Whether it’s wedgies, nipple cripples or towel whipping, school pranks all over the world seem to contain a certain element of violence. In all my time as a teacher, however, the cruellest, most unusual prank I’ve ever seen has to be the Japanese kancho.

The kancho beats the competition hands down in two respects: Firstly, in the manner of Japanese game shows, it’s a lot more extreme than any of its western counterparts. Secondly, unlike most school pranks which are usually pupil-on-pupil, the kancho is regularly inflicted on teachers in Japan.

The kancho is a simple move that sees the kancho-er clasps his hands together so his index and middle fingers are pointing out then jabs them into the kancho-ee’s bottom whilst shouting “kan-CHO!” (“Cho” being on the point of impact). I’m not sure what the traditional response of the kancho-ee should be, but in my experience when the kancho-ee is a foreign teacher, it’s usually “OMG! What on earth was that?”.

And it’s not just in Japan; increasingly violent pranks are creeping into schools worldwide.

Of course, the tough teacher amongst you, could become a stealth ninja by attending a course on restraining violent pupils. As Frank Chalk mentioned recently, though, it takes a long time to get competent enough at any of those techniques to actually get them right without hurting someone or getting yourself into trouble.

The truth is, while a wedgie-free world or a no-nipple-cripple nation may be a great dream for teachers, it is just that – a dream. We can try to keep the kanchos out of class with effective classroom management, but what about the playground? Given the universal nature of these pranks and the fact that teachers in every country I have worked in have complained about them, I think we’re stuck with them.

Today’s image is by Phil Berndt.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 7:18 am and is filed under Behaviour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.