What is it with kids and paste? I know, children tend to explore things by putting them in their mouths, but what is it about paste they find so appealing?
“Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige
It’s minty-fresh!
There’s something zen-like about the phrase:
“Non-toxic, but not edible”
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Watch out for kids that eat paste–it’s just a gateway leading to sniffing glue! (A not-too-subtle reference to the “would you smoke it…” thread in GD.)
Never really had a lot of paste or glue eaters in my grade school. We were always fascinated with rubber cement. Not for the smell, mind you, but you could spread the stuff on a desk and roll it up into highly-bounceable “booger balls”.
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
The paste did taste good, I remember that. On the other hand–Elmers is not so hot.
Probably the paste is one of the few things available to snacking during school, if you aren’t into crayons or pencils or plastic rulers.
Looking back to the days when I was a younger (and far less evil) Ghandi, I recall the paste contained Pepermint oil to keep it from molding. Us kids used to eat that stuff like it was ice cream.
Then the feds stepped in and changed the anti spoilage ingredient to something nasty tasting. Solved my paste addiction with one scoop. Bleagh.
I think the more important question is:
Why do so many of the things that children do in kindergarten involve paste? What valuable skills are learned by sticking something to something else? I remember pasting all kinds of things together when I was four or five years old, but now… damn, I haven’t pasted in years.
And was there really a difference in the green-handled left-handed scissors? I don’t think so.
After you’ve used a bottle of Elmer’s a few times, you get a layer of dried glue that plugs up the opening. The easiest way to get rid of the glue is to chew it off. Chomping on the opening makes it narrower and more likely to clog up again, so pretty soon you have to gnaw on the bottle top every time you want to use it. Familiarity with the flavor of glue breeds fondness, and pretty soon you have a full-fledged addiction to maintain…
Are my memories of elementary school painfully vivid, or what?
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in it.
It never occurred to me to eat paste. Pouring Elmer’s on my hands and spreading it thin, letting it dry and peeling it off like a layer of skin, now THAT was big fun!
Oh, and stitching my fingers together with needle and thread.
Ahhhh, yes: Rubber cement ‘booger balls’…great fun, even as an adult!
I never ate paste in school; I was a crayon nibbler. Not a heavy addiction, mind you, I was just a social nibbler 
I did however at age 3 have a predilection for match heads; maybe I had a phosphorus jones…
VB
I could never eat a mouse raw…their little feet are probably real cold going down. :rolleyes:
I don’t remember ever eating paste. Play-doh, but not paste. (It’s salty.)
ReservoirDog asked:
Perhaps 2 things. First, fine motor skills. Kids do pasting when they’re still trying to learn their bodies. Activities that use lots of hand motions are good for that.
Two, to keep things interesting. Kids in pre-school and early elementary have no attention span. So teachers find crafts and things as activities to focus attention on a project and a lesson while engaging a different set of processing and keeping attention by doing something rather than just sitting and listening. Think how boring it is for you as an adult (okay I’m making assumptions here - maybe just projecting?) to sit in meetings all day, then extend that to a 5 year old.
I don’t know if there was a difference in your left-handed scissors, but there’s supposed to be a difference. Scissors are, of course, made by two halves that are pinned together with some sort of pivot/axle. The blades rub against each other, with the edges sliding against each other, creating a shearing motion along the point of contact. (That’s why expensive scissors are called shears.) When you hold scissors, your hand imparts a natural twist between the halves - your thumb pushes out slightly and your fingers push in slightly. (Demonstrate this with a cheap pair of scissors that the rivet is loose.) Thus there is a natural inclination to operate the scissors better depending on which side the blades sit. On right-handed scissors, the thumb blade (thumb hole is on top) is on the left (outer) side from the hand, and that blade comes up on the outside. The finger blade is on the right (inside) of the hand and comes up from the bottom. This is especially noticable if you use some of those cheap school-kid safety scissors. Left-handed kids have a very difficult time using right-handed scissors, because the natural operation of the hand works against them. As they ever so slightly push the thumb out and pull the fingers in, the blades separate rather than rub together, meaning you cannot cut. Thus lefty scissors are set with the blades exactly opposite, and therefore cut naturally for a lefty.
I know this not because I’m a lefty - I’m a righty. But I have tried lefty scissors before, and played with righty scissors on my left hand. (Don’t try this at home, kids. 
) The joys of a child destined to become a mechanical engineer.
Otto said:
ME TOO!
I’d guess one of the polymers in glue is probably sweet. I know polyethylene glycol (antifreeze) is sweet, though not from personal experience.
I went for the spread glue on your hand and then peel it off.
The first day we learned a new subject. The next four days we went over the same shit over and over again for the stupid people. Those four days I did unscheduled arts and crafts at my desk. The teachers just ignored me since I got A’s in the boring subjects, and tended to bug them with the facial twitching and other problems anyway.
I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts.