The Pursuit of Tinkering

Will the current economic turmoil help us rediscover our ability to imagine and create? Sure sounds like it could from this great write-up at The Simple Dollar blog: Christmas Inspiration from a Stick and a Cardboard Box.

The post analyzes the 41 toys inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame and recognizes that of the set:

1. Several are free.
2. All but a few cost less than $10.00 if purchased new.
3. Almost all of the toys are sturdy and can therefore be found second-hand.
4. Almost all of the toys are open-ended and therefore inspire imagination and creativity.

Right on. As the author states:

In short, give a little more imagination and spend a little less money. If you really feel obligated to spend that money, make a donation to the child’s 529 in addition to the gift.

Also, check out the Fifteen Ways to Have Cheap Fun With Your Kids Using a $1 End Roll of Paper post on the same blog. Brilliant.

No holding back for Harvard psychologist Dr. Susan Linn who, in this Edmonton Sun article, states that:

…the convergence of “technology and unfettered commercialism is a disaster for children” turning them into “passive observers.”

The article is worth reading. I’m not sure I buy the bit about iPods. Could you image a teen trying to cope with a breakup without music? Still, there are lot’s of great insights and no shortage of strong opinions, such as this:

“Dolls can now jump, dance and do back flips — the toys are actually having more fun than the kids.”

And this:

“There’s no time, space or silence to develop their innate capacity for hands-on self-generated creative play, to engage naturally and spontaneously.”

And this:

…a good toy is 90% child and 10% toy.

Check it out: The Case for Make Believe, written by Joanne Richard

Check out this article: MIT Media Lab Creates Center for Future Storytelling.

From Media Lab director Frank Moss:

“Storytelling is at the very root of what makes us uniquely human. It is how we share our experiences, learn from our past, and imagine our future”

So true. The article describes how MIT’s creation of a new Center for Future Storytelling will revolutionize the art:

“With the establishment of this Center–whose research program begins immediately–the Media Lab and Plymouth Rock Studios will collaborate to revolutionize how we tell our stories, from major motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing. By applying leading-edge technologies to make stories more interactive, improvisational, and social, researchers will seek to transform audiences into active participants in the storytelling process, bridging the real and virtual worlds, and allowing everyone to make their own unique stories with user-generated content on the Web. Center research will also focus on ways to revolutionize imaging and display technologies, including developing next-generation cameras and programmable studios, making movie production more versatile and economic.”

Our kids are growing up in a pretty cool world… Efforts such as this help me feel optimistic about their future.

Wow. Check out this post on Rich Hoeg’s eContent blog: Innovation After Kindergarten. In it, he references some great info from IDEO General Manger and author Tom Kelley. Here’s a snippet:

“Tom Kelley reviewed the works of an artist named Gordon McKenzie. This artist visited a school and spent time with each class from grades K through six. When he asked the kindergartners how many of them were artists … almost every hand went up. By the time he got to the sixth grade and asked the same question, only two hands went up. Somewhere in the intervening six years the children had learned how not to be creative … but instead looked around the classroom and sought their peer’s approval.”

Rich adds to this with his own observation:

“As a coach of Lego Robotics for the pas six years, I learned the same lessons. While the designs from the Minnesota H.S. robotics teams are robust, when it comes to creativity every coach knows one must visit the elementary school competitions. The younger children have not yet been taught what does not yet work. They experiment.”

With a daughter currently in kindergarten, and another set to begin in fall 2010, this is powerful and scary stuff…

I’d classify that as a bold generalization, but my gut tells me there’s plenty of truth in it. That and more are covered in this worthwhile interview with Ginger Carlson, author of “Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children.” Here is a quick sample:

“What it boils down to is that schools aren’t able to nurture real creative thinking skills,” Carlson says. “I hate to say that in such a public forum. There are a lot of things that schools do provide. It is difficult in a school setting for us to really allow kids, especially if we have up to 30 kids in a classroom, to allow them to explore things on a deep level. We are seeing art and theater and all these things slipping from our schools in a way we haven’t seen in a long time.”

One research finding that Carlson references states that children that play outside in natural surroundings are more creative than children that play outside on playgrounds. Interesting…

Is the lack of play time in early childhood education the next global warming? Perhaps, according to this article by AP writer David Crary.

What a cool find: The International Children’s Digital Library. Am I the last to know about this? Go check it out.

And for all you hipster parents, don’t miss the ICDL Books for Children iPhone app. Seems like the perfect solution for keeping kids cool in the car or restaurant. And their method for displaying native langauges, with a quick tap to get the translated version, is awesome.

Discovery Education is running an ‘Inspiring Invention‘ contest. School-aged entrants create a public service announcement that motivates other K-12 students to get inspired and start inventing. It’ll be fun to see the results.

For us parents, It’d be fun to see a similar contest where we’re asked:

1. How do we create an environment/tools to help our kids be inventive.

2. How do we nurture/encourage our children without influencing their ideas.

I’m constantly struggling with both.

In the last week or so we decided to try something new at home. We had a 6′ roll of white paper laying around for years - can’t remember where we got it. We started using the paper to cover our dinner table, similar to the pizza restaurant down the street. The bowl in the center of the table, the one that used to hold apples and oranges, is now filled with markers and crayons. The paper stay on the table for three or four days at a time, and the kids are able to draw whenever the mood strikes them. It has made dinner time lots of fun. Also makes it possible for the kids to be creative anytime - they don’t need us to get supplies out for them. Added bonus: the art covers our old, junky table and really brightens up the room.