Oh, laminators. How I remember your gently smoldering smell from my own youth. The smell of long-chain monomers pressing onto construction paper leaving it with a gloss and a sense of permanence.
And therein lies the beginning of my thoughts of lamination.
1. Those fumes can’t be good for anyone. Really.
2. They are expensive to supply- and they break on a regular basis. So they’re expensive to maintain, too.
3. The glare off the shiny surface of the laminated surface reduces the readability of the item you’re trying to protect.
4. Why would you want the thing you’re hanging up to be permanent? Making something like that last indefinitely implies that it is perfect and cannot be improved and is relevant to every group of students every year. Care to stand behind something you’ve made with that statement? There’s very little I’ve made over the years that I’d feel that way about.
So let’s all do each other (and the students) a favor and just stop. Ok?