Struggling to motivate your pupils to think about the future? Primary school teacher Paul Rosenblum in Falmouth, Maine, tried a rather creative approach to the problem - he agreed to play the groom in a mock wedding to one of his pupils in the school playground.

The well-intended pretend ceremony created an uproar and several parents rang the school in concern. They wanted to know what the ceremony had entailed.

The brief playground service, as it turned out, had involved nothing more than a game of dress up. Mr Rosenblum wore a black graduation gown and clown tie, while his “bride to be” had a sheet draped around her shoulders for a wedding gown. There was no kiss.

Mr Rosenblum apologised for the incident. He called it a lapse of judgment and stated that he was only intending to indulge “a game of dress-up and make-believe”.

The story caused a flood of comments from other teachers. Even a simple bit of role play, it seems, is enough to ring alarm bells these days.