke at the age of thirteen, whisper in my ear that in less than two hours he was gonna knock my teeth out.  Raising my hand was the only way I could summon the attention of the teacher so she could notify my mother to take the afternoon off from work so I could have my face stitched back together.

Can we even get through our day as an adult without raising our hand?  Try getting the attention of a cabbie in New York by giving him the “thumbs up.”   My luck he’d be nearsighted, think I just flipped him off, pull his cab to the curb and knock my teeth out all because I was trying to create a “calmer environment.”

Heaven forbid you’re ever in a situation involving a firearm and an attempted robbery.  Chances are the bad man with the gun is gonna want you to put your hands up.  Imagine if you ignored his suggestion because you wanted to defuse the situation by creating a “calmer environment” and ya cupped one hand giving the thumbs up.  Your Island of Zen will instantly turn into a CSI opening.  Cut to David Caruso standing over your corpse saying  “Now it’s time for us to give HIM a hand.”  Sunglasses on…cue Who song.

People need to stop focusing on such trivial things because before ya know it there will be lawsuits to ban the Pledge of Allegiance.    🙂