Pupils and their accessories – the ‘coffee’ cup

Is it just me, or do the pupils at my school seem to have a new accessory in their hands in the corridors and outside the classrooms?  Is it a new status symbol, a sign of who you are?

A few years ago, this would doubtless have been their mobile phone, but now everyone has one of those.  No, it’s rather more lo-tech than that.  I am seeing twelve and thirteen-year olds standing around waiting to go into lessons holding a disposable drink beaker from the coffee machine.

We’ve had such a machine at school for ages.  Pupils have often sat around in the breaks drinking a warm beverage.  But something a little different seems to be going on.  I can’t say I’ve ever noticed them nonchalantly standing outside the classroom still holding (an often seemingly empty beaker). It might be my imagination, but it does kind of feel like this is some sort of performance. Are they trying to emulate or simulate something than they have seen elsewhere?

On my way to school each morning I am used to seeing the commuters grasping their first coffee shot of the day.  But my pupils won’t have made the same observation on their bike ride to school. Could it be that they want to be like their (incredibly cool) teachers who are regularly seen walking the corridors with a tea or coffee on the way to the next lesson?  I have to say, that also seems rather unlikely!

I can’t draw many other conclusions other than to think that it is a somehow linked to all those informal celebrity photos of this star or that star snapped walking down the street clasping their own personal favourite brew.  A flat white or a macchiato for our pupils? No, I know for sure that the machine doesn’t dish out anything so exotic.  In fact, I would go further and say that it is still the age old favourite sugar shot of hot chocolate that they are buying.