14 DAY TRIAL // V&A Museum of Childhood holds what I believe to be one of the most interesting, yet amusing, exhibits of all times, containing items that kids brought to school in the last 30 years, courtesy of British teacher Guy Tarrant.
The fascinating collection starts with usual objects like toys, clothes, electronics and balloons going all the way to bottles of alcohol or weapons. Every item is labeled with date, location and the age of the child belonging to.
Either Mr. Tarrant had a big storage space and maybe an emotional attachment to the items or he had a passion for confiscating kids’ stuff. I can't deny some items are worth taking away from a child's hands, things like guns, knives, bullets, axes or sikh daggers, but friendship bracelets or sweets are not that disturbing.
The collection has almost everything a kid would want: toys, action figures, yo-yo balls, all kinds of pistols and balls, fake snakes and spiders, Lego pieces, improvised catapults, CDs and so on.
The interesting part of the exhibition is that the items are organized in time-frames pointing out the differences between preferred items for kids 30 years ago and kids nowadays. The "Confiscated Cabinets" exhibition will be opened until June 1, 2014.