Amazing article about power structures and legos

[cherydactyl]

Why We Banned Legos, an account from a daycare/before- and after-school-care facility in an affluent Seattle neighborhood about an interesting conundrum of limited resources that arose from their school-age children building a 'Legotown.'

Totally fascinating. If you like or care for kids in any way, I strongly encourage you read it!

ETA: and here's a follow-up article: 'Lego Fascists' (that's us) vs. Fox News

Comments

[train-gamer.livejournal.com]

This is actually train_gamer's DW, bitter_lily. (Somehow we have never friended each other. Should this continue?)

My DH showed me the first article, although we haven't looked at the second one yet. I was deeply disappointed that despite the insight about "cool pieces" at the beginning, the rules the children developed completely overlooked the issue, with no objection from the teachers. "If we both can only build houses that are the same size, obviously mine will be better than yours because mine has more windows. You have no right to object when I grab for the tenth clear piece, even though you only have three."

I do think that creativity can flourish within standard restraints, just as my favorite poetry are sonnets, with the same meter and rhyme scheme as any other.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Hi M-S! I didn't know that bitter_lily is you! (Goes to rectify that particular situation...)

You have a good point about creativity within bounds. It's rather harder for elementary-age kids to understand that concept than teenagers or adults, I would submit, but still a good point. And conformity on one measure does not end the power games in other ways, as you have pointed out. There's more to inequity than McMansion vs shack, or gold bricks versus green.