Teaching Magic In School — And StuffInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Punish with Balloons?

We’re not too proud to say it. We’re always looking for new
marketing angles. If someone has thought of a new way to sell magic
shows in schools, we’re ready to steal or, rather, improve on it.

The Herald of Scotland
greeted us with this wonderful news, “a group of magicians has been
drafted into schools across Scotland. Three magicians from a group
called Fifth Dimension use everything from close-up card tricks to
plate-spinning and balloon modeling to help pupils develop a range of
skills from problem-solving to the importance of teamwork.”

The group started using magic to teach “safety information to
workers in a variety of businesses, from the oil and gas industry to
taxation offices.” They found a live magic show is a more captivating
method of conveying information than traditional media such as
film-strips, heavily spliced and repaired 16 mm films from the 1960’s,
or even video tapes of film-strips or 16 mm films.

The gang uses magic to help kids learn to solve problems and achieve their goals.

“A rope trick is used to show that everyone may be different, but
when everyone comes together as a team each section of that team is
just as important as the rest. Card tricks are used to show that what
appears to be impossible can be quite simple to achieve, once you know
what to do.”

We think the story is great and makes sense — well sort of.

We know it’s early still — 3:30 am on the east coast of the US as
we write this and our Diet Coke is only half-finished but we cannot
parse the following paragraph. Is it us or does it seem internally
incongruent.

One of the school principals told reporters:

“The team from Fifth Dimension always engage with the pupils really
well and communicate at their level. The sessions really get the
pupils’ imaginations going and often involve lots of balloons.”

“and often involve lots of balloons.”

Maybe this is something thrown into declarative sentences in the
academic arena. Sort of like phrases used by different industries:

Auto
Mechanics say, “plus whatever we run in to” as in “Well, we can pull
the head, scrape the gasket off, replace the rods for about $1,500 plus whatever we run in to.”

Car companies use “your mileage may vary.”

Young waitresses at Chili’s end almost every positive statement with “for a man your age.”

Our brother/cousin says, “and stuff.”

Our spouse/cousin says, “after you brush your teeth.”

Anyway,
the reporter points out the strength, beyond the use of “lots of
balloons,” “The delivery was very professional and it involved pupils
in key tasks, with excellent follow-up work and learning points about
time management, working in a team, positive attitudes and a can-do
approach.”

Read the full article, and stuff, after you brush your teeth here: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/47515-print.shtml.