Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Why We Banned Legos

Why we banned Legos
This is an incredibly interesting read about power, ownership etc. These issues arise when a resource is limited.
Children absorb political, social, and economic worldviews from an early age. Those worldviews show up in their play, which is the terrain that young children use to make meaning about their world and to test and solidify their understandings. We believe that educators have a responsibility to pay close attention to the themes, theories, and values that children use to anchor their play. Then we can interact with those worldviews, using play to instill the values of equality and democracy.

I stopped using legoTClogo at school partly because it was an expensive resource and the sharing arrangements became too problematic. eg. a student is half way through building a great structure and the next class walks in the door.

It doesn't work well in "normal" classrooms. It worked best for me with
(a) special kids - special is eduspeak for disadvantaged - with small class size and exclusive access
(b) after school club which attracted gifted and talented kids - and enabled those kids to team up with each other (hi jack, darryl - I know you're out there)

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