“Those aren’t real LEGO minifigs!” my son said, as he watched a commercial for the new LEGO Friends line. “What do you mean?” I asked. “They aren’t real minifigures. That’s not what LEGOs look like!” His brother shook his head in literal disbelief as he watched. “I know a lot of girls who would not like those LEGOs,” he said somberly when the commercial was through.
After reading so much online about LEGO Friends, I had decided to show my sons the commercial on YouTube. We don’t have TV, so they didn’t know much about the line – even though they are avid LEGO fans. My sons build with LEGOs everyday. Everyday. They build with their cousins whenever they can. Tomorrow we will be at our local library for the LEGO “Build and Learn Together” Club. There girls and boys build and learn together – using a wide range of multi-colored LEGO bricks.
My sons aren’t the only ones who think LEGO Friends is a bad idea. Objections have been raised all over the Internet, and I thank Marketing, Media and Childhood for capturing the essence of many of these comments – check out this Lego Friends Roundup. There are at least two petitions to the LEGO company - one petition by New Moon Girls, and one by the founders of the SPARK Movement. And you can read LEGO Group’s tepid response released yesterday.
Last night Nancy Gruver, founder of New Moon Girls hosted a #GirlsNow Tweet chat to talk about the LEGO Friends. Lots of food for thought. Some of my favorite tweets were:
Nancy_newmoon: My big question for Lego is how does the Friends set ‘Inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow’ ? #girlsnow
Nancy_newmoon: The emphasis in the Friends set is on girls’ appearance and girls’ possessions – not on what they can imagine & build. #girlsnow
DrRobyn: Do you think girls would have rejected LEGOs if they included astronauts, farmers, CEOs, and researchers as roles for figures? #girlsnow
SPARKmovement: LEGO needs to meet with a diverse group of girls, parents AND researchers who can explain why this line is dangerous #girlsnow
During the Tweet chat, what really hit home for me is the disparity between the mass-marketed LEGO sets and the LEGO Education division. I’ve talked with LEGO Education reps at conferences, and have heard from them that there is no connection between LEGO Education and the LEGOs you see in toy stores and on TV. LEGO Education actually does a great job including girls in their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) products and curricula. On the LEGO Education website, you will see girls building, problem solving and creating – alongside their male peers. Female science teachers give testimonials alongside their male counterparts. The LEGO sets themselves are gender neutral and even the cartoon LEGO characters Jack and Jill represent both genders. LEGO Education isn’t perfect, but in terms of messages regarding gender as it relates to science, math, technology, problem solving and creativity it is miles ahead of what we see from LEGO in the stores and on TV.
Of course it all comes down to the mighty dollar, and LEGO Friends is all about that. LEGO saw an opportunity and went for it. And make money, they will. That’s because not all parents are upset. Many parents are thrilled to have an alternative to Bratz dolls and Monster High dolls. And when you compare LEGO Friends to the vamped up Bratz and Monster High, you can see how LEGO Friends will appeal to some parents. Still, I am personally disappointed with LEGO. On one hand, they have a young girl dressed up as an astronaut to advertise their LEGO Bricks in Space program (in conjunction with NASA) and on the other hand they have automatically switched their female LEGO Club magazine subscribers to the newly launched pastel “LEGO Club Girls” – a magazine heavy on the purple and pink and light on building instructions. Here is more on that from the unhappy UK blogger who writes “Lego Club membership – are you a girl, or are you normal?”
I’ll be writing my own letter to the LEGO group about the disparity between their divisions and my latest disappointment with them. Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to explain it all to my sons as I struggle myself to try to figure out – what is the lesson here?
Here’s to keeping pajamas on until noon, taking afternoon naps, snuggling with books and breaking out the board games. Not to mention numerous , “Close the door!” reminders to restless, playful young ones who are not afraid to play in the wind and cold.
Check out our December 2012 newsletter and share it with friends and family…and best wishes for a healthy, happy and playful new year!
“Why do you have your sneakers on?” I asked my son the other evening. It was about 5:30 pm and I’d just gotten home from my work with Head Start teachers. I then realized he was standing by the front door with his baseball glove on his hand. His twin brother came up beside him, also geared up with sneakers, a glove and a ball. They were ready to go play catch. It was dark and quite cold outside, and my dad looked a bit surprised when I said to my seven-year-olds, “Okay, go ahead. Have fun while I make dinner.”
Playing outside in the dark is something they usually only get to do in the summertime – and usually with cousins. Playing outside in the dark and the cold – just the two of them, was not something they’d ever asked to do before. I was thrilled mainly because they weren’t playing with LEGOs or reading. Yes, I know, playing with LEGOs and reading are two perfectly fine activities. Wonderful activities actually. Especially when the LEGOs are not media-linked (think Sponge Bob and Harry Potter). However, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. I’ve actually been thinking lately that the boys play with LEGOs too much, and are reading too much, at the expense of other things – especially active, outdoor play.
So, I was thrilled the other day when they picked up their gloves and started playing catch in their playroom. And even more thrilled when playing catch indoors led them to want to play catch outdoors. This is a habit I’d like to encourage. So yes, it was dark and it was cold and they were playing alone outside. A reasonable risk I decided.
At one point – dinner wasn’t ready yet – they rang the doorbell. I was afraid they were ready to come back in. Nope. They just needed a flashlight – could I get one for them? You see, the ball had inadvertently gone into the woods. (The kids call it “the woods” though it is more like a grove, actually.) “Where are your flashlights?” I asked. “Under or near our pillows,” they said. (I guess it was a silly question. Where else would a seven-year-old boy keep a flashlight? Especially when his pillow and sleeping bag are in a tent on the floor in his bedroom – where they have been since late August when school started up again.)
Yup, I found their flashlights for them, and with no more questions asked, sent the boys back outside. I checked out the window a few minutes later, and they had retrieved the ball and were back in the driveway happily playing catch under the motion-activated spotlight. A lovely sight which made me smile. Oh, and did I mention that only one of them had a coat on?
On a related note, I am also contemplating the purchase of the book Fifty Dangerous Things(You Should Let Your Children Do) by Gever Tulley and Julie Spiegler. When I looked at the list, so many of the things I had tried as a kid: Climb a tree, walk home from school, drive a nail, lick a 9 volt battery, stick your hand out the window, burn things with a magnifying glass . . . you get the idea. When I was growing up, from first through eighth grade, I walked to and from school everyday. It was always an adventure with a mixed-age group of kids. Also, I can still feel and taste that acidic little shock from the 9 volt, and remember the smell of the burning leaf when I got the angle of the sun just-so with the magnifying glass. Really fun stuff, when you get right down to it. And, truth be told, I still like to stick my arm out of the car window now and again.
Here’s to letting our kids take reasonable risks.
(And a big P.S. Thanks to Lenore Skenazy for leading the charge!)
All hail the humble blanket! It is perhaps one of the best, all time classic playthings. Besides being a welcomed, cozy comfort for children of all ages, a blanket can be played with about a gazillion different ways. It is such the perfect toy that this year it has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame® at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. Yippee! I was thrilled to hear this news recently. It was a much-needed bit of sanity in the current not-so-sane world of children’s toys.
There are so many annoying toy lists out there – such as Yahoo’s Hot Holiday Toys for 2011 offering expensive and unnecessary gems like Sesame Street’s Let’s Rock Elmo ($60.00 for the Elmo doll, plus about 15 – 20 bucks each for his keyboard, drums and microphone! And I am guessing batteries are not included. ) Your toddler/preschooler will find many more things to do with a cozy blanket than with this single-purpose Elmo toy which they will soon grow bored of and will most assuredly grow out of. And then there is Common Sense Media’s 70+ Gift Ideas For Every Kid on Your List. This list is chock-full of electronic entertainment designed to keep our kids plugged-in. Apps, DVDs, websites to join – even the games they recommend are video games. There are no board games to help families play together without a screen involved. What happens when the power goes out ?! (And where I live, that’s been happening a lot lately.) Thankfully, Common Sense Media does recommend some actual books for children.
In the midst of all the schlock being marketed to families and kids this holiday season, three cheers and a big thank you to the Strong National Museum of Play for recognizing the blanket as a toy worthy of honor. As they so aptly describe:
“In imaginative play and make-believe, kids have discovered the many playful uses for the blanket. It fills in for a king’s robe, a bride’s veil, a superhero’s cape, a Roman soldier’s cloak, a princess’s flowing gown, and a wizard’s flying carpet. Thrown over a table, it forms a tent; draped around two chairs, it becomes a fort; on top of the carpet, it serves as a safe island surrounded by sea monsters. In puppet shows, the blanket substitutes for theater curtains; for a magician, the blanket conceals the secrets of the show. And in tug-of-war, the blanket gets top billing. It is also suitable for tossing toys in the air or for parachuting them back to earth.” (photo credit to the National Toy Hall of Fame website, also! )
As a child I used a blanket for just about all of those ideas listed above. I even remember using a blanket for impromptu winter picnics on the kitchen floor. What do you remember I wonder? Did you have imaginative adventures with your blanket? How do your children play with blankets today?
The blanket also joins the stick, inducted in 2008, and the cardboard box, inducted in 2005. Nice!
“Each year, the Toy Industry Association gathers to present its TOTY (Toy Of The Year) Awards. In honor of the industry that has led the way in commercializing childhood, CCFC will present its TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year. From thousands of toys that promote violence and/or precocious sexuality to children and push branded entertainment at the expense of children’s play, CCFC has selected five exceptional finalists. “
Voting for the TOADY award is open until November 28th!
Just a quick update to let you know the Raising Playful Tots podcast I recorded, “What is the big deal about blocks?” is now available on iTunes. Click here to find the podcast and the Raising Playful Tots website. I had a great time talking with the terrific UK host, Melitsa Avila . I hope you have a great time listening and that you help to share the information with others.
“What is the big deal about blocks?” Melitsa Aliva asked me this question earlier this week. We were recording a podcast for her show,Raising Playful Tots , based in the UK. Blocks have been a longtime favorite of mine, and I have been advocating even more for block play as the pushy digital world steals more and more authentic experiences from the hands of our children. You may have heard about the study released on Tuesday by Common Sense Media, reporting that “half (52%) of all 0- to 8-year-olds have access to a new mobile device, such as a smartphone, video iPod, or iPad/tablet”. If only the same were true for blocks!
Blocks are as relevant as they have ever been – perhaps more now than ever – offering a wide range of positive experiences for children of all ages. Socialization, creativity, problem solving, language development, cause and effect, math and science, motor development – these are all vital skills that are deeply enhanced through block play.
I’ve recently been hearing early childhood educators refer to their Smart Boards and iPads as being “hands on” tools. They are not. Knocking over a virtual tower is not the same kinesthetic experience as knocking down a real block tower. Touching a worm on a screen is not the same thing as holding a wiggling worm in your hand. Not even close. It worries me when early childhood professionals describe their teacher-directed Smart Board literacy lessons as “engaging students holistically.” They are not.
The most developmentally appropriate technology we have for preschoolers and kindergartners have been our tried and true technologies such as crayons, balls and blocks. Add nature, and you have all the materials you need. And as one preschool teacher once commented on this blog:
“I have always been against computers in early childhood classrooms and feel we need to fight to keep them out. Every argument I have heard for them is an argument I see against them. To ‘You can listen to bird calls on them’ , I say ‘go outside and listen to the birds’. To ‘There is a wonderful counting program kids can use to learn numbers and counting skills’, I say ‘Take your child outside and count acorns.’ Thanks for bringing this to our attention and I for one will never have a computer in my early childhood classroom.”
The other wonderful thing about blocks (and nature!) is that they will not be obsolete in a year or two. Invest in a good set of blocks and your child (and grandchildren) will play with them for years and years to come. Blocks are never the same toy twice – as children invent and reinvent each time they play. And as children grow, their block play evolves and becomes more elaborate. Add a few simple accessories – such as pine cones or ping-pong balls, and a whole new range of experiences will open up for the child.
For schools with tight budgets, blocks and professional development opportunities about the power of block play are sound investments. When I read about the school district in Auburn, Maine spending $200,000 on iPads for all their incoming kindergarten students, I was shocked and saddened. What will the children be missing in order to make the time and money available for this digital push? How quickly will those iPads become passe? How much support will the teachers receive?
For folks who think that bringing the digital world to younger and younger children is the key to 21st Century learning – there just isn’t evidence to bear that out. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics just upheld their long standing position for no screen-time for children under the age of two. Children are social and sensory learners – they learn better from interacting with actual people and playing with the world around them – than from screens.
High-tech employers such as Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion lab now actually ask potential employees how he or she played as a child. They look for folks who played with clocks and took them apart to see how they worked; people who built things; who had authentic, playful experiences and have become the creative problem-solvers and innovators that this company needs. You can read more about this in Dr. Stuart Brown’s wonderful book Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul. We can also look to Mitchel Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT’s Media Lab. He knows that traditional kindergarten classrooms provide the key experiences for creating and working collaboratively – so much so he has modeled his lab after a traditional kindergarten classroom. Furthermore, his playful programming language Scratch is used by 8 – 16 year olds. He did not design it for the early childhood world. And when using Scratch, these older children are creators rather than consumers of technology.
Blocks come a range of sizes and are made from a range of materials. For the youngest explorers, my favorite is the Mini Unit Block set designed by Community Playthings for one-year-olds and up. I use these blocks in my workshops, and adults love them as well. If space provides, a full set of unit blocks is wonderful for preschoolers and school age children. Hollow wooden blocks allow children to build structures large and strong enough to climb on and climb into. Excellent!
KEVA planks, which I’ve written about in the past, are also engaging for children of all ages – including adults. (See KEVA planks post below.) If you are a LEGO fan, and I know there are many of you out there, stick to the open-ended sets, such as the LEGO Creator kits which can be made into a range of things. Steer clear of the television and movie character sets, which can be limiting to the child’s creativity. (Even as I write this, my own sons are lobbying hard for some Star Wars LEGO sets for Christmas – so believe me, I know how hard this one is to follow!)
Really, the key here is playing with moveable parts and loose pieces. The simpler the toy, the more that will come from inside the child. Can your child take apart your iPhone to see how it works and use the pieces to create something new? It can’t happen that way. As she plays, is she learning how to ask her own questions, develop her own theories, and test them out? Is your son diligently creating something unique which builds on what he discovered yesterday and incorporates a friend’s new idea? Is your child learning to value her own ability to invent, create, innovate and entertain? These are questions that can help guide you as you make choices for the children in your life. I urge you to consider blocks.
A special thanks to teacher Laurel McConville and Mission Hill School, Roxbury MA for many of the pictures used in this blog post! And stay tuned for details about how and when you can hear the blocks podcat from Raising Playful Tots.
Recess, which has been squeezed out of so many school days, is starting to gain traction once again. Recess has become part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, and national organizations such as KaBoom! and Playworks are advocating hard for recess. This is good news for children of all ages. The benefits of recess are widely known - from reducing stress and obesity, to increased attention and more. Even with the focus on high-stakes testing, it is hard to understand why we have strayed so far from daily recess for our school children. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Now that the school year is in full swing, I wonder what your child’s recess experience has been. When my children were in Kindergarten, recess was one of the few parts of the day they looked forward to. When mandated assessments and curriculum constraints put pressure on their teachers to produce, produce, produce – it was recess that was shortened or even lost for the day. And boy, did I hear it from my sons when they didn’t have recess. They, to put it politely, were not happy. And how often does losing recess become a consequence that leads to more disruptive behavior and unhappiness?
Luckily, when I spoke to my boys’ Kindergarten teachers, they were very receptive. They agreed that recess is critical, and tried their hardest to bring it back. My boys were happier at school when recess returned. I’ve spoken to many parents who have had to advocate for recess for their children, not always with such positive results. If you find yourself needing to advocate for more recess in your school, I urge you to check out Peaceful Playgrounds where they have a very active Right to Recess campaign with loads of fantastic and free resources. This includes a webinar and a Power Point Presentation with a companion speaker’s guide with lecture notes and references!
And, if you are trying to advocate at your school, find other parents to work with. If your child is crying every evening, and feeling stressed at school, and lack of recess is at part of the problem, chances are very good that other children are feeling the same way. When parents join together, with the research and information to back their requests, schools will respond. If you are a teacher trying to bring back recess at your school – the Right to Recess campaign can help you, as well.
Drawing hearts is important work for many young children. Hearts aren’t too easy to draw, either. It takes practice to draw a passable, if not perfect heart, but the motivation is often high. I have watched the scenario unfold time and again in the early childhood classroom. One child (often a girl with an older sibling) will sit at the table and begin drawing pages of seemingly effortless hearts. She will make pictures for her family, friends and teachers – adorned with colorful hearts and perhaps the phrase “I LOVE YOU” (spelled phonetically or traditionally). Inevitably, a peer will witness this awesome event and long to be able to draw hearts and send similar loving notes to friends and family. “How do you make a heart?” the child will ask the friend. “Can you show me?”
Thereupon the expert heart-drawer will be called to coach the inquiring friend about how this heart-drawing thing works. There will be some initial frustration – but through trial and error, peer-coaching and deep motivation, the art of heart-drawing will be passed to the new child. The excitement will spread as others join in…coaching and critiquing each other as the thrill of heart-making catches like wildfire. Now loving notes are made by many children for many loved ones over many days.
This process is particularly dear to my heart, as receiving daily love notes was one of the best parts of being an early childhood teacher. I simply loved getting the notes throughout the day – and relived the joy each night at home as I emptied my pockets – only to rediscover the day’s love notes (along with random paperclips, pattern blocks and acorns).
So, it was with a heavy heart (yes) that I watched a recent iPad drawing app demonstration. In the video, we see a young girl making pictures on an iPad. Colorful hearts, which she “stamps” on the screen, cover her “drawing”. You see, I’ve begun asking proponents of technology in the early childhood classrooms to share with me the best examples of what they see as developmentally appropriate practice. This video was offered as an example, and in it we get a quick glimpse of the child drawing one lovely, awkward heart with her finger. When asked what she likes best, however, we aren’t surprised to hear her say, “I like the heart stamps.”
What’s the problem, then? For me the problem lies in how effortlessly the perfectly formed hearts cover the screen. They are all uniform in size and shape. Gone is the trial and error as a child truly gets a sense of the “heart-ness” of a shape as a child figures out: How do you get that symmetry? What works? What doesn’t? How can I get better?
Even using an actual stamp pad, or heart stencil, as many children do, leads to variations in the result. What happens if you press hard? Press lightly? Unevenly? What if your hand slips? How do all these affect the heart? It seems to me, tools such as actual markers, paper, stamp pads, stencils, scissors, etc… give children a wide berth for learning and exploring and making mistakes. Perhaps they build up resiliency and tenacity as they go through the process of trial and error to reach their self-imposed goal.
This iPad app, it seems to me, skips all of those important steps. It is so seductive and irresistible – with little effort from the child, hundreds of perfectly-shaped hearts pour onto the screen. It is an example of the quick and easy “gotta have it – and gotta have it now” mentality that is shaping our future generations. I wonder if a child who can make these perfect hearts with the iPad will now be less inclined to mess-around in the mucky and mistake-making (yet satisfying and community-building) process of heart-drawing.
Or, perhaps I am just being selfish. I’d much rather receive beautifully imperfect child-made love notes, one where the personal touch and quirkiness of each child is in evidence, then a page of perfectly shaped hearts where clearly the computer had more control over the final product than the child did. But that’s just me.
As I’ve stated before, I am all for assistive technology. Who isn’t? Assistive technology helps children and adults overcome communication hurdles and other disabilities, and I am all for older students and adults using technology as a tool. I do it everyday. But what I am NOT for is rushing our young children past real experiences – experiences which help them figure out who they are, what they are good at, and how they fit in the world. Using your own hands and mind to learn how to draw hearts and make one-of-a-kind loving notes for others is definitely a worthwhile pursuit.
The other day my family and I were lucky enough to spend time swimming in a lovely pond. Our friends have a small kayak that was the perfect size for my seven year old sons to try out. It was magnificent – watching as they each took a turn paddling about the pond. After just a few moments of experimenting with the oar, and making adjustments, each boy was able to master the basic technique. They took turns, maneuvering about the pond, turning as needed and getting more adept at each turn. They had so much fun and felt happy, exhilarated and competent. They can not wait to return and try it again.
The uplifting experience with the kayak on the pond was in sharp contrast to the virtual kayaking the boys had tried about a week earlier. This time, we were visiting another set of friends. The boys had great time swimming in the backyard pool for hours. After a while, though, one of them asked to play the Wii. It isn’t something my boys get to do very often, so they were excited. One of the games they tried was Wii Kayaking. And my goodness, when I say the mood changed at this happy gathering, the mood CHANGED at this happy gathering. Neither of my sons could get the hang of kayaking with the remote control. When someone tried to show how to do it, my sons wouldn’t be coached. They weren’t open to getting help, they didn’t want to let go of the remote and risk losing their turn. One of my sons actually started crying, stomping has feet and yelling in frustration. It was an unattractive side of him, and I wasn’t happy. For him, the experience left him feeling inadequate, disappointed and extremely frustrated. The stress level in the room was high – much different from the relaxed atmosphere we’d had outside at the pool.
Real versus virtual. It has been a recurring theme this summer. Back in June, a friend of mine told me a story about a presentation he attended. The subject was technology in the early childhood classroom. One of the presenters shared an anecdote to help underscore how fabulous our new handheld, digital technology is.
The story goes something like this: One day, a young toddler was running around the kitchen table holding an iPad. The child was saying, “Mommy: cow!” and his mother was able to quickly search and pull up a picture of a cow- and how wonderful it was that the child was able to see a real cow!
Did you catch that? A real cow. Actually, no, that wasn’t a real cow. A real cow is a gorgeous and often smelly creature. It has smooth hair, a rough tongue, hard hooves and a tail that swats whatever might be in the way. What is especially distressing about the “real cow” story is that the presentation was given by the folks who are crafting the new National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) position statement on technology and young children. It appears that they are so head-over-heels in love with digital technology, and so immersed in the virtual world, that a digital picture of a cow on a small hand-held device has now become a “real cow”. The current draft of the position statement includes this statement: Early childhood programs have an obligation to use technology to bridge the digital divide. As I read that I cringe and can’t help but wonder… As we slide along the slippery slope between what is real and what is virtual, how will this affect our brain development? Our relationships with each other? Our relationship with nature?
How long until kayaking on an actual pond -with breezes blowing and frogs croaking – becomes a thing of the past? And what will we lose along the way?
In the Orion Magazine (September/October 2007) article Unplugged Schools, Lowell Monke wrote:
“The health of our children’s inner lives, their civic engagement, and their relationship with nature all would be improved if schools turned down the thermostat on that technologically overheated aspect of American culture. Schools dedicated to that task—we might call them ‘unplugged schools’—would identify the values associated with technological culture and design curricula and an environment focused on strengthening the human values at the other end of the scale.
“The most obvious thing schools can do in this regard is give children experiences with the real things toward which symbols are only dim pointers. Unless emotionally connected to some direct experience with the world, symbols reach kids as merely arbitrary bits of data. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but to a second grader who has held a squiggly nightcrawler in her hand, even the printed symbol “worm” resonates with far deeper meaning than a thousand pictures or a dozen Discovery Channel videos.”
I love that passage, because he states so beautifully what I often think about. I feel the visceral connection that second grader has to the printed symbol “worm” and am thankful. I want my children, and my students, to have as many authentic experiences as possible before they are submerged in that virtual world.
(By the way, this is a picture of a real cow. This cow lives at The Farm School, in Athol, Massachusetts, and I took the photo on our annual trip with my students from Mission Hill School. Every student visits the farm every year, and the older students sleep over for a few nights. On the farm, they feed real cows, hold real chickens, cut real fire wood with real saws and experience a multitude of authentic experiences.)
My head is still spinning. On Sunday evening I returned from Washington, DC and the Save Our Schools Rally. More than just a rally, it was four days of connecting with other educators, parents, students and activists who are ready to take a giant step towards reclaiming the “public” in public schools.
In my mind I keep replaying moments – both big and small – and feel hopeful that we’re onto something here. Something really big. Something that will help bring attention to the harmful effects that corporate “reform” is having on students, teachers and communities. And give a voice to students who, for a decade, have been shut out of enriching and engaging curriculum and forced into single-purpose, short-sighted, test-driven curriculum. This is a movement to bring curriculum control into local school communities. It is a call for equitable funding, and for our country to recognize that poverty affects life and learning. Jonathan Kozol told us that the poorest districts spend $6,000 per pupil, while the richest districts spend $30,000 per pupil. Ouch! And as Deborah Meier (pictured above) pointed out, we are about even with Mexico in terms of our poverty rates – Mexico! We are looking for equitable funding across public schools AND community support services.
In DC were heard powerful words from Jonothan Kozol, Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, Pedro Noguera, Linda Darling- Hammond and Matt Damon. We also heard important words from parent Karran Harper-Royal, an SOS organizer and leader from Parents Across America; along with John Kuhn, an inspiring superintendent from Texas; and Taylor Mali, a teacher-poet. I sang along as we were treated to a gorgeous rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing; and more – much more! So much, that I didn’t get every speaker’s name. However…one thing is for sure, everywhere you looked in the sweltering heat of the midday sun, parents, students, teachers and concerned citizens joined together to help change the national narrative.
This isn’t about preserving the status quo, because the status quo isn’t anywhere near good enough. I am not out to defend chronically ineffective teachers or historically shoddy schools. I am for making the public school system the best it can be for EVERY student – and for involving local communities in the process.
For sure it isn’t the end. And for sure it was a great beginning. In many ways, it made me wish I was a public school teacher once again, at the very democratic Mission Hill School in Roxbury, MA, which I am proud to have been a part of from the beginning. There, I was a teacher and union member – sharing responsibility and decision making with our founding principal, Deborah Meier, and the other classroom teachers. While in DC, I was thrilled to hear the ways in which the Boston Teachers Union has been a place where teacher activism has flourished. Again, for sure this isn’t the end – and for sure it is a great beginning.
And how does it all relate to Empowered by Play?
To quote Matt Damon: “I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself— my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity— all come from how I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned— none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success— none of these qualities that make me who I am… can be tested.”
That’s so right. The qualities we value most – in the children of yesterday, today and tomorrow – qualities such as imagination and curiosity – can never be measured through a standardized test. These are the qualities that are getting squeezed out of today’s schools, and this has to stop.
~
Some related links of interest: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman by Real Reform Studios (This is an amazing movie made by full-time teachers – using their own money. No big budget – but a real big message.)
Jon Stewart’s message to the teachers at the SOS March (Hopefully next time he will speak to the issues – but I am thankful for the support he is already showing.)
During the Tweet chat, what really hit home for me is the disparity between the mass-marketed LEGO sets and the LEGO Education division. I’ve talked with LEGO Education reps at conferences, and have heard from them that there is no connection between LEGO Education and the LEGOs you see in toy stores and on TV. LEGO Education actually does a great job including girls in their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) products and curricula. On the LEGO Education website, you will see girls building, problem solving and creating – alongside their male peers. Female science teachers give testimonials alongside their male counterparts. The LEGO sets themselves are gender neutral and even the cartoon LEGO characters Jack and Jill represent both genders. LEGO Education isn’t perfect, 
but in terms of messages regarding gender as it relates to science, math, technology, problem solving and creativity it is miles ahead of what we see from LEGO in the stores and on TV.
