So, my little brother once got stabbed in the leg with a pencil. He was “accidentally” stabbed by my other little brother. I put quotes around the “accidentally” because I can’t be sure how accidental it was. I will say that both of them were shocked when this transpired. Neither of them were really hurt (though one of them began to chase the other). While no harm was intended, and not much harm was done, the event has reminded me that pencils can, indeed, be dangerous.
The point? If pencils are dangerous, then the even sharper instruments used to sharpen them are more dangerous (especially when it is electrified). Recently I had cause to get out a pencil sharpener I hadn’t used in ages. I prefer pens. Absent a pen I tend to prefer the editability of a digital file. The reason was that our son frequently breaks the tips off of the pencils he wishes to use to draw. He calls pencils, pens, crayons, dry erase markers, and anything else that transfers pigment to another surface a “draw.” He breaks the crayons, dries out the markers, and blunts the pencils (often trying to use them as sticks for drumming). As he wanted to draw with his pencil I had to locate the pencil sharpener.
While the device isn’t all that scary, it is large, motorized, and has an opening that any of our son’s little fingers could easily fit into. While we frequently cut his fingernails I’m quite certain that we don’t want him testing out a new use for a pencil sharpener. It appears my fears were somewhat unjustified. While he is certainly curious about the pencil sharpener, he doesn’t intend to put his fingers in there. The sound it makes, the rotation, and the clear plastic window showing what the pencil is being reduced to all keep him quite far away. The closest he’ll get is to attempt to, at pencil’s length, put his “draw” into the machine. He’s largely stopped that now too. At any rate, he’s happily drawing with his “draw” on paper again. That’s a good thing.